Letter Nineteen:
Broken Families
My Dear Family,
Life is messy and it is messy for all of us. All families, to some extent, are “dysfunctional.” We all receive and pass along a crooked baton in the relay race of life. Many of us in our church community find ourselves in broken families, and perhaps find it hard to relate to much that has been said in these letters.
Without being condemning, we must face the realities before us. Through the prophet Malachi, God says, “I hate divorce.” This is in the context of the betrayal of covenantal oath and His desire for “godly offspring.” There is no doubt that children in broken families are vulnerable in many ways, especially to lies. It is common for them to blame themselves for their parents’ failure. It is common to lose trust where trust has been broken. There is an interior pain of experiencing chaos and the accompanying loss of future relational and financial security.
Considering this, we must establish without a doubt that we are all broken, and all are welcome. We are a hospital for the spiritually wounded. We want to create an environment for single parents to flourish here. The old African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child,” works for us in our church context. Families in our culture, whether intact or shattered, find themselves more and more isolated from one another, and our calling and purpose is to reverse this trend toward a unity with Jesus Christ as our center.
As we said in our previous letter, there is no such thing as “illegitimate” children. Our church belongs to all children. No matter their situation, all children need to be bathed in the truth about themselves, that they are children of God, sons and daughters of our heavenly father, who is perfect and perfectly loves them as no human father can.
We want our church to be open and inviting, each living out our baptismal vows in our parish, creating an atmosphere of deep relationships, joy, and peace. We want all to be centered on Christ and His teaching, working through the hard issues we all face and bearing the beams of love for each other.
Yours in Christ,
Father John Worgul
Takeaway
Discussion Questions
- What does a dysfunctional family look like?
- What can we do to make our church a more welcoming place for those in broken families?