August 24th, 2008 - Rock and Affirmation of Welcome

It was nice to see Liz worshipping for the first time since her accident. She was in a wheelchair. Still she was in good spirits and joked how much her current eye level gave her a new perspective on how much decorating she needed to do for this level.

There was an announcement that David Lee's mother passed away today. The congregation felt his loss. Kelly played piano and sang for the worship music. Overall there was a majestic grandeur to the music, particularly during Creator Praise.

Father Al centered Children's Time on the gospel image of Peter as the rock on which Jesus proclaims the church will be built. The kids received rocks and also passed out rocks to the congregation. Father Al talked about the properites that made them the same (small, shiny smooth) and what made them unique (color and shapes).

We sang The Church's One Foundation as opening hymn and one part of the sermon highlighted the words we had sung. Particularly, Father Al linked those words with what many of us had seen last week in the Beijing Olympics, the image of the runner in the race pushing himself to do his best suddenly entering a stadium filled with cheers. The words of the hymn and triumphant Olympic images blended powerfully.

Our August RIC activity took place after the service. The second lesson in worship was Romans 12 which teaches we each are given different powers while still being one body in Christ. A fitting lesson to keep in mind for the Reconciling in Christ process.

This Sunday we planned to talk about the language of Creator's draft affirmation of welcome. Instead those in attendance continued the conversation regarding fears, concerns and what excites us about RIC. The team was a bit surprised by what needed to be explained and emphasized to this group today.

On Sunday there was a discussed perception that the same people come to these RIC events each time and that we "preach to the choir". Yet the heartfelt feedback on Sunday that reached me was coming from those for whom Sunday was only their first or second RIC event.

In particular we discussed the Affirmation of Welcome detailing who we welcome as opposed to a blanket "all are welcome". This is at the heart of being an RIC congregation. This is why we need to develop the language of the Affirmation. "All are welcome" may not be as deep a commitment as when the groups we welcome that have not been necessarily welcome in the past are listed.

For example, one of our proposed explicit welcomes connected Sunday with someone who was divorced. There are other Creator members who still feel uncomfortable with a divorce in their past. They are hesitant to share their past because of their church's reactions and pronouncements at the time of their divorces.

I hope the RIC team can work with the congregation to take this journey of discernment more hand in hand with the congregation.