CCC outside our walls -- Noonday Prayer at One Met Square

Today at 12:05 pm, as I do every Wednesday, I led a brief noonday prayer service on the ground floor of One Metropolitan Square. It's a 10-minute service adapted from our Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. It includes a psalm, a Gospel reading with a two-minute silent meditation on a question I pose after the reading (today we used the parable of the mustard seed from Mark, and I invited people to ask Christ to make them receptive to God's word taking root in their heart and great things coming from it), the Lord's Prayer and a time for open intercession, prayer and praise.

We've been doing the service for more than a year now. The group that comes is fairly small (12-15 regulars, average weekly attendance is usually around 6-11) and fairly diverse (from a law partner and lawyers to a maintenance man and one of the guys who shines shoes in the lobby). During Lent we get more people. During the summer, fewer.

I began the service at the suggestion and with the help of Jack Danforth, after a conversation we had about how Christ Church Cathedral could be more of a presence downtown for those who work here. And if that is the goal, it has in some ways worked. I ... and through me, Christ Church Cathedral ... now have a relationship with Bryan Cave, a law firm that is the largest tenant in the building. When they needed someone to lead a memorial service for a former partner a few months ago, they were able to call on me and I was able to help them put something together and lead it. That's a good thing. That's Christ Church Cathedral being a spiritual resource.

But the real value of this little prayer service is how it is deepening the faith of the people who come. They talk about how it has made a big difference even taking 10 minutes in the middle of the week. A small group of us now have lunch once a month after the service and talk about our prayer lives and our common effort to adopt a habit of daily Bible reading. Today, one of our regulars stopped me on the way out and excitedly asked me some questions about something he had been reading in the Gospel of Matthew. He was reading the Bible... and it was getting him excited. You just can't beat that!
 
None of these people are "Cathedral members" and only a couple are Episcopalians. Almost all of them are members of some community of faith ... and this isn't about trying to get them to leave those communities and come to the Cathedral on Sunday.  But it is about the mission of the Church writ large. This is about "restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ." And even on those Wednesdays when it has been only me and one other person, I walk out of there knowing that we have been the church downtown ... and I've gotta believe God is smiling.

If you're downtown on a Wednesday at 12:05, come on by. We're in the Old Kemoll's restaurant space on the first floor of OMS (Broadway and Olive). It's Christ Church Cathedral outside our walls. And I hope it's only the beginning.

What do you think? What do you think of this outreach? What else could/should we be doing? Is there any outreach to downtown that you'd like to help with?

Basic Discipleship II - Worship

We are finishing our second round of Back to Basics classes at Christ Church Cathedral. Basic Discipleship is the lynchpin course -- during the five weeks we learn about and experience the spiritual practices of prayer, worship, learning, serving and giving -- and build a community of support and accountability for integrating them into our lives. For each week of the class, I'm posting a very truncated summation of the ideas we discussed and the homework given. It's not meant to be a substitute for the class ... but I hope it will whet your appetite.

Opening Prayer -  Quiet our minds, O God, and gladden our hearts; that, as we come together to worship you, we may be open to your presence and find that this place is the very gate of heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 Part I – Who Do You Say That I Am?

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. (Matthew 16:13-20)

The purpose of the church is to follow Jesus.

The five spiritual practices we are studying and embracing are about following Jesus. Following Jesus means getting to know Jesus and loving Jesus. Peter’s answer was – Jesus, you are my everything. That is really the answer we want God to grow inside us. That is one of the destinations of our pilgrimage.

If I asked you that question right now – Who do you say Jesus is -- we would probably have as many different answers as there are people in this room. And that’s absolutely what I would expect. This isn’t about learning to parrot the right answer. It’s asking the question that is critical -- the key is answering it honestly and asking Jesus to keep loving us and keep us growing toward him.

