Fellowship at the Church of the Advocate

Lisa Ripperton

After retiring from full-time employment for 25 years to become a home-schooling parent, joining the Episcopal Church of the Advocate seemed the next logical step in our family's quest to decrease the ëbusyness' in our lives and to increase the focus on relationships. We are enjoying the opportunities for fellowship that a small congregation presents. Besides knowing each other by name, we are getting to know each other as people. We are engaging in small group study in each other's homes, studying first Ephesians and next The Dream of God. With home hospitality we are starting to care for each other in the ways that small communities did in generations past.

At the Advocate, Christian households of all forms worship together and draw together in fellowship. Some worshippers fit the model of two parents with two children. But more of us are single parents, or same sex couples, or widows with children or without, or empty-nesters, or couples just embarking on their life together. As a widow with children, I especially welcome these other adults and families in the lives of my children. In a society where age segregation is so much the norm, it is a welcome change to have regular opportunities for intergenerational interaction. Every service is an intergenerational event in which folks of all ages participate, allowing children the chance to meet all sorts of adults in their community of faith.

The worship service itself recalls for me “A Joyful Noise,” a monthly service for families led by John Westerhoff at the Chapel of the Cross during the late 80s and early 90s. An energetic worship service, with music of different traditions and a sprinkling of humor, is followed by a time for the sharing of food and fellowship. The evening is capped off by a Christian education program that varies with the season.

There are ample opportunities for the whole family to participate in the liturgy, serving as lay readers, gospel bearers, prayer leaders, or ushers. During Epiphany we will be exploring how we, as a parish, can become God's hands in the world. My children and I are looking forward to opportunities for us to do service as a family.

Daniel and Rebecca are not yet ready, though, to give up singing with the Junior Choir at the Chapel of the Cross. So for the foreseeable future, we will be what Mary Esser told us former rector, David Yates, called “twicers,” those who go to church twice a day! In the morning we will be worshipping at the Chapel of the Cross and in the evening at the Episcopal Church of the Advocate.