The Spiritual Church

The Transformative Way

The spiritual church has no walls, no stained-glass 

windows or marble halls. Its doors are open to breathable 

air and all are welcome from wherever, or anywhere

and of those who come we priestly serve, without a

rote-learned creed or tithing cost required of anyone

we priestly share what we first received by grace alone

as the price for what we dare to give in the name of Love. 

We all are priests in the spiritual church, our heads deep

pressed by Sophia’s hands and our brows made smooth

by the oil of grace as we go forth un-tonsured in our simple state

Oh! happy chance! Oh! gift of grace to serve and officiate!

we vest not for conversions won but for the work still to be done

we celebrate not for goals already reached but for mercy’s sake

and we transform our communal lives by what we give and take.

The spiritual church is a handshake of welcome beyond 

the pews for one or for two or however more there might be

who see the Presence in me, in us, and in you – as we hug-out

the old and love-in the new.  And we add our voice to that ancient

earth-based hymn of praise first sung by creatures small and big

that burrow and creep, that walk and fly, to the Cosmic Hymn

that scatters star-notes of praise across the endless sky. 

We testify to what is real in the spiritual church, the discounted

bread, the wine gone bad, and the cardboard shacks over winter

grates that would-be prophets pass by; held aloof from the dirt 

and grime they pass by the desolation where the helpless and 

abandoned lie.

I grieve the un-ending stream of tears that flows past the things

not done for children of sexual abuse and victims of violence who 

wait bewildered for a deliverance that does not come.  It is there in the     

hardscrabble heart of what is real, that the spiritual church takes form 

and knowing grows.