Homeless Outreach Ministry

Love of God Cathedral/Ecclesia Waukesha has an outreach to the homeless in the greater Waukesha area.  We invite you to join us every Sunday at 12 noon.  We meet at the Church at noon and return to the Church by 3pm. We conclude with an optional twenty minute prayer service in our Chapel. The great majority of our outreach work is done outside, so please dress for the weather and wear shoes that are comfortable for walking. In the event of inclement weather, our activities are cancelled. For more information, please contact either Bishop Craig or Bishop Eron.   

Beginning in May, our outreach will move to Sundays at 1:00.

Supplies for our Outreach Ministry

If you would like to help us in our homeless ministry but aren't ready or able to hit the streets with us, we always welcome donations of supplies.  We particularly need bottled water; soft granola bars or cereal bars (since many homeless folk are in need of dental care, it is best to avoid hard, crunchy items); peanut butter; jelly; single serving cans of fruit with a pull top lid; and other similar items.  You can drop off these items any time with Sandy at Shear Class Hair Design, 463 W. Main Street in Waukesha. 

If you prefer to have us do the shopping, you may send your donation to Love of God Cathedral, 463 W. Main Street, Waukesha, WI 53186.  We will happily send you a receipt for tax purposes.  Please make your check payable to Love of God, and indicate "homeless outreach" on the memo line of the check!  We appreciate your support.

Welcome to Love of God Cathedral!

We are so glad you are here!  We are a contemporary, inclusive, and developing worshiping community in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and we are dedicated to the belief that God loves all people.  We believe, with Bishop Carlton Pearson, that "all of humanity is saved - they just don't know it!"

We don't preach judgment, we don't preach evil, we don't preach anything but the Love of God.  What's more, we don't believe that the Love of God is limited or restricted in any way, because either God is God (and therefore has the power of God) or else what we call God is some sort of a delusion or fantasy we have cooked up and used to torment ourselves.  What's more, we don't believe God's love is in any way limited by our response (or lack thereof) to that love.  In the Bible we read that "...the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people" (Titus 2:11 NLT) and, "He [Jesus] himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins - and not only our sins but the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2 NLT).  Salvation to all people - the whole world - is just that.  Notice it doesn't say that Jesus atones for the sins of the whole world except for people who look different than we do, or who live somewhere other than we do, or who have different religious viewpoints than we do.  It simply says the whole world.  Throughout the centuries the Church has often tried to make it less, but if we are honest we have to admit that the Church has often spent a lot more time trying to control people's behavior that in trying to bring them to wholeness of life.  We are here to say we reject that notion.

Certainly, there is much work to be done in our world to make it the place of peace and justice that God's Kingdom is to be.  There are people to be fed, clothed, visited, and freed from oppression.  We are here to say, "Let's devote our energies to that important work, and leave the back biting and arguing about who the so-called real Christians are to other people."  We have much better things to do!

The Sanctuary Church philosophy is that everyone is welcome.  To be quite honest, a lot of church bodies say everybody is welcome, but when you investigate further, you discover that is not necessarily the case.

The notion of Sanctuary implies a place of refuge for all people.  When we say our Church is a place of refuge, we mean the following things are true:

1.  All people are welcome.  You do not have to be a member to be welcome here, you do not have to act or believe a certain way to be welcome here - you are welcome here simply by virtue of your humanity and the fact that you are a child of God.  Nobody can ever take that away from you.

2.  There are no litmus tests of orthodoxy or right belief here.  There is no one right way to believe.  There are many paths that lead to God.  Our way may not be your path, but you are welcome and respected here regardless of your path.

3.  We do not excommunicate people and we do not presume to have the ability to separate people from God.  We find such practices to be arrogant and idolatrous.  As St. Paul wrote, "Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord."  (Romans 8:38-39 CEV)

4.  We find in the life and ministry of Jesus an acceptance and love of all people, as well as a preferential option for the poor and the outcast of society.  Following his example, we open our doors and hearts to all.  We also offer the sacraments and pastoral care to all people.

As a Sanctuary Church we offer respect and welcome to all people, no matter where they are on their spiritual journey.   We strive to journey with them into the fullness of the people God created them to be.   We commit to not interfere with that process in any way, but rather to offer our love and support at all times.

Consider this.....

We have all, at one time or another, heard Church leaders make statements that would seem to indicate that God became trapped in the very system that God created.  They say things like, "God had to sacrifice Jesus to satisfy God's sense of justice."  Wouldn't that mean that God had made a terrible mistake?  Wouldn't that mean that somehow God had created a system of justice only to discover, some years later, that the only way to satisfy that same system of justice would be to sacrifice the Son of God?  And wouldn't that mean that God had made some sort of horrible mistake in which God had become trapped and couldn't find any way out but child sacrifice?  Some would answer by saying that God's sense of justice isn't our sense of justice, but how can we possibly reconcile a loving God with a murdering God?  How can we reconcile a God who would kill to satisfy a system of God's own making - in effect, that God would kill to please Godself - with any kind of being worthy of worship?

Come to Love of God Cathedral to hear a message of hope and love deeply rooted in the very same Bible that so many others use to intimidate and frighten.  Come discover the reality that God loves all people and wants all people to come to salvation.  Come worship a God who is truly loving, truly worthy of worship and praise!

Thought to Consider

The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.

~Thomas Merton

Hospitality - the Heart of Christianity

Often folks are asked a question that goes something like, "What is the essence of Christianity?"  I have heard a lot of answers to that question, most of them rather unsatisfactory. In essence, the Judeo-Christian tradition is a tradition of hospitality to all. Often times, particularly in the Hebrew Scriptures, God is described as becoming angry with God's people. Very often people have asserted some very strange reasons for God being angry, often having to do with the identity of the folks involved, when in truth the problem is a profound lack of hospitality. 

For example, are we really to believe that in the story of Sodom that God found it to be OK that Lot offered up his daughters to be raped in exchange for the safety of the men whom the residents of Sodom were seeking to assault?  Isn't it much more reasonable to look at God's discomfort with what happened there as having to do with a profound disregard for the value of hospitality?

In fact, when it comes right down to it, it would be very reasonable to say that God is intimately concerned with how we treat one another.  Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned are all profound acts of hospitality - and the heart of Christianity.

Great News!

You might find this hard to believe, but we will never, ever ask you to go knock on somebody's door and ask them any questions about what they believe, or where they are going to go when they die, or anything else for that matter.

Why not?  Well, for two reasons.  The first is that such behavior is, quite frankly, rude and intrusive.  The second is that it simply is not our job to go out and "save" anybody.  Why not?  It has already happened.  The notion that we are somehow separated from God and now need to claw our way back is an illusion. Most of us have been taught that we are separate from God, and we have believed that misinformation - but it is misinformation nevertheless.

We believe God wants us to share with other people the truth that God loves all people and wants all people to come to fullness of life.  That reality is already accomplished through Christ consciousness.  To learn more about Christ consciousness, visit us this Sunday!

Weekly Communion

At Love of God Cathedral, we celebrate Holy Communion every Sunday.  All people are welcome to receive Communion in our Church, because we recognize that the Bible provides no indication that Jesus placed any restrictions on who participated at the Lord's Supper when he established the practice of Holy Eucharist (Communion).  Therefore, we invite you to God's table with whatever understanding you have of the meaning of Communion.  At its most basic level, Communion is a meal shared between friends.  We believe that is sufficient reason to approach God's table and receive the Eucharist!