Tracey described this vision of church as being "where the sacrament of the table meets the sacrament of the map." It is the idea of church as sacred public space.
Let me say that again. The church is sacred public space.
That's a big shift. Instead of the corporate business model of the church being our storefront -- marketed and controlled by us ... and in competition with others -- it is a more ancient and expansive model. We live as a house with our doors wide open. The focus is not on ourselves but always on the guest. We live to serve ... and who we serve in each person who comes through is Christ.
Like a piazza, the church at its best is a gathering place with a wide variety of activity. It is sacred space, so we set that boundary and we help the community enforce it together. But we are always looking at how we can give ourselves away.
In many ways, Tracey's vision is what we have been talking a lot about these past three years together ... about the Cathedral's historic role as community gathering place. It is learning to view our relationship with Christ Church Cathedral not as ownership but as stewardship. It's what I wrote about in March when I talked about our call to "Have Less and Be More."
As we spent time with Tracey and learned about the amazing ways this piazza ecclesiology has been incarnated in Cleveland, many connections started forming in my mind and heart:
*I thought of last Friday when Waller McGuire of the St. Louis Public Library took a group of us on a hard hat tour of the nearly-completed Central Library ... and then gathered us around a table and asked us (the St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent, the head of the Sheldon, a local developer, the head of the Shakespeare Festival, the program director of the Contemporary Art Museum and me) "how can we use this place to serve the community?" That's piazza thinking! We can be doing that, too!
*I thought of the women of Magdalene in Nashville who talked about the experience of being given a key to the house and being told "this is your home." The thought that someone would entrust them with something that precious and beautiful was life-changing and converting to them. How can we give everyone who walks through our door that same kind of experience of "this is your home" in a way that invites them to really own it, too ... and have it change their lives.
*I thought of the potential not just of the Cathedral and the BTM but of the entire city block on which we stand. What would it be like to do what Trinity did in Cleveland and literally create a Commons ... a community space where people of all sorts could come together and create great beauty and be a place of reconciliation for the whole city and region?
*I thought of the work our diocesan Chapter representatives are starting, going to all the people of the Diocese of Missouri and asking them to dream about what they think God wants Christ Church Cathedral to be ... a process that will be in tandem with the Cathedral congregation house meetings this summer that will ask our own congregation the same question. That's piazza thinking, too. Inviting others to take part in the work of defining us. Realizing that God's dreams for Christ Church Cathedral are not just dreams for those who come and sit in the chairs on Sunday morning.
Tracey talked about the Church as piazza as living into the truth that we are called to the Way of the Cross ... and that the cross is the great intersection of all humanity and all life. As the neighborhood around us wakens from its slumber and springs to life ... the Park Pacific, the Library, the Peabody, the SLU Law School, Washington Avenue, Library Park, Lucas Park ... God is gifting us with the opportunity to be the cross that the community stands at the foot of ... and sings and dances and argues and plays and discusses and heals at the foot of.
In Italy, the piazza is the center of the city ... the place everyone knows to gather when something is happening. That sounds a lot to me like what God is dreaming for Christ Church Cathedral.
What does this mean for Christ Church Cathedral?
It could mean everything. 2012 is a year of discerning our shared, core values ... discerning what God dreams for us. In the next month, if you're a member of the Cathedral congregation, you'll be given the opportunity to sign up for house gatherings to have this conversation. If you're an Episcopalian in another part of the diocese, you can click here and answer a brief survey that will let you dream along with us. If you're a part of the St. Louis region, it means dreaming with us about how our Cathedral, the BTM and even the whole city block might come alive to serve the people of God downtown.
What do you think?
What do you think of the idea of Church as Piazza or Cathedral as gathering place? It's a model that, like Christ himself, is predicated on giving away power? What excites you and frightens you about that? What groups or organizations in the city should we be reaching out to for a gathering like what the Central Library did? What big dreams do you think God might be dreaming for us as we approach our 200th year?
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