our story: psalm 27

“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple…Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” … I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

The writer of this Psalm believes God to have made this request: “Seek my face.” And the writer responds: My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” As if to say, my heart does even when my body cannot; or my heart does even when my mind cannot. This is the heart of the Sunday Night Service. This service is for those who have found their body and heart outstretched towards God but who can no longer find Them in the church spaces where we grew up.

We are a group of ex-Evangelicals, life-long Episcopalians, and some combination of both who have wandered or are currently wandering. For us ex-Evangelicals, (though we didn’t always use that word for ourselves) we left our faith because we discovered that our tradition was not affirming enough of LGBTQ folks, or the work of justice in the world. For us Episcopalians, we are here because we dream about the ways our tradition can speak to a new context and time.

Beyond labels, we are people who are in process––deconstructing our learned theologies and working in community to reconstruct a theology that is true to the ways of Jesus: oriented towards the liberation and flourishing of all people.

My specific story (Emily) is one that traverses the Assemblies of God, the Covenant Church, Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru), L’Abri, an Acts 29 church, a degree from Fuller Seminary, and finally the Episcopal Church. While I have relished the theology, politics, and liturgy of the Episcopal Church, I have missed the kinship and ethos of the spaces where I grew up. Our hope is to create a healing space, a church, for those who have left the Evangelical Church and who are wondering what could be next, and for those life-long Episcopalians or folks coming from the mainline denominations who are looking for a different and/or less formal expression of the liturgy that has guided them throughout their lives. This is our attempt at reconstruction and we’re committed to bringing our full selves to this work and community. All are welcome.