About Archway
What’s with the name? Why Archway?
• Wide open: Archways, especially gothic archways, are wide open. Whole groups of people can pass through together. There is enough room for everyone to pass through an archway. This reflects the radical openness and welcome that we offer in this service topeople of all different ranges in their relationship with faith. Here we are a people with wide open minds and wide open hearts.
• Strong and Safe: An archway is very strong architecturally speaking and it looks it. We have an intuitive sense that we are sheltered and protected in an archway. Just as the building makes us safe physically, our community makes the space safe spiritually and emotionally – A place where people can share doubts, struggles, and wonderings without concern of judgment or of people trying to fix them before they are ready. It is a place that you can bring your whole self to be wholly loved.
• A passage: With God we are all always growing and changing. The holy one touches our lives in dynamic ways, and we are always moving forward (even when it doesn’t
feel that way). We move forward into worship and then we move forward into our world to transform it. It is important for us to have these markers so that we can remember that we are always passing into something new. Something that has the potential to be wonderful. Jesus reminds us of this when he refers to himself as a gate because through him we can pass to a new and better understanding of God and ourselves.
• Bringing the tradition to the now: Our faith is a truly ancient faith, and our deep roots in history give us a lot to draw from. This is something that we, as part of the Episcopal tradition, can offer that many of our non-denominational brothers and sisters cannot at least not in the same way. By using a traditional image like the archway, we remember and celebrate that. One of our most wonderful weekly blessings is to take the wisdom and presence that God has given us throughout millennia and apply it to the very real lives and struggles of our community, our nation and our world.
• A place to gather: We literally meet under an archway. It is the place where we can come
together, meet friends, make friends, and find connections to others who care. It is a place to
listen, a place to speak, and a place to connect with God and with other people.
Archway is an outgrowth of the ministries of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
To find out more about St. Paul’s click here.