Wednesday Word: Welcoming and Affirming

Almost every church sign says something to the effect of, “Everyone Welcome.” But from my experience, and maybe yours, too, very few churches actually live into that statement. Whether it's, “Everyone Welcome” as long as you don't sit in my pew, or, “Everyone Welcome” as long as you don't disagree with the head pastor, or, “Everyone Welcome” as long as you vote like we do, there is a long list of things that become mandatory before everyone is actually welcomed.

I will admit that I am biased in this, but I have always thought that Saint John's truly does try to live into the statement, “Everyone Welcome.” That's not to say that we don't have our differences, because we do. But I have never seen anyone asked to leave the parish because of those disagreements. And I have never told anyone that they would be better served in a different place. That's also not to say that we have certain ways of doing things, because we do. We worship in a particular style and we honor that particular style every Sunday. So everyone is welcome, but we will not be hanging a sheet over the rood screen in order to project song lyrics because some people find that more welcoming.

Could we do better at welcoming people into Saint John's? Probably. Could we do worse? Most definitely. But we recognize that welcoming people is important and I believe we try at least every Sunday (and hopefully other days of the week as well) to live into the second point of our Mission Statement: Welcome.

Which is why I was proud of our Welcoming Commission, enthusiastically led by Deanna Soulis and joined by several others, at the last Vestry meeting when they proposed including the statement that “Saint John's is a Welcoming and Affirming congregation.” This may or may not mean anything to you, but “Welcoming and Affirming” are often seen as key words to people of the lbgtq+ community as meaning a safe place.

Too many people struggling with their identity have been forced out or abused at the hands of their faith communities. Too many people have been ostracized from their families because they simply want to live their lives as God created them. Too many people have been told that they are not welcome here.

Over the years, you, the people of Saint John's, have worked to make it a welcoming place. That took work and it will always take work, because it takes effort on our part to greet an unfamiliar face, it takes effort to invite people to sit with you in your pew (distancing rules aside), it takes work to follow up with people. And we continue to work at it.

And now, thanks to the Welcoming Commission, the Vestry unanimously approved incorporating the words “Welcoming and Affirming” to our website and Facebook page as well as other websites that can link back to us.

So thank you to Deanna and her group, and to the Vestry, for getting us to publicly state what we have always known: Saint John's is a welcoming and affirming congregation.

Keep up the good work,

Todd+