Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Day Seventy: Holy Comforter

This evening I made my last church visit.  I visited My friend Mike Tanner at Holy Comforter here in Atlanta.  Holy Comforter is a unique congregation that has a large population of people with mental health diagnoses.  I have visited Holy Comforter several times over the last few year and have celebrated and preached there once.  I find it equal parts scary and holy.  Many of the people who worship at Holy comforter are unpredictable in their behavior, speech, even personal hygiene.  I never really know what to expect when I show up.  I find that frightening, disconcerting, disorienting at first.  It takes me a while to get settled in.  But then the Holy Spirit shows up, just like the Holy Spirit shows up everywhere.  We sing and pray together, we share the Meal together.  It is still frightening and unpredictable, but a little less so for the commonality that we all share, the Eucharist, the Bread, broken for all of us, those who are obviously broken themselves and those who put up a good show of pretending not to be.  And then, after that Bread is broken, we all remember (re-member) that we are beloved, broken bits and all.

Taking pictures and Holy Comforter was a hoot.  For starters, Mike invited anyone who wanted to to come have their hands photographed.  Nineteen people came forward.  Nineteen!  I got some good shots and some great quotes.  One man told me that the most important thing he does with his hands is "wash them."

Visiting HC was a fantastic way to wrap up this phase of the project.

No comments:

Post a Comment