This past weekend my wife and I rearranged the furniture in our guest room/office—for what might be the eighth or tenth time since moving here. Our needs for the room have shifted over time, but in moving a few things around we discovered new possibilities we hadn’t imagined.
It’s fun to find new ways to inhabit a space. Every few years, it helps to move a chair a few feet in one direction or place a shelf on a new wall entirely. It creates fresh energy and often reveals opportunities—and even beauty—that we hadn’t seen before.
Sometimes we grow most effectively through incremental changes, especially when we greet those changes with openness and curiosity. Moving furniture isn’t necessary for salvation, but it can be a helpful metaphor for active discernment
Over the summer you may have noticed some changes in how we’ve used the Chapter Room, Piazza, and Promenade before and after Sunday services. This season has been an opportunity to experiment with new ways of being together in these spaces, and we’ll continue this spirit of exploration as we move into the program year.
Why are we doing this? The main reason is to expand the variety and square footage of spaces where people can gather between and after services, creating a flow that fosters more connection and conversation. We are also exploring ways to more fully utilize spaces like the Chapter Room, especially as we discern the future renovation of Cathedral Hall.
I hope you’ll join me with creativity and a willingness to try new things, helping make Sunday mornings at the Cathedral as rich as they can be. We’re still learning what works best in these arrangements, and we’ll continue exploring new ways of gathering.
I’ll let you in on a little secret, though: it might not actually matter where we place the coffee or set up the chairs. What truly makes the difference is our collective willingness to try new ways of gathering and building community—not the perfect chair arrangement. Discernment is valuable, but what matters most is the spirit of the community and our desire to nurture it.
We make space for growth, but it is the Holy Spirit who truly brings it to life.
The Very Rev. Bernard J. Owens, Dean