Sunday, September 15, 2013

Hey, that's my parish!

Sigfried Gold mourns the monopolization by government and non-profit bureaucracies of assistance available to "outsiders" for self-transformation:
I fervently yearn for a day when people wishing to be better have easy access to free or donation-based support, offered primarily by their peers, possibly facilitated by modestly paid clergy, and offered without coercion, without insistence that one set of beliefs is right and the rest are wrong, offered because people who actively pursue their own paths towards meaning, fulfillment and some vision of the good feel a generous desire to share what they’ve learned on those paths with others.
It's not all about magnificent arches and artfully executed mumbo-jumbo though we value those things. All that just informs and reinforces what we really do.
Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, San Francisco Mission District
H/t Sullivan.

No comments: