A Galilee Moment: Part 1: The Bold Beginning of a New Mission at St. Andrew’s

It was a cold, rainy, ice-stormy afternoon in January, 2014…six deacons clustered around Bishop Anne Hodges-Copple at the now-torn-down Harper’s Restaurant near Southpark. Bishop Anne provided beverages and snacks, and shared an audacious idea.  What if…what if something new could happen at the old St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church? 

She was following up on Bishop Curry’s 2013 Diocesan Convention address, about Going to Galilee. He’d reminded us all that Jesus told the disciples to go back to their home in Galilee, and that he would meet them there.  The implication was that something new and bold was going to happen, that there would be a “Galilee Moment” for the disciples, discovering new things in what felt like well-trodden territory.  He challenged us all to do the same. 

At that table at Harper’s, two months later, Bishop Anne asked the question, “Could this be a Galilee Moment for St. Andrew’s?”  And then she asked the next big question:  Were we deacons, whose ministries are all about connecting church with world, and bringing the needs of the world to the church and the church out to meet them, ready to take on the challenge of answering that “Galilee Moment” question?

The resounding answer was, “Yes!”

I might add, that was typical diaconal fashion—we hadn’t been in the place since it had closed, most of us had never been in it, and we had no idea what we were getting into. But we trusted that if it was God’s will, God would show us what to do. And more on how that happened, next time!

~ The Reverend Deacon Rebecca Yarbrough