Kay Parris meets priest, author and radical welcome campaigner, Stephanie Spellers

Stephanie Spellers’ book, Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of Transformation, has been a major inspiration for the radical welcome campaign currently being developed by the United Reformed Church. Her understanding is that “radical welcome” is a spiritual practice, through which one is transformed by one’s encounter with “the other”. It is less a means to an end, she believes, than a fundamental aspect of being a Christian.

When we meet for a “virtual interview” (over Skype, since she lives in Boston), the depth of her commitment to the theology of radical welcome radiates out of my computer screen, and she articulates its gritty essence with great clarity and insight. It seems she sees her very salvation as tied up in a process of loving reconciliation and powersharing with others – particularly those “other” groups who have been historically oppressed and marginalised. But her empathy for more traditionally established congregations, who might feel threatened by the process of opening up to those on the outside, is also sincere.

As founder and lead priest at The Crossing, an emergent congregation at St Paul’s Cathedral in Boston, she has presided over the flourishing of an alternative, progressive worship community. The Crossing welcomes particularly those who have found themselves outside or on the margins of any kind of faith gathering, and includes many younger and many homeless or financially vulnerable people. The congregation, which has just celebrated its fifth birthday, interacts and shares power, stories and space with diverse other groups including Chinese-speaking and Muslim congregations at the cathedral. She acknowledges that St Paul’s is a step further along the radical welcome road than the average church, as a cathedral founded to be “a house of prayer for all peoples”. Yet Stephanie Spellers is convinced most churches will find similar ideals somewhere in their history – ideals which can be honoured and built upon over time, in tangible, if challenging, ways.

This is an extract from the November 2011 issue of Reform.

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Related articles:

1. Editorial – Kay Parris: Radical welcome
2. A radical welcome for all
3. Radical welcome could be the churches’ best chance
4. Frances Ward interview: “Religion is like learning to read”
5. The king who was not a king: Trevor Dennis explores the radical message of Christmas

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