Episcopalians

I’ve written here off and on about issues of faith.  

Spirituality is big in my life, not that a body needs a church to work on the spiritual stuff.  

Still, I’m a guy who grew up a church-goer.  There were times I wasn’t a regular, but overall, I’d say I’ve been to church on a whole lot more Sundays than I’ve missed. 

Then there came a time in my life when I had to decide which church I wanted to go to.  I was born and bred Roman Catholic.  Went to Immaculate Conception elementary school and Carroll High School.  Served at mass late into my teens, for a time serving with Dad at the earliest masses on Sunday.  When I was 16 he’d let me drive around the neighborhood after church before I got my license.  

What seems a lifetime later, though, came a divorce after eighteen years of marriage and I didn’t feel welcome among Catholics anymore.  I mean, I could be divorced and still be a member of the community and go to communion, but if I remarried, then I crossed the line.  

It may be a lame analogy, but nobody’s told me I’m wrong yet:  If I shot and killed a churchful of people, I could go to confession, be absolved of my transgression, and be welcome at the communion rail at the local parish -- or the prison chapel.  If I divorced and remarried?  Shunned by the Romans forever.    

Sure, there are priests who might welcome me to communion.  They might not even care if I read scripture on Sunday to the congregation.  But the official church mantra is through divorce and remarriage, you will be cast out from our communion.  Forever.  You are beyond redemption.  Your sin is unforgivable.  Always seemed pretty rash to me.  

But my lovely Cindy Lou invited me to attend church with her downtown at Christ Episcopal Church.  There, I knew, I would be welcomed.  Not that divorce isn’t a big deal with Episcopalians.  They don’t encourage it, that’s for sure.  But if you are divorced, they don’t cast you out, either.  Forgiveness, there, is actually attainable.  

There are other reasons why I’m glad to call myself an Episcopalian these days, but one of the biggest came up again yesterday in church at the late service that lead me to write this blog entry today. 

After the consecration of bread and wine, just before the congregation was invited to come forward for communion, Rev. John Paddock invoked the following prayer: 

This is the table of Jesus, not just the table of the Episcopal church or Christ Church, Dayton.  It is made ready for those who love him and for those who want to love him more.  

So come, you who have much faith and you who have little; you who have been here often and you who have not been here long; you who have tried to follow and you who have failed. 

Come, because it is Jesus who invites you.  It is God’s will that those who wish should meet him here.  

That’s the kind of welcome that makes me want to hang around a little longer to see what issues of faith I still need to know more deeply in my heart.   It is an embrace in the midst of living a life as well as I can that warms me more than I can explain.  

Today’s Elder Idea:   The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you for ever. 

Blessing at the end of the Episcopal service

image:  Two of my favorite Episcopalians:  Mary Dahlberg and Stephanie Sexton.  Hey!  Don’t forget Waffle Shop is coming up next month!  ;-)