by Rev Pressley Sutherland

We are living in a time of great exile. Our churches and many faith communities feel like agents of exile and suffering to many, many people. I don’t know about you, but when I anticipate some of the conversations at the upcoming Anglican Lambeth Conference, the recent Bishop’s conference in Jerusalem, and many other authoritative religious gatherings, there is a tightening in my gut, an involuntary physical reflex against the lateral violence we are likely to experience against open and affirming faith communities. Some people may tell fairytales about God, characterising dividing from Christians who believe in an inclusive communion as a righteous thing to do. From Jerusalem, there are reports of fresh calls for churches to forbid the attendance of lgbt people at services (and by extension our friends, families and allies). The seed of suffering has been sown deeply into our religions. I love the Way of Christ. I love faith communities. But we must be honest. Our ways of viewing the world and ‘others’ around us are often fear-based and uninformed.

We have an opportunity to honestly consider becoming the churches that our communities dream might exist. It has been said that everyone has a garden in their heart----I believe everyone has a faith community there as well.  It is not our primary task to uphold tradition, especially when community traditions alienate and create the conditions of exile. Rather our task is to embrace the graceful wind of the Spirit moving in ever widening circles. In each religion and denomination, there are remarkable people responding to this task with courage, creativity and enthusiasm.

Still, many of us have had little recourse but to leave faith communities, churches, mosques, synagogues and ashrams behind. In the best way we can, we try to find spiritual answers and practices which remain primarily personal and individualistic. While this quest is a good one, in my own journey time and again I realise that my body, spirit, and mind are designed to be deeply relational. I can remain a stoic island for only so long before I become increasingly isolated and lonely within myself. Christ taught us that he is most present when we gather with someone else—bridging the gaps, learning and listening, seeking God among us instead of trying to prove that our individualistic understanding should be the universal standard. We can find rightness in relationship, and this is where the miracles of love beyond understanding can astound us.

In MCC, there was a time when we were perhaps defined by our past experiences of exile and suffering around gender and sexuality. While this remains a reality for many people, I believe that God has moved us on to meet the challenge of being the church that many people of all sexualities and genders dream exists. People want to find places where we can emerge from the survival mode of individualistic spirituality and bring the wisdom we have gleaned into community--engaging one another and the ancients with confidence and grace. If we hold to this vision in action and heart, we will create spiritual communities in which we might not only survive, but thrive and move from strength to strength together.

Jesus said the time is coming when the lateral violence and prejudices dividing us as spiritual people will no longer exist. In Christ, we are assured that soon people will know they are in God’s presence when they choose to worship together in Spirit and in Truth. Perhaps this prophecy from nearly 2500 years ago remains our charge and promise today:

 "If you get rid of unfair practices,
   quit blaming victims,
   quit gossiping about other people's sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
   and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
   your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
   I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
   firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden,
   a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
   rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything,
   restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
   make the community liveable again.”

Isaiah 58.9-12 (The Message)

*Excerpts from a sermon given at MCC South London, UK. 6 July 2008.

By Rev Pressley Sutherland

Pressley accepted in June 2008 the call of Good Hope MCC to serve as a senior pastor.