What Interests God?

"It is a great mistake to think that God is chiefly interested in religion."
William Temple, 98th Archbishop of Canterbury

From the Rector
The great 20th century Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, directs our attention away from the established forms of institutional religion by questioning God’s primary focus. How many assume that God frets full-time over the church and its various (sometimes petty) concerns?

But if not religion, what does interest God?

God is beyond our limits, beyond our comprehension. God is beyond our knowing and beyond our direction.

Nothing limits God’s interests. We can only imagine that God is interested in what God loves – all people and all of creation in all times and in all places.

Being in relationship with God calls us to focus as widely as we can on what interests God, to pay attention beyond the restrictions of religious structures. How are we joining with God in attending to the world, to people, and to both dire manifestations of need and the vast array of creative expression?

Our religious practice is meant to direct us beyond the life of our faith community where we are formed and strengthened spiritually. Church has value as it gives us courage, insight, and passion for living life whole-heartedly with God’s unconditional love and boundless hope. Is our primary experience one of opening up, of freeing, of moving beyond constraints and limits?

Is our attention as individuals and as a faith community too small? Can we seek from God an expansion of our focus, of our interests, and of our action?