When Strangers Becomes Friends
As someone who has spent much of my life trying to help others, I am re-discovering that healing often begins not with what I can offer, but with the space I am willing to hold. Every week at Robertson-Wesley, people walk through the doors carrying stories we may never fully know - grief, hope, loneliness, questions, joy, and longing. One of my favourite writers is Henri Nouwen. His vision of hospitality invites me to wonder whether our greatest calling is simply to create enough space for those stories to be heard.
How do we do this? I think we need to remember that, as Nouwen suggests, hospitality is not about changing people, convincing people, or fixing people. Hospitality is about creating space where a stranger can enter and leave as a friend. Isn’t this what inclusive community is about and what it means to be an affirming church?
This Sunday is Pride Sunday, and we will take time to celebrate the truth that every person is created in God’s image and worthy of love, dignity and belonging. Most of us recognize that for many 2SLGBTQIA+ people, faith communities have not always been places of welcome. As an affirming church we are committed to create spaces where people can bring their whole selves without fear of judgment, exclusion, or having to earn their place. I think that this truly reflects Nouwen’s understanding of hospitality, which of course Jesus demonstrated during his ministry here on earth. To put it another way, hospitality becomes the soil in which belonging grows.
This understanding of hospitality is what shapes Robertson-Wesley’s presence at the 124 Street Grand Market which is starting this Sunday. Last year and again this year we are committing to having a booth at the Grand Market to be a presence in the neighborhood. The purpose of our presence at the market is NOT to recruit members or persuade people to attend church. The purpose is to listen, connect, and learn. We want to be present in the neighbourhood as neighbours. We want to be a Community Connector, where Robertson-Wesley offers something increasingly rare in our world: places where people can gather across differences, build relationships, access support, share stories, and discover they are not alone. Whether someone eventually attends worship is secondary. The primary calling is to cultivate connection and belonging. There is also a wounded-healer dimension to this work. Many of us know what it feels like to be lonely, misunderstood, excluded, or searching for community. Rather than hiding those experiences, let’s allow them to deepen our own compassion. I guess what I’m trying to say is that our hope is to find more ways for strangers to become friends. We want to connect, to listen, to learn, and to build relationships and be a visible reminder that communities are strongest when everyone has a place to belong. In a world marked by loneliness and division, perhaps one of the most faithful things we can do is create spaces where people feel seen, valued, and welcomed just as they are.
I hope and pray that you may create spaces where strangers become friends, where differences become gifts and where all people know they are valued and loved!
Blessings, Rev. Karen