We then went into table groups to discuss the homework. What were people's experiences of setting up their prayer space, praying a minimum of 10 minutes a day, having one act of prayerful work a day. Initial challenges/benefits? What did you notice?

Part II - Worship 

Prayer is personal. Worship is corporate. Both are important.

People sometimes say, “I can go to church in my garden.” – no. you might PRAY in our garden, but unless you have some people over, you don’t worship in your garden. Even monks and nuns worship together.

Prayer is important – like sailors with celestial navigation it is that daily orienting ourselves toward God. Resting in your true identity as created in God’s image and beloved. Listening for God’s voice in your life. On a daily basis, placing God at the center.

Prayer is the individual centered on God. Worship is the whole community together centered on God.

Why is corporate worship important?

1) Jesus said it is. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, you will be in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) We believe in God as Trinity. Love is dynamic. Has to have an object. We don’t just pray as one because even God isn’t one. We come together in relationship because that’s how God came to us. Incarnational. Relational.

2) Because we are never Christians by ourselves. The basic unit of Christianity is never one. Even our God is three! We are the body of Christ not individually but together. (1 Corinthians 12:27). We gather for worship because it is not just about sustaining each of us as individuals but it is about sustaining us as the body of Christ. It is the meal and the conversation and all the nourishment that helps this body live.

3) Community provides a necessary orthodoxy. It makes it harder (though certainly not impossible) to make God in our image instead of acting more like we are made in God’s. A community of faith that has to come together around one table makes it much more difficult to have a theology of comfort where we take one from column A and one from column B. Communities can do this, too, though … which is why we need to be vigilant and prayerful and study and serve and give!

4) Scripture tells us God is revealed -when we center ourselves on God -when we give our lives away -through the people we would least expect, usually not people of our choosing. Worship is a place where that happens.

5) Worship has a motion of gathering and sending. It mirrors the life we are to lead. In the Pentecost Gospel. Jesus comes among them, gathers them, then breathes holy spirit on them and sends them out “as the Father has sent me so I send you.”

Look at what happens in worship. We gather as a community and lay our lives together on the table with Christ. Then those lives get mixed up with one another and Christ's life and become something new. We each receive that new life and then we become something new -- we BECOME the Body of Christ. We are more than just ourselves. There is a piece of everyone else in us and also there is Christ in us. And then the deacon sends us out into the world to love and serve in Jesus' name. That's the motion of the Eucharist and our lives -- gather and lay our lives on the table ... be sent and go into the world and serve and give.

6) Worship includes prayer but worship is not just prayer. Good worship will be prayerful. Good worship will connect you both to the Christ in each other and to the Christ outside us. It's not just "me and Jesus time" but there is a personal experience. Good worship has horizontal and vertical elements.

7) Changing behaviors is the hardest thing to do. Need communities of support and accountability. We do as a group what we do as individuals – offer our lives to God.

It is rare to have conversations about liturgy that are not about personal preference ...  but that is exactly what we need to do. Worship is not about a personal religious experience. That may happen, but it's not the point. Worship is about a communal centering in Christ and experience of Christ ... and also the community creating an offering of love of beauty for God.

It's incredibly difficult to embrace worship as communal when we don't have a practice of daily prayer. Most people look to worship to fill the prayer need because they don't have the daily habit ... and that's where most fights over liturgy happen, because we're worried about what "feeds me" instead of what helps make us the Body of Christ.

I heard Archbishop Rowan Williams give a lecture on the Body of Christ. He said we lay our lives on the table together. When we do that and when we receive the Eucharist we have to have peripheral vision. We have to see that it isn't just me being fed but people on either side of me are, too ... and we need to ask ourselves "how is my life that I am laying on the table tied up with that life over there?How are we offering a common life? How can I help them offer that? How can I be a part of that person being fed?

