Goathland, North Yorkshire, England
Sunday proved to be a most interesting day. In my life to this point, religion has played many roles bringing both high and low points into it. The last few years I have pretty much railed against organized religion because of the hatefulness displayed by most of its practitioners here in the US. The God, Great Spirit, Life Force, Higher Power, whatever you want to call it of whom I learned as a child bore no resemblance to the condemnation and self righteousness proclaimed from many a pulpit and embodied in many of the "great" leaders of modern day religion. I still considered myself spiritual as I held desperately to the hope my belief in the loving spirit I came to believe in as a child really did exist. Many times in the past few years I have proclaimed my believer to be broken as every time I came in contact with a religious organization, I received condemnation, exclusion and disdain as the message from the ones purporting to walk in the Spirit doing the work of the Lord. To say I viewed my planned excursion to the Open Door Community with some degree of skepticism would be somewhat of an understatement. I have attended other "Gay Churches" and have usually found them to be somewhat in the vein of main stream churches in their cliquishness and focus on the collection of money to do "God's work". I realize that it does take money to run any organization, but I also believe in giving from the heart not being required to pay for religious services. All that being said, I found the experience of my visit to the Open Door Community surprising in many ways.
The sign on the front of the building reads Open Door Community Church, however the word church holds so many evil connotations in my mind I prefer to think of it as a spiritual center rather than a church. While surely it conforms in most aspects to a church in that it has a sanctuary/fellowship hall, a pastor and congregation, the Open Door Community is more than the sum of its parts. The congregation is diverse in its makeup from all parts of population, Gays, Lesbians, Straights, black and white, adults , youth and children. Long haired hippie folk, business types, the scruffy and the stylish, mothers and fathers and quite a few grandparents too. Yet the common bond among them was the inclusiveness with which they joined together in a common purpose. To wit the fellowship of a common belief and the celebration of that belief in song and sermon, fellowship and feasting. It is not a mega church by any stretch of the imagination, being a small church in the small town of Sherwood just north ofNLR . I did find my self enveloped in a sense of peace and surrounded by an atmosphere of loving kindness of which I had not experienced inside the doors of a religious organization in many a year. The first clue this was not your typical church was the visual impact of the sanctuary/fellowship hall itself. Most churches have the stark white walls and a more or less imposing podium or alter. Open Door's sanctuary has deep lavender walls with a podium just one step up from the rest of the floor. At the back of the podium is a large but simple rough hewed wooden cross. I knew immediately there might be something different to be found from the visual impact alone before I had met even one person in attendance.
I found the people to be welcoming and friendly, openly embracing one another in the spirit of fellowship. During the service itself they did something that I had never seen done before. As part of the celebration of Easter and the partaking of communion, they had a "Flowering of The Cross". The cross at the rear of the podium had been wrapped in chicken wire and in front of it were hundreds of fresh cut flowers brought by many different members of the congregation. As the celebrants crossed the podium to partake in the communion, each one picked up a flower and inserted it in the chicken wire surrounding the cross. When all of the congregation had partaken, the cross itself was bursting with color and life, symbolizing the resurrection in which they believed, no longer a symbol of death but a celebration of life. The sermon was given by a guest speaker by the name of Harold Ivan Smith of Kansas City based on the scripture in the Book of Acts where Peter resurrects Dorcas from the dead in Joppa. He was an excellent and entertaining speaker who delivered his message in a way which all could relate and understand. The music during the service was excellent and the entire experience was uplifting to my spirit despite my initial skepticism. After the service the sanctuary was quickly converted into a banquet hall complete with table cloths and center pieces in festive colors. The pot luck dinner brought by the membership was massive in proportion to the number of people and I think I hurt myself in the eating of it. Even if you just took a little bit of everything, it was way more than just a "normal" meal, truly a celebration feast. I did have some good conversations and met quite a few of the people there. I also found to my liking they do not take an offering during the service. There is an offering box by the door where you can contribute as the spirit moves you. While I may not be ready to thump the Bible on a street corner, I did find enough there to warrant another visit and perhaps even a joining of the congregation. That we will have to decide upon further investigation.
