How inclusive/exclusive are we?

As most of you know by now that this past Sunday (25th October) was my collaring service and what an occasion. Words cannot begin to explain my gratitude to everyone, space does not permit me to mention names but I want you all to know that it was a humbling experience and my family extend their sincere gratitude as well.

This month we are embarking on exploring yet another theme (Thy Kingdom come…) here at St John’s. So as a person who has closely monitored and learned from Barry’s teachings especially about inclusivity I was a bit disturbed when only my family was served communion in the service. One of the first things that Barry spoke to me about when I arrived here was his deep conviction that our church in particular St Johns should be a place where people are not treated differently but on an equal basis. And those that knew him he never used authority over others he strongly believed that the ‘outcasts’ have a place and should always find a place of belonging at St johns. Though I respected our district Bishop’s explanation afterwards, still something was just not feeling right with what happened.

It also made me ask some uneasy questions, do we sometimes treat people unequally, are there VIP’s in church, is there an expected qualification to draw and participate in the table of the Lord or sometimes in church membership counts more than people? And where else can we go in search of answers than the Bible where there we get the glimpses of what the Kingdom is about (inclusion) through the person of Christ. Jesus loved, cared, embraced and befriended outcasts.

Dr. Joseph Petner asserts that “the idea of belonging and membership being part of a community is basic human need. It’s one of the principles of our democratic society. We all have the same needs, we want to be loved, we want to have friends, and we want to feel that we are making a contribution in our families and communities. We learn about understanding what someone’s interests and points of view are by interacting with them. To include everyone is to open up those possibilities for learning and appreciating our humanity”.

Therefore the purpose of the church in my view is to include everyone and as Rick Warren puts it in his book The Purpose driven Church “a church without a purpose becomes a museum of yesterday’s traditions”. To God be the Glory!

Yours
Solomzi