“Imagine a world where love is the way.” Our presiding bishop, Michael Curry, caught the world’s attention with those words at some wedding or other last summer. And his words echoed his vision for the Episcopal Church: a community journeying together on the way of love.

Bishop Curry has invited us all, as Episcopalians, to join together in following Jesus on that way, to “grow more deeply with Jesus Christ at the center of our lives, so we can bear witness to his way of love in and for the world.” He invites us to a rule of life—a set of practices, defined in the simplest terms, that can help us grow in the love of God.

Turn • Learn • Pray • Worship • Bless • Go • Rest

Those are the steps that make up the Way of Love, the practices that we can undertake to make ourselves more receptive to God shaping our hearts and lives. What do they look like in real life? That’s largely for us—as a community of faith—to figure out. What forms of prayer work best for us? How can we as a church practice turning to God? Where do we go to practice God’s love in the world? Those are questions only we can answer for ourselves.

And that’s the work—the joyful work!—that lies ahead of us this year. As we’ve been working on planning our life in community for the program year ahead, we’ve been looking to the Way of Love as a guide. The seven practices are woven through everything we do as a church: our Sunday Eucharists bring together worship (of course), prayer, turning, learning, and resting, at least. Our adult formation programs focus on learning but also involve prayer and turning our lives toward Jesus Christ. Our work with the Reach Out shelter is an act of blessing—unselfishly giving and serving—and of going across boundaries to take part in healing the world, and it’s also an opportunity for us to reorient ourselves (turn), reflect on what Scripture has to say about poverty (learn), and pray without ceasing for the men in our care.

So our plan is to make the Way of Love a theme throughout the program year—not focusing on individual steps or practices, but on how the Way of Love is woven through all we do. 

As a community, we’ll be learning more about the Way of Love in the months ahead. But if you want to get a jump on things, I invite you to get started here:

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/getting-started-way-love

As always, I’m looking forward to the exciting work ahead!

James Wyatt, Senior Warden