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A Place to Belong. A Place to Become.

Posted Feb 25, 10:11 AM | 2 comments | by Amy Moffitt | Link

by Ken Howard
St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church
Darnestown, MD

It is difficult to capture the essence of the St. Nicholas faith community in a few words or even a few pictures, because what makes St. Nick’s a unique Christian community is more about what lies at the heart of our community than what lies at the surface.

But when we do try to capture that essence in a few words, these are the words we use: “A Place to Belong. A Place to Become.” These two phrases represent what we understand to be our two core callings at St. Nick’s.

“A place to belong” represents our core understanding that as a community we are called to love unconditionally. We believe that the only sufficient basis for Christian community is Christ’s love for us. If God sends you to us, you are part of our community. Because Christ first offered us the grace of unconditional love and acceptance, we are called to accept and love without condition anyone God sends to us. Because God has adopted us into his family without condition, we are called to welcome you into our family without condition.

“A place to become” represents our core understanding that we are called as a community to speak truth unconditionally. Because part of the grace that God offers us the truth about ourselves – to see ourselves as God sees us, both as we are and what God knows we are meant to be – we are called to offer that same grace to all that God sends to us. Knowing that as imperfect creatures we only see imperfectly and in part, we say what we with humility and ask only the same in return. Diversity of opinion – even theological opinion – is not threatening to us. Rather, we welcome it, understanding the diversity held together in unity is evidence of the Holy Spirit working among us to make us a more complete body.

Perhaps I can illustrate the impact of these two complementary understandings with a few brief stories:

• A former CIA officer, self-described as “to the right of Genghis Khan, politically” and a openly gay man, retired on disability, who learned first to accept, then respect, then to love each other in Christ.

• A husband and wife, she self-described as a “near fundamentalist” and he, jokingly, as “sort of U.C.C. (Unitarian Considering Christ),” who for the first time in their lives have found a church in which they can co-exist openly.

• A young Buddhist who came to our church for almost 3 years, proudly proclaiming himself St. Nick’s “resident heathen,” before he went and “ruined” his nickname by asking to be baptized.

• In the run-up to the Iraq war, when many were avoiding the topic for fear of division among our members, we held a series of discussions in which, after talking through how to speak our truth in love, people on both sides of the issue shared their thoughts and feelings about the impending invasion. There was disagreement and strong emotions were expressed, but we were able to agree on several things: (1) war is always an evil, never a good and (2) we need to pray for all involved in the conflict: our leaders and theirs, our soldiers and theirs, our civilians and theirs.

• Some of the most liberal and most conservative members of our leadership came together to petition the U.S. government for the release of five Muslim Uyghurs who had been found to be non-combatants but were still being held at Guantanamo, and when that was denied, worked with a local Muslim congregation to hold a fundraising dinner to obtain their release from the Albanian refugee camp where they had been abandoned. As one of our conservative leaders said, “This is not politics. This is about justice.”

These and other examples have strengthened our conviction that, by following in the example of God’s grace in both unconditionally accepting one another and speaking the truth to one another, walls of human division can be broken down and God’s Kingdom built up.

Read more about St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church at their website. In addition, you can read an article by Ken published in the Anglican Theological Review describing the theological approach of St. Nick’s. In September 2010, Paraclete Press will be publishing a book by Ken called Practicing Paradoxy: Creating Christian Community Beyond US and Them. Look for it!

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