The following letter regarding our SSNUFL Policy was read to the congregations of the parish following services last weekend.
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Jan 19, 2012
My brothers and sisters in Christ:
Themes of mission, witness and welcome have recurred often these last months. The practice of welcoming is a key way to introduce people not simply to the Epiphany (though it does that), but far more importantly, to Jesus.
St. Paul advised the Church in Rome how to behave in the light of the grace God lavished upon it. His words remain abiding for us: “Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers” (Romans 12:13). The welcome God has extended to us in Jesus “while we were yet sinners,” ought to shape the way we live together—a way marked by generosity extended toward fellow members of the community and by hospitality to those outside it.
Neither is easy. Generosity is easy when we live in abundance; it is easy because in times of abundance, it is unnecessary. Generosity is hard when live in lack; it is also when it is most hard that generosity is most necessary. Hospitality (literally translated “love of stranger”) is always a challenge. Welcoming strangers means that our boundaries—those rules and practices that make us us—are porous. People can join us. And insofar as we “love the stranger,” people should be able to do so easily.
Both generosity and hospitality are expressed in many ways large and small in our parish. I need to write today to write about a seemingly very small one, but one that is very important. It is our SSNUFL policy.
At the June 2011 meeting of Parish Council, we decided that because some in our parish have scent, nut, and latex allergies, we would practice generosity by not bringing nuts, perfumes, and latex (among other things) into our building. With the prevalence of allergies in our wider society, such restraint is not simply a matter of practicing generosity with the saints, but also practicing hospitality with strangers.
Frankly, however, our practice of this policy has been inconsistent.
You will be hearing more over the next few weeks about the need to follow our SSNUFL policy more strictly than we have been. That need may be communicated through members of Parish Council, the Wardens, or from me. The leadership of the Epiphany agrees that this is something that, as a community, we need to be better at.
I urge you, brothers and sisters, to regard our SSNUFL policy and the leaders’ encouragement to follow it not as an inconvenience foisted on you “from on high,” or as another “rule” as though Parish Council could pass an Eleventh Commandment. Instead, I encourage you as strongly as I can to regard it as the practice generosity with our brothers and sisters and hospitality for strangers and visitors.
In the grace and peace of Christ, I remain,
Your brother,
Tim+
