After a life of mostly not going to church, I began attending about five years ago on the first Sunday in Lent. I didn’t know much about the practices of the Episcopal church, but I had a friend who attended and tagged along one day (I also thought highly of it after the appointment of Gene Robinson). My husband and I had often discussed how we should go about getting that weekly spiritual structure that we both thought would help us better maintain our equanimity in the face of life’s annoyances. Every year, around New Year’s Day, we would have a similar conversation—“We should go to the Zen Center.” “Maybe we should check out the Baha’I temple.” But the months would go by and we just wouldn’t make it happen. And, one day, I just decided to try church.
I’ve never looked back.
In the context of a community, I had my spiritual center reset, contemplated things larger than myself, and resolved to be a better person. Whatever else is going on in my life, it never occurs to me to not be there on a Sunday morning because I have “something else to do.” What could be more important than coming together with a community of like- and not-like-minded people to reset my spiritual center, contemplate the larger questions of life, and resolve to be a better person? I really value the conversations that happen here every week.
That ultimately is why I give—because what I get out of coming to St. Cyprian’s is a gift I could never live up to, a debt I could never repay. I want those doors to be open and this place to be available for every person who needs that gift.
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