The Gift of God’s Spirit

Following the great fifty days of the Easter season is the Day of Pentecost.  Today is the Day of Pentecost, a time to focus on the gift of God's Spirit.  On this day we celebrate the beginning of the church's outreach to all the nations, and we renew our commitment to the mission of reconciliation, of restoring all people to God and each other in Christ.

The gift of the Spirit of God is for the whole community.  It is the responsibility of the church to create unity among all people who are separated because of fear, pride, or some other reason.  Reconciliation, restoring to wholeness what is broken, and bringing women, men and children into a community of loving worship of God, are the ministries of those who have received the gifts of the Spirit.  We accept the gift of God’s Spirit knowing our need for God's cleansing spirit of love and compassion.

In the Acts of the Apostles we are told, “When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Peter spoke to the crowd that had gathered and quoted from the prophet Joel, “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.  Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy…. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

There is a sense in which God’s Spirit is being poured out on our Church and our Diocese.  We are seeing visions and dreaming dreams about our Diocesan Cathedral building and how it can be repurposed to address issues of reconciliation and justice.

During several months following the suspension of services at the Cathedral, Bishop Knisely formed a task force to meet with members of the Cathedral to study what might be done with the building.  Eventually, a consensus was reached by the Cathedral Chapter to use building for a slave trade museum and a center for reconciliation.  This decision was affirmed by Diocesan Convention last November.

To begin implementing this decision the Bishop appointed a steering committee that has been meeting regularly over the past several months to develop a vision, a mission, goals and guiding principles that would encompass a Center for Reconciliation.  I have been serving as a member of the steering committee and so I share some of the committee’s thinking and my understanding of what we are trying to accomplish.  We envision a restored building that will in time provide for a teaching museum or gallery about the slave trade history of Rhode Island, a space for performing arts related to this history, an education and training center for reconcilers, and worship that would be both Episcopal and inter-faith.

A separate non-profit organization has been formed, and preliminary work is being done to raise funds for development and to engage a project manager to assist with programs and community partners.

There are several reasons for doing this: first, the history of the Rhode Island slave trade has not been told or it has been glossed over in school history books; second, we need to understand what it means to live with the legacy of this history in our time; third, there continues to be economic and social inequality in our society; fourth, the mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other; fifth, we have an opportunity to redevelop and reposition our Cathedral building; and sixth, there is immeasurable value in having a teaching gallery, performance space, training and education about reconciliation, worship and preservation of the historic graveyard and garden that is adjacent to the building.

In summary, the Center for Reconciliation is to be a multi-faceted organization dedicated to reconciliation that builds equitable and respectful relationships to restore unity with God and one another.

In Paul’s Letter to the Romans we read, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

And so today we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, the One who spoke through the prophets, [and]... the Lord who leads us into all truth.  The Spirit brings us into harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation.”  It is through the blessing of the ordinary things of life that we are in communion with God and one another, and we are in touch with the loving and graceful power of spiritual living.  Amen.