Pastor Gordon Cosby, a WWII veteran, founded the Church of the Savior, in Washington, DC. In its short 50-year history, Church of the Savior has started many ministries including: Jubilee Housing, Samaritan Inns, Christ House, Joseph's House, Good Shepherd soup kitchen, Columbia Road Health Services, and the Servant Leadership School. Church of the Savior has become a place where Service, Worship, Education, Evangelism and Pastoral care has become a lifestyle for its members and where the DC community has been shaped and strengthened.

A member went to Pastor Cosby, feeling ambivalent about voicing opposition to a proposed new law which she felt would unfairly hurt the poor in the city. She felt she needed to have an alternative proposal before confronting the politicians about the new law. But Pastor Cosby told her she already had an alternative. "The Church is supposed the alternative," he said.

The Church is more than a group of individuals who share the same doctrinal belief system and who like a similar style of worship on Sunday morning. The Church is a community living out its baptismal covenant to cherish each human life; to live without violence; to confront systems that unfairly value one group over another; to share the abundance that God has blessed us with so that all might live with dignity; and to pass on to succeeding generations a fruitful earth, with its diversity of life maintained.

S.W.E.E.P. is not merely an organizational chart for the Vestry of St. Thomas'. It is an invitation for each member to live out their baptismal covenant each day, in a community that seeks to live their lives as an alternative to the ways of the world. As we live daily in service to God and all creation; worshiping and praising of the God that is Love; educating ourselves and future generations about God's vision for a just, abundant and peaceful life for all; sharing this dream with others; and showing our care for each other and our neighbors near and far, S.W.E.E.P. becomes sacramental - the outward and visible sign of the spiritual reality that we are reborn, new creatures living with the mind of Christ.

I am delighted that as a result of our initial S.W.E.E.P. meetings, St. Thomas' will be providing increased opportunities for worship on Wednesday evenings this fall, along with increased opportunities for fellowship - a meal on one Wednesday evening a month and another opportunity for service with a once-a-month soup kitchen (as an experiment to see if we can meet a need in the community). With these offerings, S.W.E.E.P. becomes more deeply a part of our lives and the light shines brighter in a dark world.