Blogging with Father John

The Sadness of Division

It genuinely saddens me when people break with the church over issues they cannot agree. We are after all members of the same Body of Christ. We may not agree on every difficult issue that arises in the Church, but we are called to be One, just and God the Holy Trinity is One. The world is not a black and white place in which we exist; and neither is the Church. It is in the gray areas of life where we struggle that are most important. For it is in the gray areas we meet the Risen Christ. It is in the gray areas that God calls us into deep discernment and prayer. It is in the gray areas that we wrestle with God and even one another. But in the end, what make the Episcopal Church so special is that it makes room for the gray areas; it is called the Via Media (the middle way). The gray areas are where we experience spiritual growth and the place where God forges and reforges our lives. While it can be a painful place of change, it is also a place of genuine revelation (God speaking to us) and transformation. 

My heart breaks when we lose people and congregations due to our differences and the view that there are different “sides.” When we create “sides” we create division and are doing exactly what Satan wants for God’s people. I don’t condemn or hold anything against those who leave the church because of their unhappiness with the direction she may take; rather I desire more than anything to reunite with them in faithful reconciliation and love.

As for me, I will stand with my beloved Episcopal Church through thick and thin. She was there for me when no one else was. She was my banner in the dark that beckoned me home with open, forgiving and loving arms. She accepts people for who they are and where they are in life. I stand proudly, yet humbly with the Episcopal Church USA.