When I enter this church, it is a moment to take a breath, quietly and step
back in time to a quieter place. It is a building that encompasses a feeling of rich history and it generates an ambiance
of dignity. It is where I gather my thoughts and self about me and enter into the Mystery.
There is calm and stillness, and a glimpse of a time before when
one entered their spirituality within themselves the moment one entered their church. It is a solo journey as
well as a communal sharing. Our old fashioned church in the woods gives me something that reminds me of the rootedness
of tradition.
While I don't hold that old traditions should mark the face of modern Christianity,
I also don't hold with throwing the baby out with the bath water in our efforts to change and modernize for this century.
I like a mix of new with the old, but I don't want the face of my spiritual world changed so much I can't recognize the history. Nor
do I want it changed so little as to be living an Old Testament or even a literally based New Testament kind of faith.
When I began this journey, the church was a well-established faith of tradition, faith
and reason. It has been undergoing it's own changes as it attempts to shake off some of the archaic traditions of yesteryear
in favor of imbuing new meanings into old tradtions while transitioning to a more contemporary liturgy.
When I began this journey, we had not yet seen 911 or the resulting War that President
Bush took our country into without the substantiative merit and credibility such a drastic action requires.
Since I began this journey, I've had reason to challenge not only my faith but the behaviours
called "Christian" of other denominations and belief sets. As our political body seems to be moving in an effort to
claim ownership of what it is to be Christian, and what it is to be a Christian nation, I find my own voice speaks out with
a strong new tone. Since the carefulness less I offend framework of those early sermons I gave as a novice, I've found
an inspired voice that decries practicing faith on the most literal terms. Rather, I propose, that our Beloved,
being of compassion, intended us to look more deeply into the meanings imparted in scripture, below surface level to find
our own Mysterium Tremendum.
So here in my humble little church building, is where I found my "home"
with the One. Here is where I responded to the calling to train as a preacher and learn to use my own words, with Wisdom
as a mentor guiding my woman's view of spirituality in communion with the Beloved. This website is a place I built to
contain some of my sermons.
Lietta Ruger
Preacher, St John's Episcopal Church, South Bend, WA
