A Church’s Journey in Living out a Dynamic Mission in
Solidarity with a Changing World.
 |
| St. Leo's L'Honey Project. Photo: Courtesy Franciscan Volunteers |
All of
our congregations give expression to that faith we hold in common but express
it uniquely! How we “do church” is our faith response to the working of the
Spirit in our world. Our faith is expressed dynamically and responds to the
needs of our time. We are an expression of the living Body of Christ in the
world and in each other’s lives. Because faith is dynamic and the Spirit of God
works in and through us becoming that Good News - we have to be open to change.
We have to be open to the shifting needs of a suffering world. If our expressions
of faith become static and incrusted by routine and habit, we may miss the
moving of God’s Spirit. In
the Papal Encyclical
written by Pope Paul VI in 1965, it states that we have the “duty of
scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of
the Gospel.” This call to duty has been echoed by Popes Benedict, Francis and
other church leaders in various ways in more recent times.
Change
and keeping up with the needs of our world is difficult, energy sapping and
overwhelming. It takes faith. A faith that can build upon our past to address
the issues of today and that of future generations.
St. Leo
Church has grown and changed over the years. In its earlier days the focus was
on providing a faith home and quality education to the local population of
arriving immigrants and their children. As the needs of providing parochial
education to the community waned, the emphasis shifted to address the growing
social concerns of the poor and displaced as the community struggled with urban
decay.
The need
to provide a place to nurture a healthy faith-life, educate our young and care
for our most vulnerable remain a concern we try to address. We continue to
build upon the good works of the past, but our understanding of mission and what
it is to be church has changed and has grown. We now know that we are called to
be Stewards of Creation. We are
sisters and brothers with all of Creation. Our God is understood as the God and
Creator of All.
With
this new understanding we are compelled to broaden our Mission by bringing good
news to ALL of Creation, not just the human family! This year, 2018 St. Leo
Church is making a commitment to stand in Solidarity with all that God has
created. If we are to understand the world as it really is, we need to embrace
the concept of solidarity with all that God has made. This understanding does
not cheapen or lessen the value of humankind; it gives us a deeper richness to
that understanding of what it really means to be human!
 |
| Totem Pole Journey at St. Leo's, 2013 |
Since
2013, the parish has greatly expanded its educational/community outreach on
care for Creation with its honey bee program – The L’Honey Project. We have
instituted parish recycling efforts, improved energy efficiency (a work in
progress) and are planning to create a parish greenspace for young and old
alike on our church campus! The parish has become more active in clean energy
promotion and legislative advocacy in Olympia as well as at the federal level. We
are continuing to work in partnership with our Sisters and Brother at Earth
Ministry and Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center.
Truly we
are entering into a different understanding of our relationship with each other
and the created world. We are all knitted together, in solidarity and we will
not be pulled asunder.
Peace,
Rick
Samyn
Rick Samyn is the Pastoral Assistant for Social Justice at St. Leo Church in Tacoma, WA. St. Leo is an Earth Ministry Greening Congregation.
