I am obsessed with doorways.
Thresholds consume my imagination.
What does it take to cross through a portal into a new experience, a new
community, and new way of living?
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| Our front doors. Photo: Lucy Baber Photography |
If you are a gay, lesbian, or transgendered person, or a
person of color in a predominately white church, the stakes are even more
intense. Is this community homophobic
and hateful? Will the words and the
looks sting and hurt and raise my anger when I am looking for solace and
connection to God? Is the community
racist and exclusionary in behavior and in culture? Is my culture and my person respected here?
I call this response, threshold anxiety. A focus of my ministry is to decrease this
anxious experience as much as possible.
I want people to immediately feel welcome, acceptance, curiosity, and
kindness when they enter our space. We
need to send clear signals that each person is a delight and an addition to the
goodness of our community. Why? Because, however imperfectly, we represent a
God who delights in all Her children and has room for all at Her table.
Concretely, our buildings send signals. Are there signs directing newcomers or is the
building indecipherable and poorly lit.
The latter state of affairs sends a message that says, “We are not
expecting you and we are not going to make life easy for you here.”
Our buildings must communicate to all people that we are
expecting their arrival and have a space in our web of relationships prepared
for them. For example, when we designed
the rehab of the first floor of Hilary House, we chose a front door with a
glass window in it. Solid doors obscure
what lies within. Glass in a door sends
a message of welcome and gives the reassurance that whatever is behind that
door is accessible, open, and transparent.
Most shops – except those that wish to communicate exclusivity- have
glass doors for exactly this reason.
I told you that I am obsessed with doors.
Over the next few years we will continue to work on our
thresholds both physically and spiritually.
The vestry is working hard on the design and funding for an access ramp
for people in wheelchairs, those who use walkers, and young families with
strollers so the church will be more welcoming. We will also make the door to the Parish
House fully accessible and add glass to make it less foreboding and more
embracing. By the time we are done with
this phase and the work at Hilary House about 65% of the facility will be fully
accessible. Not enough, but progress.
Spiritually we need to remember that the word “catholic”
means “embracing.” As a Church in the
Anglican Catholic tradition we embrace God’s creation in every facet finding
sparks of God’s light and grace wherever we go.
Thus, our buildings and our spirits must strive to be equally
embracing. We will continue to build on
our Anti-Racism training (all the staff and the vestry attend this training!)
so that we have the knowledge and skills to dismantle racism at St. Martin's and
to work across significant divides of race without further aggravating the
hurts and grievances of historic racism.
Our mission statement says we exist to “Welcome All Seekers,” and the good news is that we are receiving much positive feedback from newcomers who call us friendly, warm, and
welcoming. Our website, yet another
modern threshold, is also telling, we are told, a welcoming story for families
approaching us electronically. May these
words motivate us to be obsessed by thresholds and empathetic to all with the
courage to cross. Each newcomer is God’s
delight and God’s gift. Our spiritual
work is to make room and make welcome.
- The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
