On Facebbok, Ruth Tonkiss Cameron posted a picture of the sanctuary of the Episcopal Church of St Luke & St. MAtthew saying “Sanctifying the Sanctuary.” The pictures below shows the church packed with boxes, blankets and busy people organizing themselves in providing aid for Sandy hurricane victims. With their liturgical “the work of the people,” they were channels of God’s grace providing God’s love to the world, shelter, care, and sustained presence. That is the best way to sanctify the sanctuary, turn the house of God into the Oikós, the house of the world. Prayers without blankets, praises without boxes of food, creeds without clothes, sacraments without serving the least of these do not means much. Mutual aid, one learning with another, one feeding the other, one being there for somebody else. The sanctuary being truly sanctified, incensed with our acts of love and mercy. Let the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew in New York City teaches us about worship!
“We’re neighbors helping neighbors, on a fleet of bicycles,” Mr. Sniffen says. “It’s an image of community at its best.”
More than 2,500 volunteers have signed up for a variety of jobs at the church, from transporting supplies on bike and by car, to canvassing the neighborhood asking for donations of the most requested items, such as toiletries, cleaning supplies and industrial trash bags.
“They’re committed and they’re not afraid of personal hardship,” Mr. Krinsky says of the Occupy Sandy organizers and volunteers. “If it means they’re carrying supplies up 20 flights of stairs, they’re going to do it.”
“We’re saying, ‘What can we do for each other right here, today?,” Mr. Smith said.
As a faith leader and believer in the principles of Occupy Wall Street, Mr. Sniffen teaches to “love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”
See more here: http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/occupy-sandy-offers-aid-to-hurricane-victims/#more-79477
By GABRIELLE ALFIERO
