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St. Mark's City Heights Episcopal Church looks for love
"Many people have been hurt by religion for many different reasons."
Contact: 4227 Fairmount Ave, San Diego 619-283-6242 www.stmarks-cityheights.org
Membership: 25
Pastor: Father Richard Lee
Age: 53
Born: Leicester, England
Formation: University of Wales, Bangor, Wales; Episcopal Diocese of San Diego School for Ministry
Years Ordained: 9
San Diego Reader: How long do you spend preparing your sermons?
Father Richard Lee: I probably spend up to 10 hours putting a sermon together. Episcopalians are relatively short in their preaching, so we preach about 10 to 12 minutes. My goal is to focus on a single topic and try to bring the gospel alive today, including where we are in our lives in society and how God’s love turns up in challenges, supports us, and leads us in our everyday life.
SDR: What’s your favorite subject on which to preach?
FL: God loves you. God is love, and we need to constantly challenge ourselves to look for love to see the Holy One in all of creation in every being without exception, and to share that love. Many people have been hurt by religion for many different reasons. So often we’re focused on sin. But God is about love, and so if we’re not preaching about what is fundamental to our faith, then I think we’re missing the point.
SDR: Why did you become a priest?
FL: I’m a biophysicist by training and work at Illumina. My faith is central to who I am, and there’s always been a call to the priesthood. For many years, I’ve tried to ignore that vocational call, but life never felt complete. In some ways, I see my vocation to ministry as a lock and key. My lock has got a scientific side and a vocational side, and I’m both parts of that lock and the key, and it’s God’s work to make the lock and key to work together. I’m an openly gay married man and when I was in Wales, even though the church was accepting, it wasn’t accepting of a gay man to ordination. So, I went into biophysics, and when I moved to San Diego, I got more and more involved with the church, involved with an orphanage in Tijuana, and that really fed my call. At that time, the dean of the cathedral approached me and asked if I had considered ordination. The Episcopal Church is welcoming of gay clergy, and even though I tried to come up with every reason to push against it, God kept opening doors.
SDR: What is the mission of your parish?
FL: St. Mark’s is a healthy but small church and our values include loving inclusiveness, celebrating the unique gifts of each and every person and to be present to all of God’s children. We’re active in our faith, and we live that out through working for the needs of our community. Outreach is extremely important to us. We have an active food pantry and we recognize everyone in our community. Our worship, although traditional and liturgical, is joyful, welcoming, and we speak God’s love in the gospel fearlessly, with kindness, and with honesty — but without judgment.
SDR: Where do you go when you die?
FL: We choose to return to God’s love and grace. I don’t know what heaven looks like. When we return to God, that is heaven. It’s beyond our comprehension, what that looks like, but I believe it is that. I don’t believe death is the end. Heaven is not necessarily a fluffy white cloud and God is not a bearded old man flying around on that cloud, but we return to God. We all have a choice whether to accept the Holy One’s love. When you believe that God is beyond understanding, the extent of that choice is unknown as well. Anyone can reject God’s love. I don’t also believe that hell is a fiery pit with a red-colored character with a pointed fork. The absence of God is hell.
Here's something you might be interested in.
St. Mark's City Heights Episcopal Church looks for love
"Many people have been hurt by religion for many different reasons."
St. Mark's City Heights Episcopal Church looks for love
"Many people have been hurt by religion for many different reasons."
Contact: 4227 Fairmount Ave, San Diego 619-283-6242 www.stmarks-cityheights.org
Membership: 25
Pastor: Father Richard Lee
Age: 53
Born: Leicester, England
Formation: University of Wales, Bangor, Wales; Episcopal Diocese of San Diego School for Ministry
Years Ordained: 9
San Diego Reader: How long do you spend preparing your sermons?
Father Richard Lee: I probably spend up to 10 hours putting a sermon together. Episcopalians are relatively short in their preaching, so we preach about 10 to 12 minutes. My goal is to focus on a single topic and try to bring the gospel alive today, including where we are in our lives in society and how God’s love turns up in challenges, supports us, and leads us in our everyday life.
SDR: What’s your favorite subject on which to preach?
FL: God loves you. God is love, and we need to constantly challenge ourselves to look for love to see the Holy One in all of creation in every being without exception, and to share that love. Many people have been hurt by religion for many different reasons. So often we’re focused on sin. But God is about love, and so if we’re not preaching about what is fundamental to our faith, then I think we’re missing the point.
SDR: Why did you become a priest?
FL: I’m a biophysicist by training and work at Illumina. My faith is central to who I am, and there’s always been a call to the priesthood. For many years, I’ve tried to ignore that vocational call, but life never felt complete. In some ways, I see my vocation to ministry as a lock and key. My lock has got a scientific side and a vocational side, and I’m both parts of that lock and the key, and it’s God’s work to make the lock and key to work together. I’m an openly gay married man and when I was in Wales, even though the church was accepting, it wasn’t accepting of a gay man to ordination. So, I went into biophysics, and when I moved to San Diego, I got more and more involved with the church, involved with an orphanage in Tijuana, and that really fed my call. At that time, the dean of the cathedral approached me and asked if I had considered ordination. The Episcopal Church is welcoming of gay clergy, and even though I tried to come up with every reason to push against it, God kept opening doors.
SDR: What is the mission of your parish?
FL: St. Mark’s is a healthy but small church and our values include loving inclusiveness, celebrating the unique gifts of each and every person and to be present to all of God’s children. We’re active in our faith, and we live that out through working for the needs of our community. Outreach is extremely important to us. We have an active food pantry and we recognize everyone in our community. Our worship, although traditional and liturgical, is joyful, welcoming, and we speak God’s love in the gospel fearlessly, with kindness, and with honesty — but without judgment.
SDR: Where do you go when you die?
FL: We choose to return to God’s love and grace. I don’t know what heaven looks like. When we return to God, that is heaven. It’s beyond our comprehension, what that looks like, but I believe it is that. I don’t believe death is the end. Heaven is not necessarily a fluffy white cloud and God is not a bearded old man flying around on that cloud, but we return to God. We all have a choice whether to accept the Holy One’s love. When you believe that God is beyond understanding, the extent of that choice is unknown as well. Anyone can reject God’s love. I don’t also believe that hell is a fiery pit with a red-colored character with a pointed fork. The absence of God is hell.
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