Pastoral Greetings in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

We are a welcome home for those who have been marginalized by the church. We are dedicated to our relationship with Christ Jesus our Lord.  

 
"So yet here you have an order for prayer much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old fathers." 

-From the Preface of the First Book of Common Prayer, 1549 

 We extend a welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, filthy rich or dirt poor. We extend a special welcome to those who are carrying newborns, skinny as a rail or could afford to lose a few pounds.

We welcome those who can sing like Andrea Bocelli or like myself, can’t carry a note in a bucket. We welcome those who are “just browsing”, just woke up or just got out of jail. We welcome those who have perfect attendance pins since they were a child and those who haven’t been in church since little Joey’s baptism. We welcome those who are straight or LGBTQ+.  We welcome those that are certain where they belong and those still searching. 

We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like “organized religion”, we’ve been there too.

We offer a special welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell, or because grandma is in town and wanted to go to church.

We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid or got lost in traffic and wound up here by mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts…and you! A hearty Christian welcome is extended to you!

WELCOME HOME

-The Rev. Fr. Justin L. Gates