Who We Are
Throughout its history, the Episcopal Church in the U. S. has offered a unique blending of Protestant and Catholic insights and traditions. A worship that combines the beauty and mystery of the ancient liturgies with the Reformation zeal for asking important questions, and allowing differing interpretations rising from our biblical foundation.
Not everyone in Murfreesboro would feel “at home” here at Holy Cross. That’s the portion of the population who want infallible answers for everything and who come to worship to simply watch and be entertained rather than to participate, who prefer to put everybody and every thing in a well defined box.
At Holy Cross you will find a quickly growing, but still relatively small congregation whose members are eager to sing out, pray deeply, meet Christ in both sacrament and in fellowship with one another. We celebrate our differences as well as our similarities.
We are all ages and represent a sampling of healthy lifestyles. Some of us are lifelong Episcopalians. But most of us grew up as Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Church of Christ and Presbyterian … or without any previous denominational background.
Its impossible to put our priest in a box. He has served Catholic Churches, a Lutheran congregation and of course, Episcopal parishes. He has degrees from a Methodist grad school, Catholic Benedictine and Episcopal seminaries and a doctorate from Vanderbilt University. His spirituality is a blending of evangelical, charismatic and liberal. He strongly encourages us to sing out… and might even break into a little two-step on the way back down the aisle.
Speaking of music in our worship…. We feel like we have the best of traditional, gospel, southern harmony and African American. Each Sunday our superb (and lively) keyboardist, Morris Hamby, offers piano and organ accompaniment. And we are further blessed with sensitive violin accompaniment by our music director, Elaine Winters.
Our nine year history as a congregation is certainly interesting … and many feel it is inspirational. Our founding priest preached a fairly narrow Gospel for seven years. He responded to the national church issues of biblical interpretation, homosexuality and a woman presiding bishop by leading all but seven of our membership out of the Episcopal Church. Encouraged by our bishop and diocese, those of us who remained faithful to Episcopal theology and practice immediately regrouped. We formulated as our mission statement:
Welcoming all who seek grace and peace in conversation and communion with Jesus Christ.
We have quickly been joined by other open-minded Christians, who have found themselves very much at home here at Holy Cross.
If our introduction to who we are, above, is at least a little intriguing to you, we encourage you to visit us next Sunday for a taste of the real thing. Worship is at 10:00 am. And plan on joining us after worship as well for a light lunch and wonderful fellowship. We promise that you won’t be a stranger here for long.