Ellen Painter Dollar writes eloquently this week about how grateful she is to be an Episcopalian. She loves the Book of Common Prayer, the sacraments, rich opportunities for learning and service and “the big tent” this church provides. At Patheos.com, she writes:
I am grateful that every week, the rector of my church finishes up the mid-service announcements by saying, “The most important thing I can tell you is that everyone is welcome to receive communion at this table,” as he points back toward the altar and the rail where we kneel to receive bread and wine. I am grateful that in the 13 years that I have been an Episcopalian (again), I have heard sermons and received pastoral council and worked alongside straight married clergy and gay married clergy and single clergy and male clergy and female clergy and clergy with kids and clergy without kids. I am grateful that being an Episcopalian means welcoming everyone, doing lots of outreach, making beautiful music, loving the words that say the right thing for the right occasion, and figuring out how to worship God and what God asks of us in the company of a beautiful variety of God’s children.
Read part 1, part 2 and part 3 of her essay, posted this week. And tell us, on this Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for about the Episcopal Church?