By The Rev. Patricia Rose, Assistant Rector

Dear Friends, 

At a recent symposium, Father Greogry Boyle shared what a symposium participant had said, “The moment arrives when we discover that we are kin.” Fr. Gregory added, “That moment is what we long for.” Indeed.

What is your sense of “being kin”? Of belonging?

It is likely that all of us have memories of receiving messages that we didn’t belong, of feeling rejected, unseen, or not valued as a part of some group. We may have experienced this at school, at work, in church, in friend circles, even in our own families. These experiences are painful and they affect our sense of trust, self-worth, and who we think we are in deep and pervasive ways.

Likewise, and hopefully, we are all lucky enough to have experienced some places where we felt we belonged, where we felt seen and welcomed as we are, valued, even cherished.

The feelings that arise out of our experiences of belonging –  or not belonging – are powerful. Whether feelings of pain and rejection, or of being loved and welcomed, they resonate to the depth of our being. They resonate with an essential need to belong and with a core truth taught by Jesus.

“The greatest commandment,” he told us, “is to love God and to love our neighbors and ourselves with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Just this past Sunday, the gospel and Rev. Gabriel’s beautiful sermon clarified this greatest commandment by reminding us that the answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” is “everyone.”

This year at St. Paul’s, we’ll be celebrating and focusing on the theme of “Belonging.” It is a core teaching of our faith that everyone belongs, that everyone is beloved, no exceptions. Even more, parishioner responses to last fall’s parish survey (the Congregational Assessment Tool or C.A.T.) revealed that the top priorities were a longing to feel more connected with one another, and to more fully welcome and serve all who come to visit. In other words, to increase the sense of genuine belonging.

We will explore the theme of belonging from many different viewpoints, including welcoming others, communion, the idea that everything and everyone belongs, building community, and the true belonging which Christ calls us to know.

I hope you will have the opportunity to enjoy our many celebrations of this theme, which will show up in Children and Youth programs, Sunday Forums and other Adult Formation programs, fellowship activities and groups, in the joys of welcoming newcomers, in worship and music, and many other intentional ways. We hope you will find ways to feel more connected and to know and spread the truth that we all truly belong.  

I also recommend to you Fr. Gregory Boyle’s book, Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times. In the same symposium I quoted above, he reminded listeners that Dr. Martin Luther King often said that church is not just a place we “come to,” but the place we “go from.”  Our focus on knowing the life-giving feeling of belonging within ourselves and in this beautiful, blessed community is not our final destination. It is the fertile field being seeded in our heart where we “go from.”

As Fr. Gregory put it,

“We go from here to imagine a circle of compassion, and imagining no one standing outside that circle…We go from here to stand with those whose dignity has been denied and those whose burdens are more than they can bear. We go from here to await that moment when we discover that we are all kin.”

In Christ’s welcoming love,

Rev. Patricia +