by Rev. Dr. Judith Hoch Wray, Pastoral Associate, Park Avenue Christian Church, New York City
[Ed Note: At the General Assembly last July in Ft. Worth, GLAD sold books on welcome and inclusion to many visitors to the GLAD booth. Mark Johnston, GLAD's Communications Team Leader, pressed the book Radical Welcome into the hands of Judith Hoch Wray. The following article describes how Judith has taken the book to Park Avenue Christian Church in NYC. Radical Welcome is one of two books at the GLAD booth that were sold out before the Assembly ended. The book can be bought at the GLAD on-line bookstore.]
Park Avenue Christian Church, with the leadership of Alvin O’Neal Jackson, has accepted the challenge to reexamine its congregational life and ministry. "Open and Affirming" has defined the congregation for years. And now, with renewed openness to God’s Spirit working in our midst, the congregation’s leadership has chosen to embrace transformation [read: change] in order to move beyond simple "Open and Affirming" to be radically welcoming of all persons. That change is showing itself in new governance structures, more diverse worship, and a re-visioning of mission in New York City, in the Northeastern Region, and in the world.
Stephanie Spellers’ book, Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation (New York: Church Publishing, 2006) has been chosen as one tool to educate and support the congregation’s emerging identity and mission. Park Avenue Christian Church has ordered dozens of copies of the book, enough for each of the staff, the ministry council, the elders and the deacons to receive a copy. Retreats and study sessions are being planned so that these congregational leaders can study the book together.
Spellers writes:
Radical welcome is the spiritual practice of embracing and being changed by the gifts, presence, voices, and power of The Other. . . . Radical welcome is concerned with the transformation and opening of individual hearts, congregations and systems so that The Other might find in your community a warm place and a mutual embrace and so that you are finally free to embrace and be transformed by authentic relationship with the margins.
Many GLAD members have visited Park Avenue Christian Church and received a warm welcome. As always, you are invited and encouraged to visit, and even to join the PARK if you seek a place both for acceptance and for ministry. Just don’t expect church as usual. Expect change. Expect to be changed. Expect Gospel. Expect diversity. Expect radical welcome.
We are learning to expect God to be doing new things among us. Along the way, we are learning patience with each other, for this journey called transformation is hard. We are learning boldness—and joy. We believe the stories and theological reflection in Radical Welcome will help us find the way.
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