Saturday past a whole lot of people gathered at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle for Cathedral Day. There were lots of activities: tours, an organ demonstration, and even a paper airplane flying contest from the Choir Loft. The centerpiece, however, was a big service in which people from all over the Diocese were confirmed, received into the Episcopal Church or reaffirmed their baptismal vows. 104 candidates approached the Bishop for one of these moments of sacramental grace. I had brought eleven of them.
That part of the service alone took an hour, but I found it easy not to get distracted while we waited our turn. There was an electricity in the air, a sense of Presence, that made the gathering more than just a whole lot of people in one place. It was as if we had become something, a mega-organism of some sort, with powers beyond any one of us. I was aware of a deep sense of belonging.
Though for me it is especially easy, I don’t think you need 500 people in a church to have that sense of belonging. Every time people are together with a common mind and purpose there is the potential of this sense of belonging. It’s the only place we get it. Now, I must say that “people” should be used in reference to much more than just human life forms. I have had that same sense of belonging surrounded by mountain peaks, the ocean vastness, a woods, a grassland or a flock of migrating birds.
Belonging, then, is not dependent on having the right people around us, but being open to the greater presence that is created when we become deeply aware of one another.