St. John's Church, JP - Capital Campaign: Testimonials

ST. JOHN'S: OUR HOME, OUR CHURCH, OUR FUTURE
Testimonials From Our Parishioners

Today is the 10th anniversary of my mother's death. I have not felt so enfolded in the arms of a community of kindred spirits in the years since mother 's passing as I have today. She is in my thoughts, prayers and dreams so often these days, as is the St. John's community. Faith, church, belief, to me, is all about community. Jesus gathered his friends, his disciples, to be not servants but friends. This is what the Quakers believe. I think, I feel, that to recognize Jesus in our presence is to recognize and to feel the Presence in each and every person we meet. I give thanks each day for the community that has accepted me without any questions, doubts or reservations.
We had been coming to St. John's for a little over a year… the baptism went smoothly but what I remember most was the overwhelming sense of belonging and family. The sound of "welcome" was so loud and wonderful that I am reminded of the overwhelming love during each baptism since.
How integrated and welcoming this community is!
Over two difficult months, while my mother was dying, many people I did not know well came to me with very genuine, compassionate, un-awkward gestures of support and sympathy. While there were other communities where I was better known (work, grad school, friends) St John's was the place where I felt most powerfully and widely upheld. I came away from that time feeling the kind of debt and gratitude that I suspect ties together the best of communities.
St John's has become our main community, a primary source of friendship. My partner and I wanted our daughter to have a spiritual foundation and, as a lesbian couple, sought a setting where we didn't risk her hearing disparaging remarks about our family from the pulpit/community. We have found this at St. John's.
One Sunday Anne gave a sermon that spoke to the language of the Eucharist and how it affected people with different life experiences, particularly those who had suffered abuse. Not only did this sermon speak to me in ways that sermons hadn't for a long time, but it brought me to tears - and I knew that I had found a beautiful, inclusive (radically inclusive!) loving community where I could bring my children with joy each week.
The reason I love St. John's is that the doors are open. Not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. Over two years ago the doors were open when I needed them to be. I thank St. John's for that day.
Having grown up in a conservative church, I'm grateful to have found a place where I can be myself, with my questions and doubts, without feeling I have to hide or pretend.
Easter morning, sunny skies, opening the parish hall doors, kids spilling down the stairs. Green grass, pudding stone structure, panoramic view from stained glass windows and arches to the city skyline loading off to the distant hills and horizon. Our family had found a spiritual home.
During the first week of Advent my wife and I stopped by in a church tour to find the right fit. We both really loved the feeling of openness and acceptance during the service and coffee hour. My wife found out she needed surgery 3 weeks later. We reached out to Anne just for prayers and she scooped us up with love and counsel. She also dispatched members to make us dinners during the first week home after surgery. It felt so amazing to be thought of as a member after just three weeks.
Finally! No more tearful confusions about faith versus sexuality and acceptance! We had come home.
St. John's was a place that would allow us to grieve and strengthen during recovery. With help from the community and rector we were able to move on with our lives and become better people in the end.
My first day at St. John's, at the reading of the Gospel, the priest and altar ministers came into the center of the church to proclaim the Gospel from the heart of the congregation- and I knew this was a very different church from anything I had known before and I wanted to stay.
To feel the love of God. So excited to be married in St. John's. It was the best, most loving day of my life! The acoustics echoed my voice and that of my beloved. This place is magical, like C.S. Lewis's Narnia.