We then went down to the altar in the sanctuary. Everyone had brought a small symbol that represented something they were going through in their life right now. We took turns explaining the object and laying it on the table. Then we had Eucharist, blessing not just the bread and the wine but ourselves ... those lives we had laid on the table. We gave each other communion and affirmed that all we had shared was now a life we share. And we now know a little better how to pray for one another, how to love one another, and how to be the Body of Christ together. 

Homework

*10 minutes a day of prayer – focus on question “Jesus, who are you?” Use the confession of Peter reading from Matthew as a focus if you like. But concentrate on listening.

*Prayerful work each day.

*New prayer partner. Check in Tuesday and Saturday.

*One hour of worship a week. (Sunday is the easiest!)

 

Basic Discipleship I - Intro & Pray

We are finishing our second round of Back to Basics classes at Christ Church Cathedral. Basic Discipleship is the lynchpin course -- during the five weeks we learn about and experience the spiritual practices of prayer, worship, learning, serving and giving -- and build a community of support and accountability for integrating them into our lives. For each week of the class, I'm going to post a very truncated summation of the ideas we discussed and the homework given. It's not meant to be a substitute for the class ... but I hope it will whet your appetite.


I'm thinking of offering Basic Discipleship twice a year. Let me know if that is something you'd be interested in. And if you would EVER like to talk more with me about any of this PLEASE DO! I would LOVE it!

As Christians, we have an image of who God dreams for us to be. It’s best encapsulated in Jesus’ words in John 10:10. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” and later, in Jesus final prayer with his disciples, he says, “And this is eternal (abundant) life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

God’s dream for us is zoe, it is life that is rich and deep and overflowing in every direction. And that kind of life is the life of deeply, intimately knowing God, and our path to knowing God is the path of Jesus. Discipleship … following Christ having a life that is deep and rich and overflowing in all directions. And it is that deep and that rich because why? Because we are growing closer and closer and more and more intimate in relationship with God in Christ. Because step by step, little by little, our lives are being moved in line with the life of God.

The root of “discipleship” is “discipline.” It is habits. Our habits shape who we are and who we are becoming. Some of the hardest things to do are to eliminate bad old habits and establish new good habits. The best chance a habit has of being quit or developed is if you have relationships of support and accountability. The primary reason the church exists is discipleship, is changing our lives Godward so we can live these incredibly abundant, zoe lives. And we do it together, in relationships of support and accountability.

That’s what Basic Discipleship is. It is about us as a group looking at the “holy habits” that, over time, will draw us deeper into the heart of God and will bring deep joy to our lives.

So what are they? Pray. Worship. Learn. Serve. Give.

A good way to frame these scripturally is to look at the summary of the law in Matthew.

A lawyer asked Jesus a question, to test him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law.” Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. 

If you were in basic Bible or Basic Christianity, you’ll recognize the first one. Original sin is putting anything in the place of God. God is at the center, not us, not anyone or anything else. A life in response to God being at the center is a life lived as God incarnate, as Jesus, lived – a life given away for the sake of the world … love your neighbor as yourself.

These five “holy habits” or disciplines are about doing this.

Pray and Worship – putting God at the center

Serve and Give – living and loving as Christ, giving your life away for the sake of the world.

Learn – the hinge. It infuses everything. We learn from not just studying but from everything we do. It’s the Benedictine idea of seeing all of life as theological text. Looking at the ordinary and seeing the extraordinary. You can learn about God from the text of a book but also from the text of washing dishes or playing with your child. Learning is about intentionality.

In this class, we’ll take one a week and dive in depth. We’ll also look at how we can support each other and hold each other accountable. At the end people in the class will have the opportunity to form discipleship groups that will continue this.

Prayer (everyone was sent into small groups – what is your experience of prayer. Be honest. What has been wonderful. What has been frustrating. Back to large group to share. )

BCP definition – Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.

Responding to God - God starts the conversation by breathing life into us in creation.

By thought and deed - not just traditional prayer but prayerful work, work as a love offering.

With or without words - this is the "sighs too deep for words" that Paul writes about in Romans.