I do like the philosophy of the organization as stated in its Affirmation of Faith:
Upon my return to the hotel, I had to take a nap as I was really stuffed, in fact as I write this I am still full. I am sorta glad we did not visit the Razorback today as we would probably have sunk the boat having eaten so much. All in all a pleasant experience worthy of a repeat visit. I will close out now with the traditional eye candy as I know that a post without eye candy is like a day without sunshine. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
The sign on the front of the building reads Open Door Community Church, however the word church holds so many evil connotations in my mind I prefer to think of it as a spiritual center rather than a church. While surely it conforms in most aspects to a church in that it has a sanctuary/fellowship hall, a pastor and congregation, the Open Door Community is more than the sum of its parts. The congregation is diverse in its makeup from all parts of population, Gays, Lesbians, Straights, black and white, adults , youth and children. Long haired hippie folk, business types, the scruffy and the stylish, mothers and fathers and quite a few grandparents too. Yet the common bond among them was the inclusiveness with which they joined together in a common purpose. To wit the fellowship of a common belief and the celebration of that belief in song and sermon, fellowship and feasting. It is not a mega church by any stretch of the imagination, being a small church in the small town of Sherwood just north ofNLR . I did find my self enveloped in a sense of peace and surrounded by an atmosphere of loving kindness of which I had not experienced inside the doors of a religious organization in many a year. The first clue this was not your typical church was the visual impact of the sanctuary/fellowship hall itself. Most churches have the stark white walls and a more or less imposing podium or alter. Open Door's sanctuary has deep lavender walls with a podium just one step up from the rest of the floor. At the back of the podium is a large but simple rough hewed wooden cross. I knew immediately there might be something different to be found from the visual impact alone before I had met even one person in attendance.
I found the people to be welcoming and friendly, openly embracing one another in the spirit of fellowship. During the service itself they did something that I had never seen done before. As part of the celebration of Easter and the partaking of communion, they had a "Flowering of The Cross". The cross at the rear of the podium had been wrapped in chicken wire and in front of it were hundreds of fresh cut flowers brought by many different members of the congregation. As the celebrants crossed the podium to partake in the communion, each one picked up a flower and inserted it in the chicken wire surrounding the cross. When all of the congregation had partaken, the cross itself was bursting with color and life, symbolizing the resurrection in which they believed, no longer a symbol of death but a celebration of life. The sermon was given by a guest speaker by the name of Harold Ivan Smith of Kansas City based on the scripture in the Book of Acts where Peter resurrects Dorcas from the dead in Joppa. He was an excellent and entertaining speaker who delivered his message in a way which all could relate and understand. The music during the service was excellent and the entire experience was uplifting to my spirit despite my initial skepticism. After the service the sanctuary was quickly converted into a banquet hall complete with table cloths and center pieces in festive colors. The pot luck dinner brought by the membership was massive in proportion to the number of people and I think I hurt myself in the eating of it. Even if you just took a little bit of everything, it was way more than just a "normal" meal, truly a celebration feast. I did have some good conversations and met quite a few of the people there. I also found to my liking they do not take an offering during the service. There is an offering box by the door where you can contribute as the spirit moves you. While I may not be ready to thump the Bible on a street corner, I did find enough there to warrant another visit and perhaps even a joining of the congregation. That we will have to decide upon further investigation.
I do like the philosophy of the organization as stated in its Affirmation of Faith:
- We believe in God the creator of us all, whose desire for diversity is seen in the rainbow of humanity. With unrelenting passion God seeks to be in relationship with all of us.
- We believe in Jesus the Christ, who is the embodiment of God's redeeming grace; And in the Holy Spirit through whom that grace continues its restoring work.
- We believe in the Church. It is the body of Christ on the earth today. As ministers of this church, we are all called like Jesus, to heal, to deliver, to teach and to serve.
- We believe that together we can change the world, in our time and for all time, Amen!
- Love is our common ground. Love is our common ground. Love has no limits. Love has no bounds. Love is our common our common ground.
Upon my return to the hotel, I had to take a nap as I was really stuffed, in fact as I write this I am still full. I am sorta glad we did not visit the Razorback today as we would probably have sunk the boat having eaten so much. All in all a pleasant experience worthy of a repeat visit. I will close out now with the traditional eye candy as I know that a post without eye candy is like a day without sunshine. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
1 comment:
What a great and soulful experience. I pretty much share your views on what I refer to as the "commercial" religions, because of the bigotry towards gays, lesbians, folks of colour and so on. In a city the siz of mine, I should be able to find a similar congregation to the one you found. You have inspired me to look, because, like you, I still believe that I am deeply spiritual....just not religious.
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