09/30/2016
Why I Wear the Collar…
By Rev. Dr. Stephanie Burns
September 30, 2016
Today is my last day as pastor of New Day Metropolitan Community Church of Naples. Over the last four years you have generously open your selves to me and invited me to walk your many journeys with you. During this time, we have laughed and cried, celebrated and grown. We have tried new things and been willing to stretch as we continued to be a place of hope in the Naples community.
While this was not the departure I believe any of us envisioned, I am grateful that we have found a way to bring this season to a close, together. Today, as my final act as your pastor, I would like to offer some final thoughts.
Being clergy can be an awesome responsibility, and being a pastor even greater. Every time I put on my collar, I know I am inviting others into relationship with me, to share with me the many things they carry on their hearts.
When I first moved to Naples, I lived in an apartment complex where many of my neighbors came to know me as the q***r pastor with the beagle. And I never once had a problem because I was “out”. I did, however have people turn to me over and over again - because they knew I was a pastor.
Like the man I knew from dog walking who came to me one day and said, "I just need to tell someone - my son died yesterday."
Or the owner of Maggie the beagle who spent an hour and a 1/2 one night telling me about some difficulties he was having.
Or the night when the kids next door knocked on my door because their Mom's boyfriend had just been killed in a motorcycle accident.
There are many examples of ways that we have touched people’s lives, far beyond the walls of worship. For me the collar is just one way of inviting those relationships. With or without a collar, we, as a “priesthood of all believers” have the capacity to invite others into relationship. To share what we have come to know is possible with community. To help people move beyond the oppressive bonds of narrow religion. To hold someone’s hand, when they just need to know that they are not alone.
In this way, we all wear collars. Collars that invite people to be included and not excluded. Invite people to know that we are all “beloved children of God.” Invite them to know that God loves them now and forever.
My dear friends, as you continue your journeys, never lose sight that we are each an invitation to the larger community. Love is a sacred gift. Love wastefully. Hold nothing back. And remember, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Let love be your song, and life your celebration and be at peace. Amen.
-Pastor Stephanie
