April 13, 2007
Episcopalians
Garrison Keillor writes somewhere that…
“Our clear picture of Episcopalians was of wealthy people, Yale graduates, worshipping God in extremely good taste. Episcopalian was the church in wingtips, the church of Scotch and soda.
“So, when I moved to New York and walked into Holy Apostles, I was surprised to see no one in suits. Nobody was well dressed. A congregation of a hundred souls on lower Ninth Avenue, a church with no parking lot, which was in need of paint, and the sanctuary ceiling showed water damage but which managed (I learned next week) to support and operate a soup kitchen that fed a thousand New Yorkers every day, more than a million to date.
“Black faces in the sanctuary, old people, exiles from the Midwest, the lame and the halt, divorced ladies, gay couples — a real good anthology of the faith. I felt glad to be there. When we stood for prayers, bringing slowly to mind the goodness and the poverty of our lives, the lives of others, the life to come, it brought tears to your eyes, the simple way the Episcopalians pray.”
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