Our Journey

Campers at Cosmos Camp, Cathedral Ridge

The Episcopal Church in Colorado spans the entire state – all 104,000 square miles of it. From its rugged mountains to the seemingly endless miles of prairie, Colorado is home on the one hand to some of the nation’s fastest-growing cities and, on the other, to remote, one-stoplight towns that in the winter can be nearly inaccessible. Colorado has elected senators from the major political parties, legalized recreational marijuana, and has voter-approved, radical restraints on taxation. In short, Colorado is a diverse state. And nearly all this diversity is reflected in the congregations of the diocese and in the character of the diocese as a whole.

The Reverend Michael McManus giving communion bread to a communicant at Church of the Transfiguration, Evergreen. Photo courtesy Erin Macgillivray Smith

The Episcopal Church in Colorado comprises 95 worshiping congregations of all shapes and sizes, theological perspectives, and liturgical approaches. Congregations range from small, rural and regional parishes, to mid-sized and large urban and suburban churches, and everything in between. Our communities run the gamut from rural to urban, mountain resorts to the farms and ranches of the valleys. We are rich and we are poor. Some of us are conservative. Others are progressive.

Some of our large congregations have vital ministries, both in their communities and in the wider world. Small congregations have equally significant ministries that sustain their communities in a variety of ways, some in the midst of poverty and declining populations. Our ministries with young adults, teens, and children are of utmost importance, and we aspire to expand and deepen these. Each congregation has gifts to offer the diocese. We each seek support from the diocese.

Neighborhood rehab with youth from Calvary Church, Golden. Photo courtesy Calvary Church.

In our lives together, we have experienced seasons of division and of shared ministry. We have discovered that the more we share time, prayer, and worship with each other, the stronger we are together. Opportunities to come together, at our regional gatherings, to our Annual Convention, to times of learning and growing – through, for example, the Church Development Institute – help us understand each other and our common call to live out the Gospel. The primary challenge for our new bishop? Our continuing need to strengthen relationships, both within our congregations and among our many ministries – across a diverse geography, theology, and experience – in ways that hold us together even as divisions threaten to pull the world around us apart.

Over the past several years, we have found uncommon richness in our diversity. That diversity is in our worship itself, from the most traditional liturgies to praise services and services of healing. We celebrate the Eucharist, Morning Prayer, and Evensong. That diversity is in our music. It is in our ministries. It is in our communities themselves, and, yes, in our theological and political outlooks.

Parishioners, University of Colorado students, and neighbors gathered at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in Boulder for an eclipse party on their green. Photos courtesy Beth McKnight

Nonetheless, when we come together at the Annual Convention Eucharist, we acknowledge our life together in the Body of Christ.

It is in our common worship, our Book of Common Prayer, that we find hope and grace. It is in this awareness of our life in the Body of Christ that we are drawn to be Christ’s hands to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.