Here’s the thing about the Progressive Worship Walk—it’s a long way, but it’s not a long way.
It’s a long way because at this end of the ten-mile route we are mostly white and mostly affluent and we have excellent school systems paid for by an extraordinary tax base. We have grocery stores and farmer's markets with fresh, local produce. We have green space and safety on our streets. Some of the churches we will visit along the way are mostly African American and not affluent. Some of them struggle with dangerous neighborhoods, little access to fresh food, and a terribly challenged school system.
There are times when to get from here to the other side of City Line Avenue feels not so much like a long way as like a passage to a different world. But the beautiful thing about the Presbyterian church is this: we have friends in Philadelphia. More than friends, we have brothers and sisters in faith all along the road—and that means we too are not strangers there. We are not strangers and we are not pioneers—we are friends and guests and fellow Christians, celebrating the work of the connectional church. We are not going as people bringing the light of God; we are going to discover the light of God already glowing there.
We have family in the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection. It’s time to pay them a visit, to see where they live, to shake their hands and hear their voices. Because it’s not another world—it’s just a little walk down the road.
