From ECM to the Church of the Advocate

Sam Laurent

“Send us your Spirit as we begin our journey

As the people of the Church of the Advocate

Equips us to proclaim the Good News of Jesus,

Defend us from all evil,

And give us the grace to live together in peace and common prayer.

In your power, may we become a holy community

That transforms the world around us.”

In unison the Church of the Advocate opened worship during its first season as a congregation with this succinct but hefty invocation. As discussed in greater detail elsewhere in this issue, our services are energetic and yet contemplative, spontaneous and yet grounded in the liturgical structure, and filled with eclectic music chosen by members of the congregation. In short, it is the church home I had been looking for since my days in ECM (Episcopal Campus Ministry.) Ah, that I could claim to have found it. The Church of the Advocate found me.

As an ECM musician, mission leader, prolific giver of unsolicited opinions, EYC (Episcopal Youth Community) leader, and a Student Resident at the Chapel of the Cross, I formulated strong beliefs about the Church's call to serve the community and strive for social justice, in the importance of empowering the laity, and became convinced that intentionally centering myself in Christ was integral to discerning God's call to me. The Chapel of the Cross had been my spiritual home for four years, my literal home for two. I experienced God's love for me there. I wore out a guitar playing in ECM meetings. I first realized a calling there. I set up thousands of tables for all sorts of church events. I met my now-fiancée, Kim, at an ECM meeting there, and in August, we'll be married in the chapel.

Even so, I found myself searching for a church home after graduation; I had been raised in small congregations and relished the intimacy and fellowship they afforded, and felt a strong resonance with more contemporary worships and liturgies. I suppose that folks who knew me and knew of the Advocate felt the pairing was obvious, but I wasn't sure about a new church and all the uncertainty it brought. An old friend from ECM nonetheless put me in touch with Lisa Fischbeck, who asked a question that stunned me, “What would you like this church to be like?”

As I attended meetings, discussions, and a particularly beautiful gathering by the Haw River, I realized the unique position we were in, beginning a church in the post-9/11 world, as what Marcus Borg describes as an emerging paradigm of God spreads through the Episcopal Church and the Christian world, causing us to reconsider the way we read Scripture, interact with God, indeed the way we attempt to envision God. I met an exciting group of people from all walks of life, who seemed to feel the same spiritual tugging and were here to see where it might lead. I felt in communion with God and with those around me. I had come home.