This is not only how our part of prayer works but how God’s does .. by thought and deed, with or without words.

We're going to look at two types of prayer -- Focused Prayer and Prayerful Work. Each one can be talked about in terms of relationship.

Focused prayer. Time with no purpose or intention other than being with God. Sailors used celestial navigation, charting their course by the north star. But to do that they would need to continually be checking that star. Prayer is celestial navigation. It is intentionally taking the time to focus on God. Relationships need deeply intentional tending. They need focus.

What can spending this time together look like? It can be silent prayer. Using a form from the prayer book. Petition. Using the Daily office readings. Journaling. Just sitting in God’s presence saying “thank you” or “I love you.” Whatever you choose will feel strange at first, so don’t let that throw you. This is about getting in habit.

Prayerful work. Prayerful work is prayer in action not word. It is taking a task and viewing it as an offering of love.  Prayer can be offering the simplest most mundane task to God as a love offering. Very Benedictine. Worshipful work. Prayerful work.
 
Homework! - Begin a discipline of two types of prayer. Start small. Because we are creatures of habit who are highly influenced by our natural rhythms, our environment and our relationships, we need three things to make this work:

*A Time
*A Space
*Relationships of Support and Accountability.

Part I: Find or create a prayer space in your home or workspace. Try to make it a space you use for nothing else so that when you go there you are naturally drawn to prayer. Don’t make it your bed or your favorite napping chair. Make it a place where when you are there you are naturally drawn to prayer. By next week have that place chosen, if not perfected.

Part II: Spend 10 minutes a day in prayer. It can be silent prayer. Using a form from the prayer book. Petition. Using the Daily office readings. Journaling. Just sitting in God’s presence saying “thank you” or “I love you.” Whatever you choose will feel strange at first, so don’t let that throw you. This is about getting in habit. See handout for helps. 

Part III: Once a day pick one activity – the simpler and more mundane the better – and do it solely as a love offering to God. It can be washing your hair or brushing your teeth. It can be doing the dishes. It can be anything. What matters is the intentional adoration you cultivate and offer while doing it.

Part IV: Draw a name from the basket. That is your prayer partner for this week. Pray for them every day. Then twice a week – on Saturday and on Monday - phone them, remind them that you have been praying for them and ask them if they have chosen their prayer space, if they’ve been spending 10 minutes a day in prayer and if they’ve been doing their prayerful work. If the answer is no, ask “how can I help you say yes the next time I ask you?” I’ll be sending out email reminders Saturday and Monday morning to remind you to do this. The idea is that knowing this person will be calling will be part of the incentive to start and maintain the habit. But it is support and accountability, not shame and accountability, hence the “how can I help?”

A Charter School in the BTM? Why, What and When.

This afternoon, I gave a tour of the Bishop Tuttle Memorial Building to members of the board and a prospective head of school for Lafayette Preparatory Academy. Last week, Cathedral wardens Bob Schleipmand and Tom Edelmann and I sat down with Matt O'Leary, chair of the LPA Board real estate committee, and began to construct a framework for a building use agreement for this start-up charter school to incubate in the BTM starting in summer, 2013. These conversations have been going on for several months and have included a detailed presentation made by Matt to Chapter two months ago. While nothing is signed and the arrangement is far from finalized (see below), I am extremely hopeful about this developing relationship and want to make sure we are communicating clearly about what is happening before we go further ... and also invite your thoughts and conversation.

Why host a charter school?
Our prayer book reminds us that as Christ's church, we never exist for ourselves but always "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ." (BCP, p. 855) I can think of at least three big reasons why us being the incubator of Lafayette Preparatory Academy fits that mission.

1)  If we are to bring people to God in Christ and bring Christ's love to the world, we need to be in relationship with the world. -  In last Sunday's Gospel, we heard Jesus pray that his disciples might be in the world but not of it. LPA coming to our facility would exponentially increase not only the foot traffic in Christ Church Cathedral but the awareness of the Cathedral in the local landscape. That alone won't bring people into our worshiping and missional community, but it's a big first step.

