Devotion

Welcome to CWAC's Devotion for the Journey

Reflections for the journey

by cathy knight, executive director, The Church Within A Church Movement

I recently returned from Kansas where I attended CWAC “JustChurch” meetings. These home gatherings are intended to bring together folks who either need to know of the inclusive space of the Church Within A Church Movement, already know about it and want more connection or just responded to an invitation from a friend.

We began the time with this Statement of Welcome and Centering:

ALL: As we gather we name ourselves as community and recognize our oneness in Christ. We celebrate our interrelatedness across our unique identities – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Straight, Male, Female and Transgender, Asexual, Intersexed, Queer and Questioning - Black, White, and Brown. We celebrate the variety of human conditions and abilities. We declare our unity and joy in naming God’s great gift of diversity.
Host: It is by the power of God that we gather here tonight.
All: God calls us in ways beyond our understanding. The Spirit is alive and at work even when we aren’t sure of ourselves or of God.
Host: We are here because of what has been and what might be. Let us remember the realities and celebrate the possibilities. Let this be a time of hearing and sharing the good news of The Church Within A Church Movement and our stories on the journey.
All: Amen!

When I returned to Chicago after 4 days of meeting wonderful people in Kansas, I continued to be haunted by one of the stories I’d heard. The story kept churning and I grew angrier and angrier. One of the outcomes of this holy rage was this poem:

When Silence is Not Golden

I’d heard the story before

but not from her

she was an unwilling partner in a dance that she did not choose to attend

she was an unwilling participant in a story she did not write

she was the daughter of a closeted clergy-mom when the unknown “spouse” was killed

she had no voice because her mom was invisible

she had no status because she was a lesbian

she had no voice and nowhere to scream because her mom was united methodist clergy

the tragedy was so isolating that her tears were never seen

until now

and now the tears are flowing

and they are bitter and angry

because the daughter’s pain could not be shared except with an invisible mom

“why do you want to be part of something that doesn’t want you?” she cries

now the mom is healing alongside her daughter.

And it’s a different dance

a dance that is choosing to be in the middle of the room

in the glare of the light

the light of truth

the light of life

the light of life lived whole

and in this light there is no going back to silence

because silence is not golden

cathy knight
5 4 10

Radical Welcome

by Rev. Vernice Thorn

vernice thorn With our New Orleans experience fresh in my mind and our history making board decision to adopt an Anti-Racist declaration ringing fresh in my ears, I picked a book off of my shelf to read titled “Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the other and the Spirit of Transformation” by Stephanie Spellers, an African American Episcopal Priest.

I’ve had to read this book in fits and starts because as I read it, my heart is broken open and tears of both joy and sadness flood my eyes. I hear both words of hope and words of despair; hope because the words feel like home, a place where I want and need to be for my soul’s salvation; despair because so few people and places, especially faith based institutions, are even working towards this goal.

Rev. Spellers calls it a place of “Radical Welcome.” She defines it thusly, “Radical welcome is the spiritual practice of embracing and being changed by the gifts, presence, voices, and power of The Other: the people systemically cast out of or marginalized within a church, a denomination and or society.” I really love this definition but that is not what touched my heart the most; What brought tears to my eyes is the acts or movements she describes. Act one is opening our arms, which indicates a desire to reach beyond ourselves and creates space for the other to come in – breaking down boundaries by issuing an invitation. Act two is waiting for the other, not coercing, but waiting for the other to receive and respond to the invitation. Act three is closing. Closing is the mutual indwelling – me in you, you in me. She says, “In this act, the identity is both preserved and transformed, the other is both affirmed and received.” She ends this section with, “this type of welcome says to another, “May I know you better?”

I believe this to be the heart of the Gospel. Throughout scripture we hear Gods invitation of welcome into God’s self. “May I know you better?” is the question that should be at the core of any and all discussions of welcome be it multiculturalism, anti-racism or heterosexim conversations– any dialogue of inclusion we must be willing and able to not only ask that question with authenticity but to also live that question in community.

“May I know you better?” indicates an interest to know my story, my pain, my hopes, my dreams. It says that I am willing to listen to you with an open heart. It signifies a graciousness of open arms, a feeling of home. Recently I heard someone speak a prayer of thanksgiving for a place they could feel safe enough to be themselves. That is home, where you can take off your shoes and speak your truth.

“Radical Welcome” is a number one priority in my life right now. I feel urgency and passion, not only because my soul has been ravaged by the unwelcome I have often felt in this world as a black woman, but as I prepare to welcome my grandchild, that need for urgency is amplified. It feels critical that the work to make this world a better, more equitable place be done and done now. I want my grandchild to know a different world than I have known. I want her/ him to be able to be whomever God has created them to be without having to figure out how to do that in a threatening, inhospitable environment. I want my grandchild to compete in this world on level ground, with all things equal. I want my grandchild to be able to celebrate his/her identity and use their gifts to continue building a better world - God’s world. I want that for my grandchild, but I want that for yours as well; for your children, your partner, your friends, your family. I want that for all of God’s creation.

Thank you CWAC for moving us closer to my dream of “radical welcome” with our extraordinary ordinations, with our intentional outreach to “the other,” with our anti-racism declaration. Thank you for leading the way, for having the heart and the passion for the hard conversations, for staying on the road to justice, even in the midst of challenges. As we continue together, may the “Spirit of transformation” be ours.

Excerpts from Radical Welcome, published by the Episcopal Church by Church Publishing

In Truth and Justice,

Rev. Vernice Thorn

Associate Pastor Broadway UMC
Co-convener CWAC national Coordinating Team
Leader Curriculum and Resource Development CWAC Work Area