U.S. Episcopal leader says church must be inclusive

The Episcopal Church must reach out and “embrace all whom God sets before us,” the church’s top American cleric told a Sparks’ congregation Sunday.

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States, gave a sermon at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church as part of the Diocese of Nevada’s annual convention this weekend. The event coincided with the 100th anniversary of St. Paul’s.

In his sermon, Griswold cited Christ’s analogy of the kingdom of heaven being like a wedding banquet, a feast reserved not for the chosen but for all people.

“And so the door to the banquet hall is flung wide and all sorts of riffraff, troublesome to us but close to the heart of God, are ushered in and given a place at the table,” Griswold said.

Throwing the doors open has been a recurring theme at Holy Innocents of late; it was one of the images that kept coming up in the recent Bishop’s Committee retreat – the one that started the new “Mission, Ministry, Evangelism” program that we’re in the process of formulating.

On a recent Sunday, this metaphor was taken to an extreme. It was a warmish fall day outside, but quite chilly inside. The red French entrance doors were both opened wide. No one got up to close the doors, because keeping the doors open and in fact opening them even wider has been a topic of several recent sermons. So no one closed the doors, but everyone kept their coats on.

Now that the weather has finally changed from Indian summer to late fall, the doors will remain closed during services, but they are always “open” to everyone.