I always cry during the service when new members join. It happens during the congregational vow at the end:
“Joyfully, then, do we, the members of Just North UCC, receive you to our communion….” We go on to promise our support and faith to our newest members.
When I joined North Church, it was a kind of miracle. After years of feeling excluded and unwelcome in Christian community, I found a spiritual home. A community of people who embraced me, not in spite of who I am, but for the person that I am. It became a place a healing, where I have had a chance to flourish and grow. A place to love and be loved. A place to practice what I believe God calls me to do. A space where I can wrestle with my faith. A community of people to practice how I believe God means for me to be in relationship with others.
I love that we grow together. I love that each member of our community brings gifts and opportunities.
The reception of new members service is a kind of wedding, a joining together. We exchange vows. New members promise to participate in the life of the community. Then new members and congregation all speak aloud a covenant to worship, work, and serve together. And then the congregation declares in one voice that we are joined together.
Every time a new person joins our community, I experience a new miracle. A miracle of love. I renew my own commitment to join in covenant with this community. And I cry tears of gratitude and joy.
Dawn Leach