My goal is simple: To raise enough money to step away from full-time employment, in order to bring a vision to life in Spartanburg County.
All across this county are people of various ages who are struggling with the concept that God can exist and also allow suffering in minority and/or poor communities. They are joining the voices of ages past who utter Psalm 13 either in prayer or aloud, saying “How Long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? how long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”
It is the one in lament, the one mourning, who I am drawn to. For they know about God, they even know that God exists, but right now they find themselves so broken, that turning their heart towards God feels more difficult than continuing to stand in lament.
It is because of them that I seek to plant Emmanuel Anglican Church.
I envision Emmanuel as the place where we are reminded that God is in fact with us, in our celebrations, and in our pain. I seek to plant Emmanuel to be a continuation of the Black tradition of a spiritual & safe place to mourn, request God’s strength, and be equipped to do the work charged to our name.
I seek to create a liturgical space, that gives Black and Brown the space to center their lives on a liturgy that is consistent, formative, and all-around centered on Jesus through the scriptures, meeting him at the table, and living out the charge to love God and our neighbors.
Emmanuel Anglican will be a counter-narrative.
