Dear Old South Church,
The Church of the Open Door is still ministering … despite the fact that our door is locked and we remain a crime scene.
We are ministering in New Orleans where our mission team is building a home.
We are ministering through Rev. June Cooper, our Theologian in the City who has been offering trauma counseling at the Castle.
We are ministering through Lucy Costa who works with the Red Cross and is on the front lines.
Our nurses and doctors are ministering in the hospitals, caring for souls and hearts as well as broken bodies.
We are ministering as our members reach out in countless ways to strangers.
We are ministering to the city, nation and world as our beautiful Tower and banners appear on television screens.
And we are ministering as the blessings with which we blessed runners and families and volunteers on Sunday are still super-charging persons shaken so by violence. People I have encountered on the streets these last two days have told me they are still wrapped in our blessing.
We are ministering as you hold in prayer those whose lives were shattered Monday. Our Open Door is an important symbol of our availability and hospitality. In truth, however, it is a symbol of our ministry and not a requisite. Not even a crime scene, yellow tape and police barricades can stop us. Hope is too elemental. The Good News shouts itself above the bomb blasts. Hate will not distort us into haters. Cruelty will only redouble our mercy.
Amen?
Rev. Nancy S. Taylor
Senior Minister & CEO
OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN BOSTON