Day 9

A recent report shows that slightly more than 2 ¼ million people in the United States declare themselves to be Episcopalian – a tiny number, if you consider that the Episcopal Church Welcomes YOU!! What’s more, nearly 70% of our members, myself included, come from other denominations. (Imagine if we converts had not turned tiny Charlotte, NC into a Houston-sized boomtown?)

What drew us here in the first place? Most of us would say that we do, indeed, feel welcome in the Episcopal Church. But, does our need to feel welcome mean we choose to stay here because we worship ourselves in proximity to God or because we truly worship God? We are often criticized for making God in our own image and for reinventing scripture to suit ourselves. For a small denomination, we certainly do know how to stir things up. Do our rainbow flags, often borne by female clergy, find themselves planted in a New Jerusalem or do we, instead, seek to create God’s Kingdom on Earth as one in which the smoke from the censing obscures, only faintly, mirrors that reflect, not heavenward, but on our own images?

I remember singing, not so long ago, the lovely aria from Handel’s Messiah – He Shall Feed His Flock. Except, nearly every time I sang the words from memory, I found myself singing, “He shall lead his flock”. Now, any country girl worth her salt (and I earned my salt both here and on the pecorino-producing hillsides of Tuscany) knows that a shepherd doesn’t feed sheep – a shepherd leads sheep. Yet, a shepherd would never lead sheep to a place where they cannot find sustenance, where they would not be safe. A frightened flock does not feed. And, so, by leading his flock to a place of safety, he enables them to feed.

I like to think of the Episcopal Church as a church of reason, a light in the fight against bigotry, intolerance and hatred, but, I am also deeply touched to think of it as a safe haven where He will carry, in his bosom, those whose delicate faith needs to be nurtured and protected until they can, without fear, eat and flourish.

For the day has not yet come when the wolf and the lamb can live together. But, in the meantime, the Episcopal Church will welcome you, and me, and all who seek to feed and, when strengthened, to lead.