Frequently Asked Questions
Can't I just sit in my room and worship God?
Of course you can. Church isn't a substitute for private prayer. We gather as CHURCH for mutual encouragement. The church provides a place of solidarity, where we support each other in times of need and hardship. Since getting to know people isn't instantaneous, attending church regularly, is a way of becoming familiar with others who worship in the same way.
Gathering for church is also a kind of practice for building solidarity. In the real world, we form cliques and we hang out with people who think like us. We prefer the convenience of agreement to the challenges of dissension. But in a church, we rehearse gathering together as people who think differently than each other. In our church we have radicals and reactionaries, poor and rich, blacks and whites, feminists and patriarchs, who listen to the same stories and take communion together. The self-righteous, the righteous and the tepid tolerant find themselves in the same location, committed to each other out of the bonds of familiarity and habit. And this is GOOD.
Not everyone who comes to church is a holy roller, perfectly certain about their place in the universe, content with their own way of living, and dismissive of other traditions. Some of us are agnostic about the role of religions in the public sphere. Some of us might call our conscience, God, and want a public affirmation of their faith, and some might just come for the excellent coffee we serve. You ll find that people come here because of the preaching, the social service work, the singing, the fellowship, and some down time to reflect.
Why should I bother with a 2000 year old book?
In the Episcopal Church, we do not choose to leave our minds at the door. We accept that the cosmology of the world has changed, and that the world, for instance, was not created in six human days. Human nature, and humanity's encounter with the transcendent, is remarkably consistent. The core challenges of the human community to conscience, belief and action, even in an age of technological advancement, have been described, accurately, in scripture. Scripture is not relevant as a historical document, but as a text where people can identify themselves as characters who pray and act in a terrifying and beautiful world. This said, I do think that contraception, the steam engine, penicillin, and the end of universal slavery, have altered human consciousness enough that some actions do not have the same consequences as they did a century ago.Are you a "traditional" church?
"Tradition" is a confusing word. Its etymological root is equivalent to "hand down". We have been handed scripture, the Book of Common Prayer, and our local liturgical flavor from people who are not living: that's tradition.
The word "tradition" evokes severe political and personal discussions. Some defend a web of rules, tastes and preferences and call these things "tradition". Others run when they hear anything like "tradition" and prefer to create everything anew. But clearly we all have some customs we inherit that make us comfortable, and hopefully guide us through uncomfortable situations.
My own view is that we sort through traditions using our experience and wisdom both to accommodate and challenge the culture. Traditions are gifts from the past to guide us through the present towards a brighter future. They are not static but sometimes they need a good defense. The traditions we keep are the ones which say, it's happened before, and it will most likely happen again. Here's what's worked, and what seems fruitful to God's people.
Most Anglicans who call themselves "traditionalist" have strong preferences for older versions of the Prayerbook, and are uncomfortable with the way sexuality has begun to pervade the public sphere. I think a great Anglican tradition is that we are not afraid of assessing the merits of scripture and civic responsibility with God's gift of reason.
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