My Journey of Faith (with Janet Steele)

by Janet Steele

I was raised in a household which pretty much practiced cultural Christianity.  My dad was a lapsed Methodist and my mom was a lapsed Roman Catholic.  Dad did take my brother and me to church occasionally when we were kids.  We were baptized in the Methodist church.  As we grew older we pretty much stopped going to church.  The quiet voice of God, however, was still present in my life even though it did not result in formal church membership.  Once when I was about 11 or 12 years old I attended the Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe.  I was intrigued that the service was so very much like the Catholic mass I had attended with my mother's family when I was six. I really loved the beauty of these services even though I had no clue about what was happening in either. I think some seeds were sown at these two services.  Time passed, I graduated from high school and went to UNM.  In 1967 when I was a senior the Episcopal campus priest from Canterbury spoke at a sorority talk.  He was saying all kinds of things which piqued my interest. So I took him up on his offer to meet the next day.  That started my journey in the Episcopal church.  I was drawn to the intellectual understanding of Christianity that I heard preached. I liked that there was no set of rules or doctrine that had to be firmly believed and practiced.  I loved the liturgy and the changing seasons.  I liked that I could be and was accepted for who I was and what I believed.  I joined up!

I have stayed an Episcopalian for many of the same reasons that I joined.  I have come to have a much deeper and comprehensive understanding of the theology of both the Episcopal church and the wider church.  I have added a non intellectual understanding as well.  As I get older the contemplative side of our faith speaks more and more to me.  The Episcopal church is broad enough to include these experiences as well as the intellectual understanding of the faith.  The church is broad enough to include all kinds of understandings and doctrines.  We are left to figure it out for ourselves so that it makes good sense to us.  I love the liturgy more now than ever.  I love that the order of liturgy stays the same and gives us a framework which is present each time we do the Eucharist.  The words themselves and the music and the decorations and the place and the people may change but the order stays the same.  The meaning and intent stay the same.  This has allowed me to comfortably travel and live in different places and be a member of a church that stays the course.  I have grown to value and love the practice of inclusion in the church.  I was accepted the way I was...and I believe in accepting others where they are.  I am extremely happy that the Episcopal church offers the love of Christ to everyone even at the cost of losing members who could not bring themselves to include everyone in the full life and membership of the church.  I cannot see leaving the Episcopal church as part of my future.

Our Visit to the Mosque (by Warren Smith)

On Friday, December 11, 2015 a group of us from Canterbury attended services at the Islamic Center of Albuquerque. We were joined by representatives of other groups including the Center for Peace and Justice and St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church. The purpose of our visit was to show our support for the center and its Muslim congregation after a week in which a candidate for President of the U.S. called for a ban on all Muslims attempting to enter the United States. Those from Canterbury included Deacon Pat Masterman, Don Partridge, Susan Patrick, Anne McCormick, Sally Barlow, Anne Marie Werner-Smith, and myself (if I have omitted anyone else I apologize). We were impressed by the warmth of the reception and the sheer size of the congregation (about 400 people). Imam Shafi preached a powerful sermon on Islam as a loving religion which embraces outsiders. The Imam comes from Mombasa, Kenya, where Anne Marie and I have both taught, so we had an instant connection with him. We had a reception afterward at which lunch was served and we discussed our mutual wish to keep up a dialogue with one another. The Islamic Center has had a rough couple of weeks hearing criticism of Islam on the news media and they were very pleased to have our friendly visit. Let us pray that our friendship with them continues.

My Journey to the Episcopal Church (by Susan Patrick)

I came to the Episcopal Church because of a church job.  When I was taking organ lessons in college, I was offered as much practice time as I wanted in exchange for playing two Sunday services each week at a small chapel near the university, the home of the Canterbury Club.  Who could turn that down?  My Presbyterian family was strictly observant:  family devotions, church every week, Wednesday night family suppers at church, Sunday school for all ages, no-frill Sundays ( e. g., no movies or parties etc.).  My father was an elder, and the youth group was active.  Our church was large and dark, and services were traditionally built around a lengthy sermon.  Communion—silent and, as I saw it as a callow teenager, sad—occurred once a quarter:  tiny glasses of grape juice and cubes of bread passed by ushers down each row of pews.  As in many Protestant sects, religion was generally thought of as an individual, personal relationship with God, based at least partly on lists of dos and don’ts.  At the Episcopal chapel, in contrast, students made up the bulk of the congregation, and of course they weren’t forgoing movies and parties on Sunday!  Services were built around the Eucharist, which was part of the fabric of each Mass and was celebrated joyfully.  The focus was on corporate worship, and on discussion and argument rather than on rote learning.  I loved the liturgy and the music—the old Healey Willan stuff included.  Later, I learned how Richard Hooker’s three-legged stool and the via media have informed Anglican theology and history, and I came to believe that God is still speaking to us and acting through us, if only we’d pay attention.  I’m not denigrating my Presbyterian upbringing at all, but the freedom to disagree with other communicants while sharing the Eucharist attracted me and has kept me here.  I’m sure that part of the initial attraction was an excuse for gradually moving away from my family, and that the breakaway from my family’s church was just a part of the culture of the 1960s.  I trust, though, that the Episcopal Church has encouraged me grow into a more mature faith and hope that that process will continue.