Community rather than Family

The Rev. Richard Laribee, an Episcopal priest in Maryland, writes at his blog re-Marks,

for more than 25 years as an ordained pastor or priest, i have noticed something that i once thought was odd, but now understand to be normal. in any given worship gathering in any given congregation, there may be someone in the pew who isn't really sure he or she wants to be there. they sit alone, trying to be anonymous. if they had a cloak of invisibility they would certainly use it. they may feel shattered, burned out, or beaten up. they may be merely exhausted. they may feel dead. they may feel nothing at all. they definitely feel out of place, and some wonder whether they will ever recover. many, but not all of them, are ordained.

He goes on to reflect on what a community of faith can offer those who have gotten hurt or burned out. He distinguishes a church as a community, rather than a family.

one of the things that became clear to me in my healing was that the church is a community, not a family. you can't be anonymous in a family -- to attempt to be anonymous in your own family entails rejection of family relationships and is perhaps even hostile. but communities are different: communities allow for all kinds of things that families don't. communities allow for friendships and families, but they also allow for anonymity.

Why would we want King of Peace to be a community rather than a family? Toward the conclusion Richard writes,

loving my neighbor doesn't require me to actually LIKE my neighbor—just to be willing to behave like Christ to my neighbor.

Perhaps loving one's naighbor means recognizing the different needs which various neighbors have as they worship alongside us. The whole post is well worth a read as are his other blog entries.