Page 5 - Presbyterian Connection, Spring 2024

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SPRING 2024
Worship as Faithful Habit
By the Rev. Dr. Emily Bisset
While there is something shock- ing and immediate about encoun- tering God, many of us may not experience God in our lives quite in this way.
For many of us, God may come quietly into our lives, take up resi- dence in our routines and simply become a part of the very fabric of our existence. If that is true for you, you are probably in the habit of worship.
Most of the time, when we talk about habits in our culture, we talk about how to break bad habits. All of us have bad habits that we would like to overcome. Our lives are full of habits. A habit is anything that you do regularly that gives your life shape and
order. Some of those habits are unhelpful, like eating a big bowl of ice cream every night before bed. Some of those habits are helpful, like brushing your teeth before you leave the house in the morning. Behavioural scientists say that, on average, it takes 21 days to form a habit—helpful or unhelpful. And once you are in the habit of doing anything, it is much easier to keep on doing it.
A friend commented to me that it used to bother her when peo- ple in the church she was serving said, “I have just fallen out of the habit of worship.” She said she felt as though they were treating worship too lightly—as just a habit. And while, on one level, it is not desirable to go to church only because it is “something you just
do,” on another level, that is what worship is...and even should be. My father often says that if it
weren’t for my mother, he would probably never have gone to church much as an adult. He has a lot of questions about the church and the church’s teach- ing. But my mother insisted, and he agreed. He sings in the choir at church every Sunday. Because of that commitment, he probably goes to church more than the
average person—singing at two services on a Sunday sometimes or helping lead the worship ser- vice at the nursing home. He has been in the habit of going to our church for 30 years.
One night, we went out for a walk and got on the topic of God and church. He talked about still having lots of questions about faith. In fact, his questions and critiques of the church are as im- portant for shaping and deepening
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his faith as the things he enjoys and agrees with. But more than all that, he goes to church every week and listens and participates. And doing that has shaped his life. Just as we were coming back to the house, he said, “You know, I think I am being reached.”
Worship is a faithful habit that you can cultivate or lose. It is something you do every week. When you don’t go, you miss it. Someone said to me once, “I didn’t make it to church this week, and it makes the weeks in between feel so long.” But when you get in the habit of going to worship, it shapes your life, gives order to your week, and infuses your life with pattern and meaning. It’s a helpful habit. It is a life-giving hab- it. Because of that, one of the most impor tant things we can do for our children is take them to wor- ship. When worship becomes par t of the fabric of your life from the time you are very young, the habit tends to stick. And if it doesn’t and you wander away, old habits have a knack for returning.
How Do We Know We’re Being Inclusive?
By Carragh Erhardt, Program Coordinator, Sexuality and Inclusion
There is a conversation that of- ten arises in my work of helping congregations to become more inclusive of LGBTQI2+ people. “I think my congregation is in- clusive, but it hasn’t been tested. How can we know if we’re fully LGBTQI2+ inclusive?”
This is a great question, and to answer it, I find that it’s helpful to star t by exploring what we mean by the word inclusion. Many peo- ple hear “full inclusion,” and their first thought goes to policies about marriage and ordination that allow for same-sex marriage and for openly LGBTQI2+ people to serve as ministers and elders. Marriage and ordination are impor tant as- pects of the church’s ministry, and it is good for Sessions to clearly communicate their policies about these matters within their congre- gation and their wider community. However, these are only two of the ways that the church’s ministry in- teracts with the lives of people in our congregations and our wider communities.
Lily Zheng, a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion expert, defines in- clusion as, “The achievement of an environment that all stakehold- ers, especially underserved and
marginalized populations, trust to be respectful and accountable. Inclusion is achieved through ac- tions that explicitly counter pre- sent-day and historical inequities and meet the unique needs of all populations.”1
This definition, while being specific about qualities like trust, respect, accountability and inten- tional actions, is broad in terms of identities. Lily understands that inclusive organizations recognize and meet the unique needs of eve- ryone they intend to serve. Some of those needs might seemingly compete, but Lily believes that it is worthwhile and possible to come up with solutions where everyone benefits.
Lily’s definition of inclusion re- minds me of what one of our sub- ordinate standards, Living Faith, has to say about how we under- stand love. Living Faith describes God’s love as a source by which we are nurtured daily—a warm and gentle compassion. We re- spond to the love of God, who is love, by loving in return. Love is the service of others; it is the road to Christian maturity and is the way of seeing others as God sees them. Love follows the example of Jesus Christ.
Respect reflects due regard or care for the feelings, wishes, needs and rights of others. In
Living Faith, we profess that jus- tice—which follows the section on love—involves protecting the rights of others. Accountability means taking responsibility for the impacts of a person’s actions. As Christians, we know that when we cause pain or harm, accountability involves a process of repentance, restoration and making amends. Christian expressions of love ne- cessitate respect for and account- ability to all our neighbours.
To ask whether a congregation is LGBTQI2+ inclusive is to ask whether it has created an environ- ment that all stakeholders of all genders and sexual orientations, especially LGBTQI2+ people, trust to be respectful and ac- countable. You might ask: Are we meeting the unique needs of gay people in our community? How about the needs of transgender people? Likewise, are we meet- ing the unique needs of straight and cisgender people? Are we meeting the needs of people who are single as well as people who have children? These identities and life circumstances influence what each of us needs at different times in our faith journeys.
It may seem impossible to meet the variety of needs present in a church community. The work of in- clusion is not to achieve all of this overnight. It is an ever-evolving
process that varies depending on the context. There are steps that all congregations may take, regard- less of their policy on same-sex marriage. Inclusion work requires asking lots of questions, and tak- ing great care in the discernment of what we may need to change to better serve our communities. This work can involve uncomfortable conversations and challenge us to reconsider aspects of ministry that we thought were working just fine. It can also draw us closer to God and one another, help us imagine new possibilities and
strengthen our faith.
Congregations seeking assis- tance on how to become more inclusive of LGBTQI2+ people can contact Carragh Erhardt for conversations, speaking engage- ments and help reviewing policies at cerhardt@presbyterian.ca or 1-800-619-7301 ext. 278.
FOOTNOTE
1 Lily Zheng, DEI Deconstructed:
Your No-Nonsense Guide to Doing the Work and Doing it Right (Oak- land: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2022), pp. 50–53.