February Grace Notes
Feb 01, 2010
Who is the church? We are the church! I learned this question and refrain during my Episcopal Cursillo retreat weekend in 1997 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bellingham, Washington. Ever since then both the question and the answer have been close to my heart. First off, the question is important because the church is much more than just the location where we meet from week to week. The church is both the building and the people who gather inside; but sometimes it’s easy to forget the second half of that last statement.
Another name for the church is the body of Christ and each of us are members of that body. The epistle reading for the third Sunday in Epiphany says it well, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. . . . Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12.12, 27). Now when we say “we” are the church we certainly include us at Grace Church and those churches of the Episcopal tradition. To expand the definition of “we” however, it is significant to note that the church, the body of Christ, also includes other Christian churches/denominations of which there are many.
This month we have an opportunity to welcome a new member of the body of Christ to Carlsbad. On Saturday, February 6th at 2:00 pm, The Rev. Geri Cunningham will be installed as Pastor of St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church. I invite you to join me as representatives of Grace Church as we gather at St. Peter’s Church (ELCA) to welcome Pastor Cunningham on the 6th of February. This is one important way we can show our connectedness as the body of Christ in Carlsbad. I look forward to seeing you there!
Grace & peace,
Fr. Rod+
Another name for the church is the body of Christ and each of us are members of that body. The epistle reading for the third Sunday in Epiphany says it well, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. . . . Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12.12, 27). Now when we say “we” are the church we certainly include us at Grace Church and those churches of the Episcopal tradition. To expand the definition of “we” however, it is significant to note that the church, the body of Christ, also includes other Christian churches/denominations of which there are many.
This month we have an opportunity to welcome a new member of the body of Christ to Carlsbad. On Saturday, February 6th at 2:00 pm, The Rev. Geri Cunningham will be installed as Pastor of St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church. I invite you to join me as representatives of Grace Church as we gather at St. Peter’s Church (ELCA) to welcome Pastor Cunningham on the 6th of February. This is one important way we can show our connectedness as the body of Christ in Carlsbad. I look forward to seeing you there!
Grace & peace,
Fr. Rod+