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Celebrating our lives together in Christ |
Initially, at least, and perhaps throughout our lives, the answer must be that we come for
very different reasons. Some people come in response to the kind, and perhaps
insistent, invitation of a friend or family member. A few people have clearly made a
deliberate decision upon moving to Appleton from another location to associate
immediately with an Episcopal parish. A good number of visitors are doing,
unashamedly, what is now called "church shopping." Some return to Church after a period
away from active participation. Some come in joy, to celebrate the birth of their first
child and with the expectation that baptism will confirm their joy and preserve
their child in Christ's love and presence. Others come quietly and tearfully, in response
to grief or loss that they wish to offer before God and with the hope that they will,
however hurt and wounded, be accepted. We come for different reasons.
In
all of these reasons for coming, there is, I believe, the
providential hand of God, a
directing
of our lives, through a weaving of circumstance, decision,
and what we are
apt
to call chance, working to help us respond to the depth and wonder
of God's love. We
come. And God is influencing our coming; God (a great
physician) works
upon
the heart to open us to his own redeeming love and abiding
affection.
It
is hard to say, in this brief format, what The Episcopal Church is
and what it stands
for. Such a platform, even if easily stated, would, however,
give the wrong impression
that faith is an agenda of convictions and behaviors that we
accept or deny. To be
sure, such clear criteria would clarify who does and does
not fit it. The truth
of God's love, however, is the hard and glorious fact that it is
unrestrained, moves
along pathways we cannot comprehend, pulls together persons of
such obvious
difference, and welds together a structure called the Church,
Christ's mystical body.
If
brevity is required, I shall settle for this: God's being is God's
love. God's love addresses
the heart of each person who comes in faith
It is this searching for God and a
celebration of God's love for us all
that we keep ever in
mind in our common worship and in the fellowship we share.
Fr. Patrick T. Twomey, Rector
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