Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Who gets the keys to the Kingdom?

Thankfully key distribution for the Kingdom of God isn’t up to us, but church keys sure can be a source of conflict and anxiety. Just as the disciples trip over themselves asking who gets to sit next to Jesus, the question of keys feels like one of those questions we might bring to Jesus for all the wrong reasons if we had the early disciples’ access.

In my years as a parish priest in urban, multicultural settings, I have found that keys stand in for all kinds of questions about access, ownership, and trust. The giving of keys signifies trust, and can mean a great deal to someone whose ability to take responsibility is called into question by prevailing social and church norms. Giving out keys can create tremendous anxiety in those who have understood their vocation, at least in part, as being about keeping the church safe, clean, and secure. In my years as a priest, I have seen people weep at the privilege of being granted independent access, and I have seen stalwart church members leave congregations because keys were given to someone they did not trust to preserve the sanctity of the church building.

There is something fundamentally absurd about the very idea of locking people out of God’s house, yet most church members would feel profoundly unsure about leaving all the doors open all the time. I’ve served my whole ministry in neighborhoods where property crime is a significant problem. My family’s home was recently broken into. I’m not entirely naive about risk.

As Christians, we know that neighbors are important. So what does the distribution of our keys teach us about how we view each other as neighbors, and how we live out our own call to be neighbors?

When was the last time a new person got keys to your church? Who has to ask to permission to use space? What feels like too great a risk when it comes to granting access? Is there any sacred space that is entirely open to the public? Are all the ethnic and cultural groups that use your church facility equally represented among key-holders? Is there anyone who has keys who perhaps shouldn’t, because their behavior doesn’t meet a Christian standard of neighborliness? 

Who decides?