Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

The Chapel at the Seminary of the Southwest has a wall of glass. It looks out over a lawn, some beautiful native live oak trees, and a large, three-dimensional, weathered metal cross. It stands over 8 feet tall. The cross is placed outside the chapel. Whether pausing between classes or worshipping in a community Eucharist, you can’t miss it. It beckons. The life and work of the faithful is calling from beyond the chapel walls.

At the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the original wooden doors of the church were recently replaced by beautifully crafted doors of glass and wood. Now when the doors are closed, a passerby can see what is going on inside. The building has been given an added air of welcome. And there’s more. Those who are inside are given a reminder of the world beyond the church doors. Cars and buses pass by on the main thoroughfare through the busy college town. Students come and go at the sorority houses across the street. Just off to the left on the church’s lawn is a tall cement Celtic cross. The glass and wood doors invite the worshipper within to pray for the world beyond and to go out into that world and see God there.

For hundreds of years, gothic architecture and gothic revival architecture have been designed to give worshipers a sense of refuge, a shelter from the storms of the world. In a Gothic church or a Gothic revival church, worshipers can’t see the world beyond the church doors and walls. Whatever light makes its way into the church from outside passes through stained glass, evoking a sense of the presence of God.

Clear glass walls, doors, and windows can expand that experience.

Jesus is in the church, yes, made known to us in the breaking of the bread and in the love and forgiveness of the community gathered -- the Body of Christ. Jesus is also very much in the world. Jesus did not stay in the synagogue, and neither should we.

What Jesus found when he ventured forth were a lot of people, people in need of healing, people that others would ignore or oppress. But he did not ignore them. In the world beyond the synagogue, he also found companions and friends.

Those of us who follow Jesus will discover a similar world.

We can’t all change the doors, windows or walls of our church. We may have good reasons not to. But we can find ways to underscore the invitation to go out into the world and follow Jesus there. Whatever the weather, the altar party can open the doors of the church before the dismissal, letting the light, and the climate, of the world into the nave. We can also start calling the “dismissal” a “sending forth.”

Dismissal comes from the Latin missio, meaning mission. The words given to us in the Book of Common Prayer make this plain: “Let us go forth in the name of Christ”, “Let us go forth into the world…”. But in our current parlance, someone is dismissed when they are not being taken seriously, or when what they say or do is not relevant to whatever is going on, or perhaps when they are being fired. Someone who has been dismissed leaves the room with shoulders sagging and head down, or maybe with a sense of relief to be dismissed from a critical assessment of their behavior. Do we want to be dismissed from church?

Jesus went forth from the synagogue to engage with the world. Jesus sent his disciples two by two. Jesus sends us as well. A cross and a world outside the church that is visible from inside the church can help remind us. So can an open door and a sending forth.