May 11, 2008
In October 2007, the Vestry charged a visioning
group to engage the People of the Advocate in
a threefold process. Its charge was to clarify
and claim our identity as a particular church
community, to discern our collective call to ministry
in Orange County, North Carolina, at the start
of the 21st century and to respond to that call.
Since Advent the People of the Advocate have been
engaged in a visioning process facilitated by
the visioning group to respond to the vestry’s
charge.
In the first phase, the visioning group engaged
the People of the Advocate in “creating
a picture of who we are now, so that we can be
intentional about whom we are called to be to
be as we grow and change.” We hosted conversations
around dinner tables at and before church to develop
that picture. In the second phase, many of us
met over dinner after church to name our dreams
for our community ten years from now by imagining
being the feature story of a national newspaper.
Through these processes we have expressed a
desire to be mindful of our relationship with
each other; with the community in which we live;
and with the space, land and environment on which
we envision a more permanent home. We recognize
that change is inevitable; we embrace the challenge
of change and we seek growth without losing sight
of our essential and unique characteristics.
Our visioning process has culminated in the
identification of four themes that are important
to the People of the Advocate. Those themes are:
the development of our distinctive culture; the
use of space; the development of our spirituality
and liturgy; andour desire for continued community
engagement.
A Distinctive Culture
We see ourselves as representing a distinctive
and innovative Christian culture that is orthodox,
personally devoted, and socially active. Several
teams mentioned a concern that we not lose our
distinctiveness as we grow. Central to how we
relate to one another is the model of a caring
family. The People of the Advocate are loving
and accepting in ways that seek to convey a radical
hospitality. We are open to the diversity of our
surrounding community, receiving others as they
come in their diversity, whether racial, ethnic,
economic, or sexual orientation.
We hope to embody increasingly the diversity
of our community as a worshipping people. As we
relate to one another in our own diversity, we
personally experience the challenges of a call
to hospitality and reconciliation. To the degree
that we embody a culture of acceptance and forgiveness
in the midst of diversity, we anticipate growing
in our sensitivity to the needs of those who are
marginalized.
We seek to provide space for authentic relationships.
We hope that honest dialogue will characterize
our relationships. Meals together, diverse cuisine,
liturgy that reflects the influence of other religious
communities, and lay involvement all reflect our
dependency on one another and our respect for
the input of many in our common journey. By creating
a sanctuary that is both holy and safe, we will
seek to provide a climate that can embrace and
diffuse the tensions of diversity within an environment
of love and safety.
Finally, by working to educate ourselves, our
youth, and the public in matters of public policy
and social discrimination, we desire to be proactive
in addressing the challenge of diversity by carrying
a mindset of hospitality and justice out into
those communities where violence and fear rather
than Christ’s care and acceptance characterize
families and political groups.
Space
We articulate God’s dream for us through
our use of space to reflect the inseparable relationship
between ourselves and the world in which we live,
reflecting our intention to share God’s
gifts to us with the community we are committed
to serve.
Recognizing the possibilities that exist in
our decision to purchase land, we seek the intentional
use of space that reflects our desire to serve
as stewards of the land. Through our conscious
effort to balance need for home and space for
worship with the delicate ecosystem, we envision
a sanctuary.
Our sanctuary will be a place of refuge; a holy,
consecrated place that is open, inviting and available
not only to the People of the Advocate, but also
to the community in which it is established. As
God’s Spirit hovers throughout nature, we
desire to construct a sanctuary that can exist
as a part of nature through creative use of space
that assures multiple uses of all parts of the
building.
We envision a building that will be a sanctuary
for quiet, contemplative retreat. It will be a
holy place of worship; a structure that is open
to the environment that gives us the sense that
we are in relationship to God through all that
we do, inside or out; that God can be experienced
in every leaf, blade of grass, animal and person.
A possible use of land in addition to the building
of a sanctuary includes the development of a community
garden.
It is our desire to express our understanding
of God’s dream for us by using the land
as a sanctuary for marginalized people, a protective
space that allows for the expression of God’s
love, grace and desire for relationship. It is
our intention to be used by God to create a space,
to build a sanctuary that honors the environment
and seeks to maintain the delicate balance between
the environment and the vision of the People of
the Advocate.
Spirituality & Liturgy
As the People of the Advocate our vision for
spirituality and liturgy expresses our yearning
for worship that is transformative for all. It
is our hope that through our intentional development
and personal involvement in the liturgy we will
transform our conscious involvement in the world.
The idea of “new monasticism” resonated
with one team, who expressed “that as People
of God we are called to be distinctive in our
practices of generosity, hospitality, and care
for the ‘least among us.’” We
believe we are co-creators with God when we use
art and music throughout the liturgy.
We have a strong desire to continue to create
and participate in liturgies that interweave the
deep joys and concerns we have today with those
expressed through the tradition of the church
for two millennia. We envision maintaining our
commitment to inclusive language and being open
to the freshness of the Spirit as it moves among
people of other religious traditions throughout
the world.
Possible sources of liturgy and prayer were
envisioned by two of our teams who suggested titles:
The Book of Uncommon Prayer, and Liturgy
– Of, For and By The People.
We will be a prayerful congregation, offering
times for contemplative prayer and an evening
prayer service. Opportunities for contemplation
will combine the physical with the spiritual by
having a labyrinth on our grounds. We continue
to celebrate fervently the sacraments including
full-immersion baptism and extending the Eucharistic
table after the service for a meal.
Finally, our roots in the Episcopal and Christian
tradition open us to inter-faith dialogue. We
hope to find common ground with people from other
faith traditions through our contemplative practices,
in addition to working together to better our
communities.
Community Engagement
Our founding values are integral to our vision
of our community as we grow into God’s dream
for us. The teams confirmed our commitment to
“engage with those in need in our local
community” and to “work for justice
and peace in the community and the world.”
Each team articulated ambitious goals, encompassing
an incredible range of programs and services for
our future outreach ministry. In our local community,
our dream is to take the lead in advocacy, working
with other faith-based groups and community organizations
to pursue peace and justice, to be a voice for
those who cannot speak for themselves.
Beyond how we dream to open our physical space
for community events, classes and sanctuary, we
see our presence in the local community as an
opportunity to work in partnership with UNC, IFC,
the schools, Club Nova and others to create innovative,
sustainable programs that serve the most vulnerable
in our midst.
Our dreams do not stop at the county line. We
see our state, our nation and the world as significant
components of our “outreach to our neighbors
in love” and we indicated that we are eager
to step forward as “modern pilgrims”
to build or re-build fragile infrastructures in
such as places as Haiti, the Gulf Coast, and the
Middle East. Through support of the establishment
of schools, mission churches, refugee camps and
sanctuaries for victims of war, violence and poverty,
we desire to demonstrate through our actions,
God’s love and desire for reconciliation.
As with all of the themes identified in this
visioning process, intentionality was implicit
in our expressions of hope for community engagement,
captured in these two “headlines”:
The Walls of the Church are Truly Porous
and Living The Word: To love and serve the
Lord.
Respectfully submitted by,
Steve Bennett
Jane Kornblut
Joslyn Ogden Schaefer
William Holloman
The Visioning Group |
