Sunday, March 8, 2009

Grace

This morning I worshipped for the first time at an Episcopal church in NE Portland, and for the first time in a really long time, it truly felt like home. If Ben enjoys it as much as I did we may have found our church home. We shall see. It was so invigorating to feel good at church, instead of feeling like an awkward stranger. Church-going alone can be a lonely, scary task, particularly at larger churches where it is easy to get lost in the crowd. This morning a woman named Sarah welcomed me, invited me to coffee hour and introduced me to some other people...which makes all the difference when you don't know anyone. I'm thankful to God for this welcoming community in the heart of NE Portland. In addition to the people, the building is absolutely gorgeous. Smaller, intimate, warm, inviting, peaceful. And, to top it off, there were some younger people sitting in the pews! This may be an answer to prayer, we shall see.

1 comment:

spyder said...

As a former altar boy at All Saints Episcopal Church of Beverly Hills, CA (90210), perhaps the only thing i truly enjoyed about that environment was that they really had ritual connecting down with the congregations. Perhaps it was the famous organist Owen Brady, or the passion of Rev James K Frederick who was also the head of Cathedral Films (he demanded that the congregation at each service--a group composed of Hollywood/Media heavies and lights--openly participate in the singing of hymns). Jim was so deeply committed to the deeper emotional connnections that he encourage members of the congregation to participate in his films (i was totally in lust for Gloria Swanson's granddaughter Brooke at the time).