“May I borrow some water?”
Nine years ago, JT knocked on the back door of Christ Episcopal Church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, a five-gallon jug in hand. JT lived in a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) apartment next to the church; the city had turned off his water and he hoped to fill his jug so he could flush his toilet. When the rector opened the door that day, he had no idea how this simple request would bring about radical change in the Christ Episcopal Congregation.
Here’s their story, as shared by Robert Towner, rector of Christ Episcopal Church:
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Most of the time, there’s no room for a man-child like Brandon.
He’s been asked to leave two churches. He’s 34 but with the mind of a 6-year-old. He can only see a glimmer of light out of the corner of one eye.
His mother died this fall. His aunt, who remarried five years ago and had settled into a full life of volunteering and church work, made room.
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I’m writing this blog post on my flight back from the Nuevo Amanecer Conference, an event I attended on behalf of the Episcopal Church Foundation. This conference is a once-in-two year gathering for those who are involved in Latino ministry. Attendees included leaders in Latino ministry, organizations like ECF and Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers, as well as representatives of parishes who are seeing their neighborhoods change and want to extend la bienvenida to those who’ve recently arrived. To be perfectly honest, my mind is still dizzy from all the wonderful people I met, as well as from the music and palpable sense of hope - but I know I need to jot down what I saw and heard immediately or I will forget these insights in the coming weeks.
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This past weekend the Episcopal Church Foundation visited the northern part of the Diocese of Puerto Rico. We were there at the invitation of Bishop David Álvarez and Fr. Juan Monge with the goal of presenting just about everything we possibly could in a seven hour stretch: the role of the vestry, transformational leadership, stewardship and planned giving. As this was the first time ECF had done such a presentation in Spanish, we learned a great deal about how our “church speak” – which truly is a language all its own - doesn't necessarily translate. We also learned the helpful term feligresía which serves in Puerto Rico as a catchall word for mission, parish, church plant, worshipping community, etc. If it involves worship, it’s a feligresía and the lay members are feligreses.
But perhaps the most important thing I learned...
Every day if I need or want to leave my house, I do. Other than deciding which mode of transportation best suits my plans, I go. No one gives me permission, or denies me access, to drive my car or board a train, bus, subway, or plane.
I take this freedom for granted.
A video shared via email and a Facebook post seen within minutes of each other, have me thinking about this freedom, and others. I invite you to join me in this reflection.
The email and....
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