This
morning, Trinity Sunday I was reminded once again of
your front
page letter of May 14. Here at Trinity
in Swedesboro, New Jersey, we celebrated the baptism
of three gorgeous babies, and welcomed 7 new households
to our small church who have joined us in the last
6 months or so. That's not including the 12 year
old who wandered in off the street a month ago and
has served as an acolyte the last two weeks, and
the Chinese woman who speaks no English but brings
her baby grand-niece with her, and the young man
recently returned from college who has decided it's
time to explore faith for himself.
About
a third of the congregation is new in the last 3
or 4 years; most of them are young families with
little or no experience of the church as adults.
They are often surprisingly generous, especially
for people who have never heard of pledging before,
and their enthusiasm is infectious. One parishioner
recently wrote to our local newspaper telling of
how welcome she and her family felt; as a result
three new families showed up Easter day, one of whose
babies was baptized today.
The
danger of course, is that we, like many churches,
are struggling for survival and so are tempted to
see these newcomers primarily as numbers on a page
or a solution to our budgetary woes. And so we have
to keep refocussing our attention on reaching out,
not just for survival, but because we as followers
of Christ are called to invite othrs to join us in
this journey of faith, to welcome everyone to life
in God.
I'm
not sure that we do anything particuarly unusual.
We have a 222-year-old building which doesn't lend
itself to powerpoint presentations (it does have
doors on the pews, which are useful for containing
young children!); we use the Book of Common Prayer
and mostly pretty traditional music. But I think
we do three things particualrly well. We have a couple
of parishioners who are wonderful at making people
welcome; we make good preaching a priority, connecting
faith and everyday life, and most of all, we love
kids. They are noisy and active, and they are at
the core of our life together. And it's great fun!
Raewynne
Whiteley
Trinity Episcopal "Old Swedes" Church
Swedesboro, NJ
vicar@trinityswedesboro.org
12 June 2006
