Stewardship Month: October 10th 2021 - Ryn Kennedy
Why did you join St. Mark’s? Why have you continued as an active member?
When I graduated from college I had a very tattered relationship with God, not only was I struggling in my adolescence with my identity, but my father began to develop parkinsons, and so rarely would I pray unless in dire need of a miracle and after highschool I would tentatively attend the late Christmas eve service at the Church in which I was raised.
And at some point I entered into a questioning period, wondering if I was truly loved by God, because I had felt so unloved by the world around me, like an outcast. I was a angry queer transgender adolescent, searching for my own sense of self and I was drinking from fountains that could never end my thirst.
I would quietly test and probe the limits of this lifetime and God searching for answers without even understanding the questions, and then about four years ago a personal tragedy occurred and I felt shattered. I needed God, completely needed God, and so I called out, and he answered in the form of the young woman I was dating at the time. She invited me here to a church she had felt welcomed in.
I had never been to a service like this one before, I had always attended a very contemporary service with a praise band and certainly never a kneeler or a pew. Even with a few first lound clangs of the kneeler, I felt like I had found a place I could praise and worship the God I had come to rely on and walk with.
And it is that simple for me, I was welcomed in.
I continue here at St. Mark’s because I feel as though we are called to open these doors and welcome all who are seeking to love and be loved by God.
