{"id":142,"date":"2008-04-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-15T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/castingstones\/2008\/04\/obamas-message-and-my-colorado.html"},"modified":"2008-04-15T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-15T11:00:00","slug":"obamas-message-and-my-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/04\/obamas-message-and-my-colorado.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s Message and My Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"odonnell\"The Barack Obama moment is happening at a time when the church I pastor is finding new unity amidst diversity. Our congregation might not vote in unison this November, but we can testify that a unifying message like Obama\u2019s is suitable for the pulpit as well as politics.
\nOnce wracked by division and intolerance, Grace and St. Stephen\u2019s Episcopal Church here in Colorado Springs is coming together in a novel show of Christian solidarity that welcomes theological moderates and liberals to its ship of fellows. Unfortunately, such openness wasn\u2019t always the case, for me or for this old parish.
\nFor most of my life as an Anglican priest, I have led congregations that identified with the political and theological right. Now, I find myself at the helm of a group that bridges every conceivable identity gap. We are trying to come together and have all things in common (Act 2: 42-47). Our commonness is not expressed by conformity, but uniformity\u2014we are learning to focus on that which holds us together.
\nSuch unity has come at a heavy price. Since Easter 2007, our parish\u2014with over 550 members\u2014has been forced to reside in exile. We hold services in a neighboring church, while a polarizing faction led by the former rector of Grace and St. Stephen\u2019s occupies our historic downtown building.
\nBefore this tragic split, I was invited in 2004 to join Grace and St. Stephen\u2019s as an assisting priest and resident pastoral counselor. No doubt chosen for my more \u201cconservative\u201d views, it was not a surprise to me when from the pulpit I heard a steady torrent of homilies designed to expose the Episcopal Church\u2019s move leftward from traditional views of biblical interpretation. In fact, I welcomed the torrent. Reforming the Church from within seemed to be a worthy Franciscan ambition, and I concluded that my family and I had found the ideal parish home.
\nNo matter how critical some (not all) of these sermons were , I was comforted by the constant reassurance (from the pulpit) that we\u2019d never break unity with the Episcopal Church. For me, as well as for my wife, being Episcopalian was about living within a diverse, albeit united, community of Christ\u2014a communion of Christians that numbered well over 70 million world-wide. And so, there I sat every Sunday\u2014either up front in \u201csacred space\u201d functioning as a priest or seated alongside my family in a pew\u2014believing that Grace and St Stephen\u2019s Episcopal Church was a safe place to worship God, in concord and love.
\nIn late 2006, just after I was appointed full-time associate priest with the parish, my rector was forced by his Bishop to take a leave of absence for alleged financial malfeasance. Soon after, the rector broke his \u201cinhibition\u201d and restored himself to the position of senior pastor.
\nWith this act, he and his followers broke with the Episcopal Church. They claimed that the allegations of financial malfeasance were smoke and mirrors, and that the Bishop was really just trying to remove an outspoken critic. Locks on the church and office buildings were illegally changed. Employees–lay and clergy alike–were forced to choose between an indicted priest and a lawful Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
\nI had no other choice but to follow our Bishop into exile, along with several hundred other members of Grace and St. Stephens. The now-defrocked pastor and his leadership seized the entire 17-million dollar campus and rectory. On Good Friday of last year, they sued the Episcopal Church for the property.
\nIn exile, my congregation and I have discovered how to embrace a \u201croad less traveled\u201d\u2014a road that has come to be about a life-giving journey in Christ, where formerly alienated men and women are again free to walk together as a living example of the prayer of Jesus, \u201cHoly Father\u2026may they be one as we are one\u201d (John 17:11).
\nAnd what has this unity accomplished? The will of God, I believe.
\nClergy and laity now sit along side each other in Bible studies where dialogue is finally open and differing opinions are respected. They no longer choose pews that keep them at arms length. They no longer pick which priest will commune them at the Lord’s Table based on that cleric’s theological point of view. And, they now give money to the work of the Church, not holding a penny back (as they did before) lest it go to the “wrong” cause. Instead, they pray, sing, and “break bread together with glad and sincere hearts,” at last united to God and to one another.
\nUnity is about a great assembling that is taking place, where once separated, segregated individuals\u2014men and women, blacks and whites, Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, and liberals and conservatives\u2014are being amassed by God for the purpose of accomplishing something extraordinary that they\u2019d be powerless to achieve while estranged.
\nThis is the commanding testimony of the ancient Church that, when united during its formative years, grew because of its constant witness to the moral loveliness of feeding the poor and clothing the naked, which contrasted with the ever-increasing ugliness of pagan Rome.
\nWhat does my church have to do with Obama\u2019s hugely popular message of unity and hope? I think the two are a sign of potential for moving away from old wars between the left and right. In a democratic republic, disagreement can be leveraged; the \u201cfar right\u201d and the \u201cfar left\u201d relish a nation divided. This is equally true of the church, where Sunday is still the most segregated day of the week and where we still need to heed the prophetic words of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., \u201cWe must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.\u201d
\nAt Grace and St. Stephen\u2019s Episcopal Church, my congregants \u201cagree to disagree\u201d and daily heed Christ\u2019s warning that \u201ca house divided will surely fall.\u201d Given the option of unity or discord, we\u2019re choosing unity. It\u2019s a very real choice that could define hope these days\u2014in the body of Christ as well as in the body politic.
\nFr. Michael O’Donnell is an Episcopal priest and senior pastor of Grace and St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs, CO. He has a Ph.D. from Kansas State University and is the author or co-author of 7 books.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Barack Obama moment is happening at a time when the church I pastor is finding new unity amidst diversity. Our congregation might not vote in unison this November, but we can testify that a unifying message like Obama\u2019s is suitable for the pulpit as well as politics. Once wracked by division and intolerance, Grace…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":355,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nObama's Message and My Church - Casting Stones<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/04\/obamas-message-and-my-colorado.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama's Message and My Church - Casting Stones\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Barack Obama moment is happening at a time when the church I pastor is finding new unity amidst diversity. 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