Parochial Prayers
FROM THE RECTOR
Imagine living in a community where membership in the local church was based not on what you believe, where you worshipped, or whether you put any money into the offering plate but simply on your mailing address. Admittedly, the English parochial system is more complicated than that, but, for vicars in the Church of England, the souls for which they are responsible include every person living within the boundary of the parish. What a strange, outdated, and wonderful way to define a church!
One summer while I was in England, I undertook a four-week internship in a working-class Anglo-Catholic parish in Middlesbrough. I lived with the vicar and his family in the vicarage adjacent to the church, and I quickly learned how often the doorbell rang. Every time a child was to be “christened,” every time a mother was to be “churched,” every time a couple was to be married, and every time a parishioner was to be buried, the doorbell rang. If you lived in the parish, you were guaranteed access to the sacramental life of the church even if you had never showed up on Sunday morning.
After a while, I discovered the weariness and pastoral fatigue built into a system in which clergy must accommodate the sacramental demands of people who have little or no interest in living out their faith within the worshipping community. In that particular parish, those demands often stemmed from superstitious beliefs or familial demands, which the petitioners made no attempt to hide. “My granny says I can’t have anyone over to see the baby until after I’ve been churched,” was a common explanation we heard.
Nevertheless, those perfunctory and obligatory sacramental acts presented opportunities for evangelism, pastoral care, and outreach. Regardless of their motivation, no matter how irreligious their intentions, the people who rang that doorbell were looking for Jesus whether they knew it or not, and it was up to the vicar to decide how to offer him to them. The Church of England allows vicars to require classes in preparation for baptism or marriage, and, rather presenting them as a hurdle over which parishioners must climb before receiving the church’s rewards, the vicar had an opportunity to use them to help those individuals discover that, because of Jesus, they already belonged to God even before they walked through the door.
This Saturday at St. Paul’s, we have an opportunity to embody our belief that all people belong to God as we process around the historic boundary of our parish and pray for all the people who live here. I am thankful that we only offer baptisms, weddings, and funerals to people who have an active connection with our congregation, but I also celebrate the ways in which St. Paul’s is a church that places itself at the center of our community’s life regardless of people’s religious identity. I think we are at our best when we recognize that who we are as Christians compels us to love, welcome, accept, and pray for all people no matter where they go to church, and our rogation procession helps us remember that.
On Saturday at 9:00 a.m., we will gather outside the church on East Avenue. Then, making our way around some of the historic boundaries of Fayetteville, we will process down Dickson Street, down University and Gregg Avenues, along South Street, and up College Avenue before processing into the church for Holy Eucharist. Along the way, we will pray for entrepreneurs, farmers, educators, scientists, restaurant employees, healthcare workers, and public officials. We will ask God to bless our land, commerce, industry, and leisure. We will hold up to God the needs of the entire community and ask God to grant health, peace, and prosperity to all our neighbors.
Even if our denomination is not established and intermixed with government the way the Church of England is, the parochial system from which our church descends gives us a sense that we are a church for the whole community. We believe that our fundamental identity as people made in God’s image and redeemed through the incarnation of God’s Son is something we share with all human beings regardless of their religious persuasion. Because of Jesus Christ, we believe that God loves all people and has reconciled the whole world to Godself.
In a world filled with sectarian divisions and political strife, that truth can be hard to see, but on Saturday we have the opportunity to pursue it with every step we take and every prayer we offer. If you cannot join us for the rogation procession, consider coming to the church for the concluding Eucharist when we return, which should be around 10:30 a.m.. If you are unable to worship with us in person this Saturday, consider setting aside some time that day to pray for our community—not only the people whom you know and love but all the people whom God knows and loves. Only when we recognize the breadth of God’s love for all people can we know the power of God’s love for ourselves.
Yours faithfully,
Evan D. Garner