"St George's Church and Community" - Present in the Community

Church and Community: Saint George's
at the beginning of the 21st century
by the Rev'd Canon Gary Thorne

This essay was presented in Saint George's Round Church in the autumn of 2000, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the church's construction. What follows is an excerpt from that essay.

"... We cannot talk about our vision of the relation of church and neighborhood without acknowledging the centrality of worship for our parish, even in our "outreach" or "inreach". For better or for worse, our relation to one another and to the neighborhood must be a natural and urgent extension of our worship and praying together. If we do not meet our neighbor in our worship and in our praying, somehow our worship and praying is too facile and must go deeper. The Christian religion reveals a compassionate God who comes alongside us in his humility as incarnate Son, and who is born in us. The exaltation of our human nature to become sons and daughters of God depends first on recognizing His humility and allowing His divinity to draw us to the Father. In our worship, we recognize the poverty of Christ which reaches down to us. In worship, we meet our neighbor who is in any type of poverty and we become one in solidarity with him or her. If our lives are centred in Christian worship, when we meet our neighbor who is in any type of poverty we recognize in that person both Christ and our own self.

Or vision of "church and community" is grounded in the simple commandment to Love God and neighbor. But more must be said about our present historical situation and context before concluding with some personal thoughts about the future of St. George’s in this neighborhood. ..."

Download the entire essay here. (148k in PDF format)