2) Education is a huge ministry need and reconciliation opportunity in St. Louis ... particularly downtown  Public education has been in crisis in St. Louis City for years. LPA is taking on a particularly challenging task ... starting a school that from the start is dedicated to gathering a community of children that cross racial and economic divides. Our support of LPA is support of bringing love and reconciliation to a world whom Christ loves.

3) Christ Church Cathedral cannot survive on its own ... thank God! - We have a $70,000 deficit that we can sustain for no more than three years. I don't think that's bad news. I think that's a clarion call for action, and our relationship with LPA can be part of it. We need to take our own stewardship of this Cathedral seriously, but we also need to know that we cannot survive unless we form symbiotic relationships that are congruent with our mission with the city and neighborhood around us.

If this happens, when will LPA be using the space?
LPA is exploring a two-year arrangement. The 2013-14 school year they will have Kindergarten and first grade. From 2014-15 it will be K-2. They would move to a larger facility for the 2015-16 school year.

What space will be used? How will it be changed?
Nothing is finalized, but what is on the table right now is the 2nd floor Christian Education space being the primary classroom space, with the four classrooms on the East wall being converted to two larger classrooms and the Christian Education "office" being changed into a second bathroom.  Schuyler Hall would be used as whole-school meeting space and a lunchroom. The fifth floor offices would be used as school administrative offices and the former bookstore space on the ground floor would be the school front office. Letmar Hall would potentially be used as specialty classroom space in a way that suits the space (e.g. for art and music) but would still be usable by the choir. The gym would also be used for physical education.

The Property Committee, Canon Partridge, and the Sunday School teachers and parents will be consulted as changes are made so that our use of the space is impacted as little as possible. The Cathedral will not be responsible for any expenses and will retain veto power over all changes  up to and including paint color. All spaces currently available on Sundays will continue to be available on Sundays.

What are the financial arrangements and how will it be approved?
The wardens and I are currently working with LPA on a structure for a Common Area Maintenance agreement, in which LPA will pay a percentage of our utility, insurance, security and other expenses based on a percentage of square feet used/time used basis. The final agreement will likely be backloaded to the second year of the contract because the school's state funding is awarded at the end of the first year (e.g. year 1 - 10% of CAM, year 2 - 190% of CAM). At no time will CCC pay out of pocket expenses or be responsible for use or fee increases.

Any final contract must be approved by the LPA board, Chapter and the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Missouri ... as well as be vetted by the diocesan chancellor.

Why is this important for Christ Church Cathedral?
Pretty much answered that above! As I preached two Sundays ago, whatever Christian values we discern that God is calling us to embody, I am convinced it will be a life lived not for ourselves but for the world ... because that's what the Gospel clearly states.

What do you think?
What do you think of having a charter school use the BTM? What opportunities about this excite you? Are there concerns you have? What other opportunities can you imagine for us to engage the world and let the world engage us?

Studying alcohol use at Christ Church Cathedral -- Why this? Why us? What is this? Why now?

Thursday night, Chapter unanimously voted to engage in six hours of education (two of which will be offered to the entire Cathedral) on "the evidences and impact of alcohol use on congregational life and leadership." The training will be led by the Rev. Dale Kuhn, executive director of Care and Counseling.

I imagine there are at least four questions that come to mind:

Why this? Why us? What is this?  Why now?

Why this?

The simple answer is that as the Body of Christ, we are called to be concerned with the health of each and every member and of the entire body. Approximately 15% (or more than 1 in 7) Americans have a problem with alcohol. 

