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Pastors examine the spirituality of community

By Melissa Lauber

UMConnection Staff

God calls us to live in community – supportive, empowering and accountable. But too often, pastors settle for something that falls short of community and their souls and the church can suffer in this loss, the Rev. Kim Cape told the clergy of the Baltimore-Washington Conference at a recent Bishop’s Day apart.

More than 400 clergy from the Baltimore-Washington Conference took time out of their busy holiday schedules to gather together at the Bishop’s Day Apart at Glen Mar UMC in Ellicott City Dec. 5.

They were welcomed by Bishop Marcus Matthews, the conference’s episcopal leader, and encouraged to discover a word of hope that would assist them in creating a sense of authentic, life-giving community in their churches and among their clergy colleagues.

Helping them in this process of discovery was the Rev. Kim Cape, General Secretary for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

Drawing on the essay “On Staying at the Table: A Spirituality of Community” by Parker J. Palmer, Cape explained how our yearning and actions for community are shaped not by theories, but by images we carry in our hearts.

Two images, in particular, are so engrained in our psyches that they might be called archetypes of community, she said. The first is the Garden of Eden in Genesis, where people lived naked and vulnerable, but unashamed about who they were, in harmony with God and each other. The second image of community is the New Jerusalem in Revelation, the beautiful city of God where every tear shall be washed away.

“Both of these images give voice that our deepest longings and needs will be met,” Cape said. But both the Garden and the New Jerusalem also stand outside of history as biblical bookends -- one representing our memory, the other our hope.

However, she continued, there is a story of God’s action in history that stands as image of community. It is the story of the Last Supper, when Christ brought his disciples to the table to share in the bread and wine before his crucifixion.

From the Last Supper we learn community is not easy. There are petty concerns, competition, power struggles and betrayals. “But we are called to stay at the table,” Cape said. If we are disillusioned in community, as we are bound to be, we must do as Christ did, she continued. We must rely on God, and pray – “not just saying a prayer, but being a prayer.”

Part of being a living prayer, Cape said, is being able to stay at the table – depending and leaning on Christ as we dwell with one another and write the story of God.

Cape said she is reminded of this when she thinks about a proverb she saw on the wall of the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. It said, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

As the Bishop’s Day Apart drew to a close, Cape and Bishop Matthews invited all the pastors to the Communion Table, for that moment and to linger. “Let us live into this community together, as we join Jesus at the table,” she said, “know that in our past, present and future, God is with us.”