Step One Along My Journey to Priesthood

Psalm 23 (King James Version):
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his Name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
for thou are with me;
thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
thou annointes my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.


Today I visited a new church I am considering for my home church. Its called St. James Episcopal Church, and it is one of the larger churches in my region. The reasons for my looking for a new home parish are long and complicated and too personal to list here. Suffice to say I was looking and I think I won't have to look any further than St. James.

This parish reminds me of the church I went to for 7 years from the age of 8 to 15; St. David's Episcopal Church. St. James recently relocated to a new building in order to accommodate their growing membership, and so while having been at their current location for 3 or so years they are still transitioning and growing. This is promising for me, because it means that I am hopefully not the only new face they will see. It also means there are a lot of opportunities for me to get involved.

The new building will eventually become the Parish Hall for them once they have the funds to build the new Nave. For now it houses a grand open space with high vaulted ceilings where the beams are exposed. As a newcomer to the church I found this space to be welcoming instead of intimidating. They have a couple of tables in the back of the room where they put out coffee and snacks [of course since really why else do Episcopalians go anywhere but to eat :)] and a small area off to the side with rocking chairs for mother's with babies. Everything seems to flow, you walk in and there is some division to the room but for the most part you basically are walking into the area where fellowship and worship are intertwined.

In the center of the worship space is a podium. On that podium sits a binder with seemingly blank pages. This is the binder where the members of the church (and as I learned visitors too) may go and write down names of people to pray for during the Prayers of the People. This level of involvement voluntarily from the congregation is inspiring to me. They also have a prayer that was written by the members of the Daughters of the King (chapter at that church) that is said before starting the prayers of the people.
"Prayer for our Church: Gracious God, please grant us the Spirit of Imagination to see with your eyes the possibilities and the means to get there; the Spirit of Generosity to share gifts worthy of your mission and ministry; the Spirit of Love to welcome Christ in friends and strangers. Amen."
This prayer speaks ten-fold of the acceptance this church has for all of God's children, and that gives me hope.

They have a wildly popular Nursery/Preschool that has a waiting list within the community. The Rector provides a chapel service for the kids and she says (yes she! the rector and deacon are both women!) that is why so much of the community is interested in the program. The parish also has their own t-shirts, they host an annual Parish Picnic, Crab Feast, Camp Out on Grounds, and many other activities.

The Deacon gave the sermon today, which as you can guess from above was about the Psalm of the Day, Psalm 23. A well known and quoted Psalm, Psalm 23 personifies the personal and intimate relationship we all have with God. When a group of 4 year-olds was asked if anyone could recite it a little girl raised her hand and said "The Lord is my Shepherd. That is all I need." The Deacon pointed out that there are many references to Christ as a Shepherd and to His followers as a flock of sheep. It happens to be a personal favorite of mine because of the simplicity and care it implies.

We all know that in Jesus' time shepherds were extremely common, and they lived in what we would consider today a very "green" way of life. They lived off the land, moving from place to place to find food for their herd. Often shepherds would come across one another and the herds would merge for a time to graze. At the end of the day when a shepherd called his flock they knew his voice and his call and answered him easily. Just as a shepherd knows his flock and the flock knows its shepherd, so to do Christ and God know each of us just as we know Them. God knows us all by name, not by number, and can call upon us thusly. The Deacon also pointed out that there are many things in this world that leave us hurt and scarred (depression, sickness, hateful words, etc.) but there is nothing that can harm us, because we have God and Christ as our shepherd to protect and guide us.