But that in itself isn't the whole answer. Why not smoking or obesity? Why alcohol? Two reasons:

*In Chapter's discussion of the diocesan alcohol policy and our affirmation that our goal was not prohibition but a "healthy relationship with alcohol," stories surfaced of instances where congregational leaders had showed up to serve at the altar or work on a committee or project impaired by alcohol. We agreed that we needed to equip ourselves and the Cathedral at large with how to respond to these situations lovingly and in ways that promote health and healing.

*As we (specifically the Dean, Vicar, senior warden Bob Schleipman and junior warden Tom Edelmann) explored this further with people at Care and Counseling, we were educated and reminded about the powerful effects alcohol and substance abuse has on family systems -- and both the Cathedral and the Diocese are family systems. I hope you'll take five minutes and read an excellent short article by Bishop Chilton Knudsen on alcohol abuse and church systems here -- this will say much better than I what we are talking about ... and why it's important for us to be as aware, educated and equipped as possible.

Why us?

On one level, the answer is: "Why not us?"  Every congregation could benefit from this. But there are several reasons why it's particularly good for us to engage in this:

*St. Louis is a brewery town and alcohol is a big part of our culture. If we are to not only be healthy but minister in this community, we need to be educated about its effects.'

*Alcohol use has been a big part of the culture at Christ Church Cathedral ... so we need to know as much as possible so we can make sure our relationship with alcohol is a healthy one.

*We are the mother church of the diocese ... a diocese that within the past 20 years has had a bishop undergo treatment for alcohol abuse while in office. This is an issue here not just for CCC but for the whole diocese ... and as the Cathedral we have an opportunity and obligation to be leaders in engaging it in a healthy manner.

What is this?

Chapter has approved a three-part process.

1) Engage the Chapter in two two-hour conversations about the impact of alcohol abuse on cognitive functioning and judgment.

2) Offer two Sunday morning one-hour seminars to members of the congregation on the impact of alcohol abuse on family and system dynamics -- exploring, for example, the rules of "Do not talk, trust, and feel."

3) Assist in the development of a "graceful no-tolerance" policy for the parish and its leaders (estimate two hours)

There are three goals for outcomes:

1) An increased comfort level about talking about the role of alcohol and family systems.

2) An agreed on strategy on how to respond to those whose use of alcohol interferes with parish life.

3) An opportunity for leadership to establish standards for the acceptable use of alcohol at Cathedral functions.

The Bishop supports us in this and, in fact, believes so much in the benefits of this work not just for the Cathedral but -- particularly through educating diocesan reps on Chapter -- for other congregations in the diocese, his office has agreed to pay the $600 fee for the training. 

Why now? 

Again, the simple answer is ... why not now? There really is no time like the present. But this is also an especially appropriate time to do this work. We are just beginning a broad-based visioning process to discern what our shared values are as a Cathedral ... what we believe God dreams for us to be about. That is a process of discernment and self-knowledge ... and we need to be aware of the effect that powerful things like alcohol and other addictive substances are having on us and be able to make informed, proactive decisions for the health of this part of the Body of Christ.

Why is this important for Christ Church Cathedral?

I've said it above. God dreams for us to live holy, healthy lives -- both as individuals and as the Body of Christ.  This is important both for our own health and also for our role as leaders in the diocese. It is part of building a strong foundation for the next century of Christ Church Cathedral and beyond.

What do you think?

What do you think about our engaging this and how we are going about it? What good things can you see coming out of it? What makes you nervous or anxious about it? This is a sensitive topic, and the internet is generally not a great medium for discussing sensitive topics ... so please come to me, Amy or any Chapter member and be in conversation with us about this in person. 

Letter to the Editor on "marriage equality" -- What and Why

Dear editor,

As a Christian and a U.S. citizen, I stand against the passage of Amendment One in North Carolina and in support of our President in his support of so-called "marriage equality."

Different faiths view marriage differently, but marriage is first and foremost a covenant of faith and has been for millennia. Marriage is not for the state to define. The state's job is to define what legal arrangements people can enter into and give equal access to them. As a citizen, I find Amendment One to be legislative over-reaching. As a Christian, I find it presumptuous and offensive.

