By David Lee
Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet; Basilica di San Marco (Venice, Italy), c 1210.
Flora, Paloma and I come from a non-denominational “bible church” background and have been attending CTR for three years now. We first came because Paloma’s friend Lian attended the youth group and our daughter wanted to see her. When we got to CTR for the 10am Catechesis that first Sunday, our daughter became shy; we waited in the car then attended the 11am service.
The high liturgy was different from anything we had experienced before. Almost immediately, Paloma’s questions began – and they continued through the whole service. It made paying attention to the service and focusing on God difficult, but two things really stood out:
i. Our daughter, rather than playing around and fidgdeting, was paying attention!
ii. We didn’t know the answers to many of the questions she had about why things were done in particular ways.
It is fair to say that we were drawn to CTR through the eyes of a child.
Since then our daughter has been blessed by the youth group here. We have seen her grow in her faith and are certain that God is using Fr. Brian and Jackie’s ministry in powerful ways and to His glory. We see it in Paloma. Every school day morning just before exiting the car, Paloma lists whatever tests or friends or school situations are on her heart and asks her dad if he would please pray for them on his way to work.
Flora and I are blessed by our friends here as well – not just in the pews but also in the kitchen, in the community outreach opportunities and across the miles in the mission field. Our Acts 2:42/Home Group is a faithful source of prayer, wisdom, support, laughter, friendship and deliciously unhealthy baked goods.
Flora and I were talking recently about how comfortable we both are calling Fr. Tim our pastor. His earnest, humble and caring spirit resonated deeply with my gentle, prayerful wife and immediately disarmed my own reclusiveness. What a gift of relational connection he has–and what a blessing both he and Cheryl have been to us. But we think this goes beyond just having a “pastoral” heart.
We have been on the North Shore now for ten years and during that time we have been blessed to be a part of a few different churches–all Christ-loving, bible-centered places of worship. And we have gotten to know several wonderful, God-fearing pastors. But in the end, we always felt called to move on from those churches, not because of worship style or theological positions, but simply because while there was clear love for the Lord, there was no real love for one another. And we began to understand that culture is set by the leadership.
New England culture, frankly, sometimes doesn’t feel very loving and so pastors can tend to adapt to their environs and set up a culture that makes their congregants comfortable – in New England that can mean a bit “standoff-ish.” In all of our interactions with Fr. Tim, we have never felt that distance. From day one we felt welcomed and loved both as individuals and as a couple. We’ve never actually felt that kind of sincere warmth before, from any other church in New England. He has taken the time to engage us in deep conversation, to understand where we each can contribute to the life of the church body, and to discern how best to shepherd each of us on our own journeys. Because of this, we feel a deep connection with Fr. Tim. It’s difficult to find the right words to describe this special open-heartedness of his, but we are so thankful for the call that he and Cheryl have here.
Bishop Bill recently had some nice words of encouragement to the leaders of CTR – it was a word about how to continue to build a culture that leans on our God-imbued social and relational wiring. He pointed out that leadership does not arise out of proper organizational structure, or inner strength, or pedigree, or even experience – rather it arises most poignantly out of the regular blessing that we are to one another, out of the recognition that we offer and share our lives together, and that there is shared trust and responsibility and excellence in such communal living. To use his words, “the organization always yields to the organism.” He also put it this way: “God didn’t come to save the Anglican church, He came to save each one of us.”
And maybe this expresses well what Flora and I feel about Fr. Tim and Cheryl – that they never forget our shared humanity and in fact rejoice in it. Even as our Rector, and therefore as a representative of that the full, deep and beautiful Anglican communion, Fr. Tim somehow makes it clear that it is never about whether we can find the right place to fit in, but rather that the whole structure exists solely to support our efforts to edify one another and glorify God. As it is in church so it is also in life. Bp. Bill reminds us to bless one another with a word of thanksgiving for the gifts and virtues we see in each other–that by doing so as much as possible, we will change our understanding of “church” and spur the kind of community and relational binding that will naturally draw forth lay leaders.
We find this kind of outlook and approach to “leadership”, which Bp. Bill and Fr. Tim seem to share, so innovative and edifying, and so different from what we hear everywhere else and in all other aspects of our lives.
We’d like to end by going out on a limb a bit; Flora and I are praying for a revival here on the North Shore – an honest-to-goodness foot-stomping, arm-waving, face-turned-upward spiritual re-awakening. It’s past due, and we both feel it could happen… and whenever and however God moves that forward, we are comforted to know that CTR will join in with abandon.
Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church © 2016
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