When people leave...

I would respectfully disagree with the claim that many are making that we are all diminished when someone makes the choice to depart. Who was diminished when the English Church decided to depart Rome? Who was strengthened and liberated? Who was diminished when those departed who could not or would not abide clergy who are women? And which fellowship was strengthened, broadened, and liberated?

I am quite weary of people telling the Church that it should accommodate the prejudices of the day. To those who say the Church should make room for those who disagree with the inclusion of LGBT persons who refuse to apologize for being LGBT, I ask this question: should we not, then also accommodate racial prejudices that still linger? Should we not also accommodate sexism? Should we not also accommodate bias and prejudice toward persons with disabilities, persons who at 'too old' or who are 'too young'? Why should the Church refuse to accommodate bigotry when bigotry is wrapped up in race or gender, but behave toward bigotry bound to hatred of LGBT people?

Rector's Study March 2010

From the Rector’s Study ~

I pray each of us here at ECR has an enjoyable Lent. The progress of Jesus through his time of trial is consonant with the journey through relationship with God. A Christian’s relationship with God and with the community of his or her fellow Christians cannot be a static thing. Yes, these relationships may be stable and steadfast. However, they also grow and change. This is what makes them like a journey. The focus of the season of Lent is a reflection of this journey, particularly the journey inward.

The journey is an inward examination, but not so much an examination of oneself per se. Otherwise, we can find ourselves on a needlessly narcissistic and circuitous journey to nowhere. Rather, the inward Lenten journey is an examination of the relationship that exists between oneself and God and of the relationship between oneself and the Church. It is a journey of prayer, reflection, study, and labor. Its goal is to discern more clearly one’s place and one’s role as they are this time and in this place. It is to rediscover the fact that even these most holy relationships are evolving, and the fact that this evolution is itself a gift of God.