I believe in organised religion.

Some people say they are not really into organised religion. Or that people follow organised religion not out of piety but for the sense of community. Or that organised religion in general is corrupt and not genuine spirituality.

Well, I think that's terribly harsh.

When it comes to Christianity I think that it's very hard to be a Christian by yourself. Only in relationships to others and to our creation can we really know who we are, and if we are Christians then that has less to do with what dogma we choose to ascribe to and more to do with that we belong to Christ. Some say that people belong to organised religion for the community side of it as if that was a weakness. It's not. It's a strength, and only makes it more beautiful. After all, Jesus did not come in order to make us into perfect little individual saints, but to forge a community, a community where we are simultaneously sinners and saints. And I think it is only in this community that we can really see what Christianity is about, when we together tell the crazy beautiful stories about God to each other, and when we share a simple meal of bread and wine. 

Because as I look around my own parish I see families with young children, proper old ladies, old men with suits and ties, homeless persons, professors and doctors, punk rockers and preps, and I have a really hard time seeing what they all have in common. I would never choose to be in community with many of these people, but like a miracle we have been called by God to be his chosen community. And together we are that broken and blessed body of Christ that has been given to the world to be the sustenance of all. 

And I guess that's why I believe in organised religion, and that's why I believe in the Church. What we do together, as participators in a sacred tradition, has far more integrity than what I could have done by myself. By myself I can not heal the wounds of this world, and I can't even heal my own wounds. But when we gather together to become one body in Christ, then, at least for a moment, we are a sign of healing and community in a fallen world that far too often succeeds in driving us apart.