Pastor’s Reflection
Church life in our times is difficult. It has never been easy, but now given the culture that we are living in which is mostly apathetic toward religion in general and church life in particular, life herein is more stressful than it should have to be. On Sundays there are not as many people in church as there used to be. There is less money in the church coffers, programs have been cut and there are fewer seminarians than there once were. This makes for a stressful and even fearful time because not only are there fewer people in the pews, but those of us who are here are older. If we put all this together the future of the church looks rather grim.
The church writ large has and has had many denominations within it. The divisions of the Body of Christ are based on differing theological positions taken on subjects and issues that are by nature polarizing. Issues such as the nature of the Eucharist; is it transubstantiation, consubstantiation, real presence? (I think that Jesus would accept all three), the nature of the Historic Episcopate, or Apostolic Succession, the authority of scripture and of reason and of our tradition. These issues, and many others, are issues about which we will never all agree and our differences about them have served to separate us from one another. This is tragic because there is much more that unites us than there is that divides us and if we can affirm our agreements rather than emphasize our differences, we can move ahead together.
I submit that if the church is to survive it will not do so by insisting on its own theological ways, not for that matter on its own liturgical ways, but will do so by practicing the faith by living lives of love and of grace and of integrity. Living and loving the way Jesus has loved us will speak louder and more beautifully than arguments about fine points of theology. Those arguments divide, love unites.
Harriet Chapel exists to do just that, to love one another as Jesus has loved us. We invite and we welcome, and we affirm all people who would worship with us. We welcome and affirm all people to serve our community with us. We invite everyone and anyone to become part of our loving, worshipping community. Here at Harriet Chapel, we are truly all one in Christ.
The future of the church looks dim only if we insist on our own way. Love does not insist on its own way and if we keep the love of God and of each other as a meaningful ever-present reality in all that we do, why then the future looks bright indeed.
You who read this and have not worshipped with us are invited to become part of a truly wonderful and faithful group of people who call Harriet Chapel home.
