By Gina Colvin of Christchurch, New Zealand

So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.

In 2017, I was invited to be a guest speaker at a women’s retreat in Pennsylvania. I had been attending my local Anglican church at the time and invited my priest to come with me. I suggested on the spur of the moment that we head to Kirtland as I had never been to the temple and she happily agreed.

In the quiet of the visitors’ centre, Megan and I explored the history of the movement from the welcome perspective of a people who had found peace with their story by being honest with their history. I sat late in the Kirtland temple talking quietly with friends, exploring my still conflicted feelings about the Restoration. This time, with nothing to fight or prove those feelings quietened into a grace I could now hold. Before we left Kirtland my Anglican priest turned to me and with sincerity said, “This is a good church, and if you feel called to be with these people then I will completely understand.”

On a cool autumn evening in 2018, under a full moon I was baptized into the body of Christ by Megan, an Anglican Priest. It had been a long time coming, but it was exactly the right time. On the way to this decision lay the scattered remnants of 15 years of confusion and fury with the church of my family and ancestors. I had spent 15 years looking under every rock of the church of my birth for something that made sense enough to claim my ongoing loyalty, and by 2018 I was spent. The year culminated in a pre-Christmas church discipline, and though I escaped excommunication, by 2019 I knew that I was done.

Along the way Community of Christ were my spiritual friends and companions. I had long been curious about this expression of the restoration, even before I was religiously permitted to consider that another expression of the restoration was about this understated and humble restoration tradition.

So in 2019, Richard James and Mareva Arnaud-Tchong confirmed me in the chapel of the Temple. And while I have been quiet in this space as I have regathered parts of my scattered self, Community of Christ has always been there like a kind and patient friend waiting until the wind blows more gently, the tide creeps up upon the shore, and the ancestors say, “now.”

Prayer Phrase

“Let us work for the good of all” (Galatians 6:10).

Spiritual Hunger

Jesus discerned hungers of body and spirit, and he fed them through a physical, verbal, spiritual ministry of presence. In a time of listening prayer, ask God to help you discern physical or spiritual hungers of people in your congregation, community, and global family. Invite the Spirit to move you to one hospitable act that “feeds” someone’s hunger today.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.