For Christians, marriage is about a joining together in Christ, a sign of Christ's love to a broken world. Jesus spoke regularly about the quality of love to which we were called and not at all about the gender of the people involved. As a Christian, I believe particularly in an age where commitments are too often treated as suggestions, two people who are willing to stand before God and in the midst of their community and pledge to love one another as Christ has loved us until they are parted by death should be embraced, celebrated, and supported ... not rebuffed.

The Very Rev. Michael D. Kinman

Dean, Christ Church Cathedral

Tonight, I sent the preceding letter to the editors of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis American - whether it will ever see the light of day beyond this blogpost is anyone's guess. but I wanted to share it with you all and let you in on my process of deciding to write it.

Chapter is prayerfully wrestling with what the role of Christ Church Cathedral should be in political and social action. I am continually wrestling with a related but separate question ... the role of the Dean. And so, as I watched the statements of support of marriage equality pour in following the passage of Amendment One in North Carolina and President Obama's statement today, I wrestled with whether I should add my voice to the throng.

I was hesitant for several reasons:

*Because I believe the Church runs off the rails when we substitute a goal of being politically and socially relevant for our call to "restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ."(BCP, p. 855)

*Because it should go without saying that particularly in an age where commitments are treated as suggestions, two people who are willing to stand before God and in the midst of their community and pledge to love one another as Christ has loved us until they are parted by death should be embraced and celebrated, not rebuffed.

*Because it is not my experience that letters to the editor foster prayerful, learned, concerned dialogue ... something that is in short supply. Instead, it would likely elicit congratulations from people agree with me and vitriol from those who disagree with me.

Obviously, I overcame that hesitation, but I want to share with you why.

*This is about reconciling all people to God and each other in Christ. I said before that I would only be making statements "as the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral" if I believe there is a Gospel imperative at stake. It is clear to me that there is. Marriage is about a joining together in Christ. It is "a sign of Christ's love to this sinful and broken world." We need to be clear both the invitation and the support for incarnating that love is available to all.

And also ... we do need to defend our turf. As I said in the letter, marriage equality as a legal issue is a case of the state sticking its nose where it doesn't belong. We have enough work to do on marriage ourselves without the government muddying the waters.

*It should go without saying ... but of course nothing goes without saying. And particularly because many who are promoting things like Amendment One are using the name of Jesus and the language of our faith in their arguments, it is up to those of us who believe differently to say so clearly.

Neither of these things address my third hesitation, so let me just say I truly want to be in prayerful, learned, respectful dialogue with people who feel differently.  So if you feel differently out of fear, I want to help assure you that God's love is deep and broad and not scarce at all and you need not fear at all. If you feel differently out of honest faith, I want to listen together for God's wisdom that is beyond our own ... and maybe together find a way to be reconciled to one another in Christ and move forward together.

I have been blessed to have been mentored by two deeply faithful people -- Philip Turner and Ken Semon -- who believe differently from me in this area, and that is proof enough to me that people of deep faith who love Jesus can disagree and not have it be about hate or homophobia.

And as we prayerfully wrestle with our role as a Cathedral, it is my hope that Christ Church Cathedral can be a place where everyone knows they are welcome at the table and in the conversation. Where the rule of the community is prayerful, learned, respectful dialogue that seeks to dive into the mystery of God's wisdom and not just amplify our own. Where even if we decide we need to take a stand and proclaim what we believe to be Gospel truth ... that we take that stand with all humility, realizing that we follow one who found power not on a throne but on the cross.

The Cathedral as Piazza

This weekend, we welcomed Dean Tracey Lind of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland as our Flower Sunday preacher. On Saturday, in place of what used to be the Flower Festival, we invited clergy and lay leaders from around the diocese to spend time with Dean Lind in conversation around the vision that has shaped her Cathedral home - The Church as Piazza.

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?