The Greatest of These is Love: My Episcopalian Worship Experience

Mother Teresa once said “prayer, in action, is love and love, in action, is service”. From the moment I first read her words, I understood the greater power of my prayers. They were not idle words sent into the universe in hopes of better days. They were my ability to transform the life of someone else. It is not enough to verbally request that conditions be improved; my hands and feet must become involved in the work. My mother tells the story of me being 2 years and I, with tears in my eyes, packed all of my toys into a brown paper bag. She said I’d seen a commercial about children in Ethiopia and realized they had so little and I so much. I wanted their lives to be better and believed it could start with my dolls and train set.

Twenty seven years later, I am not far removed from the day I saw that commercial. I still want to live in service. I pray that God does the radical work within me that allows me to embody love in ways unimaginable. As I prayed for a more compassionate heart geared toward service, I became more intrigued by a denomination I always believed had their finger on the pulse of that: the Episcopal Church. My research of the Episcopal tradition took me beyond its early beginnings to learning more of the fight for racial and gender equality. As I read books like Yet With A Steady Beat: The African-American Struggle for Recognition in the Episcopal Church and Episcopal Women: Gender, Spirituality and Commitment in an American Mainline Denomination, I saw that all the steps taken by the Church were not easy but members challenged each other to personify the very love for which they worshipped God. And today, I admire the transparency of the Episcopal Church when it speaks of its plateaus and declines in membership. But most importantly, I admire how they refuse to allow that to impact their ability to serve the people of the world regardless of race, gender, age, class or sexual orientation. Because their love has always inspired me, I chose to visit this past Sunday. I attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

St. Stephen’s has always been in the heart of the African-American Community and lends itself as a beacon of hope for so many. Though Sunday was my first time there, I had no idea how integral St. Stephen’s was to my growth and development. As a second grade student, my mother’s teacher asked her to speak before her St. Stephen’s congregation. As a child who was encouraged by my mother to speak before our church congregation and as an adult who has spoken in many churches across this country, it was humbling to worship among the same people who encouraged her all those years ago. Connecting much of my future to her past in that present was amazing.

There’s always the myth presented by so many unfamiliar with the Episcopal tradition that they do not read the Bible; that couldn’t be further from the truth. Though they use The Book of Common Prayer for services, it is filled with numerous passages of Scripture. The service I attended, known as the Holy Eucharist, was simplistic is nature but challenged me to a higher level of love in the grandest of ways. First, a member of the St. Stephen’s clergy entered the sanctuary with a service dog. I’d seen dogs before but never in a church! I can only imagine the love and warmth he must have experienced to feel comfortable to continue worshipping there. Too often those who do not look, act or seem like us are ostracized by the ones who profess to be so welcoming. Just in seeing him there, I was challenged to find ways to make the love I give more inviting to those different than me.

The pastor, a Ghanaian, delivered a sermon about mirrors reflecting what they see and being an opportunity to change what we see. Using a mirror as his prop, he showed us how God does the same thing. Through Him, we can see ourselves and change those things necessary to be even greater servants. I understood, then, why Episcopalians could lead lives of service. They concentrate on inward development that allows for a greater outward witness. That was also evidenced when the Bishop read the job openings he received that week and reminded the congregation of the members who worked in those places. The Bishop understood the need for collective work and responsibility to ensuring better lives for us all. If you can’t find a better way in the church, where can you go?

And it was in a special moment that I finally “got it”. Having read the Prayer of Saint Francis so many times, I was finally in a congregation of individuals who looked like me and shared some of the same experiences I did. It was in the same sacred place where my mother once spoke about having peace on earth and goodwill toward men that I said “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” Like Mother Teresa and Saint Francis, my desire should be that God use me to be the answer to whatever I pray. My desire should be that daily I strive to be a more willing vessel than I was before.

Since worshipping four days ago, I’ve begun to study the Episcopal Church more; I have even ordered my own Book of Common Prayer. St. Stephen’s is a special place. It was there I connected with a history of myself that made my journey make sense. It was there I saw love personified. It was there I was introduced to a higher sense of purpose. I was created to serve- to serve God and His people. Where is there is no love, I was designed to fill those places.

Selah and Amen.

CMB, ©2011