Pastor’s Corner: Dr. Andy Anderson
Pastor’s Corner: The Rev’d Dr. Andy Anderson
Church of the Nativity, Episcopal
Tell us about yourself
I am humbled and honored to serve as the 11th Rector of the historic Church of the Nativity, Episcopal, in downtown Huntsville. That is what I do, but who I am is a child of God, created in God’s image and invited to share God’s life. Empowered by the Holy Spirit in baptism and sustained by the Eucharist, I am called to proclaim the good news of God in Christ Jesus. I fall short of this calling, but God’s hands have been laid upon me. I am blessed to be married to Tippy for 34 years and we have two adult children. A Georgia Bulldog hailing from Statesboro (Georgia) where my family was involved in agribusiness for generations, I worked as a corporate banker in Atlanta prior to seminary at Sewanee, and ordination 21 years ago. I try to find time to garden and enjoy art, music, hiking, southern fiction, poetry, travel, biking and staying physically fit. Tippy is an artist and we love spending time in Sewanee and walking our two Terriers around Twickenham!
What motivates you to do what you do?
St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5: …the love of Christ urges us on….so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised…if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ…The new creation in Christ and God’s ministry of reconciliation motivate me! I am energized by people’s lives transformed through the church to be the Body of the Risen Christ in order to transform the world to be a place of God’s blessing and peace. God’s love in Christ growing in and through the church urges me on. Worship in the beauty of holiness, mission and a contemplative prayer life seeking union with God strengthen me.
What is God speaking to you right now?
If our priorities and energies could be aligned with God’s, united with the One Divine Presence who created this vast, complex and beautiful cosmos, then we will begin to find a way forward from the chaos our sinfulness, selfishness, and ego-driven individuality can make of this world and of life. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I believe God has shared God’s life with us in the man from Nazareth so that we would not only share God’s presence in eternity, but now. The Kingdom is near, Jesus proclaimed. God shared our humanity so that we could know and share God’s divinity. If we lived without judgment as Jesus lived; if we forgave others, especially our enemies as Jesus forgave, if we shared God’s abundant blessings with all, loving God and our neighbors, we would find a purpose and a life that is not only unspeakably beautiful, but enduring and transcending all the pain and sorrow confronting us. You are God’s beloved, so is every person you meet….believe it and live like it!
What does unity in our city mean to you?
Unity in our city is found as all Christians and all people of faith learn to respect each other and believe that God is speaking through all of us. We all have so much to share and learn. I have so much to learn from my Baptist friends, my Roman Catholic friends, Latter Day Saints friends, my Presbyterian friends, my Muslim friends, my Jewish friends, (and so on….) even my friends who don’t know they have been professing faith with their lives but without words. Nativity hosted an interfaith dialog during Lent and then a conversation about prayer from different faith traditions. We all said that our prayer life brings us closer to God’s presence and to knowing God’s purposes. If we would faithfully say our prayers and find the work and mission of God that we share in common, we could do so much good as the faith community.
Prayer for our city
Gracious and loving God, creator of the vast stars of the universe and this fragile earth our island home; thank you for blessing us with creativity, reason and skill so that we might continue with you to co-create this world as a place of blessing for all. Give us grace to notice your presence and miracles of life and love every day. We pray for our community of Huntsville and the ministries your people offer. Break down the dividing walls among us that we may build your kingdom, working for the common good as our hearts are caught on fire with your love. As Jesus taught, help us to put others’ needs before our own, serving others as he taught. Jesus echoed in his teachings the words of the prophets that what you chiefly desire from us is to do justice, love mercy and to walk humbly with you all our days. May these be more than words, through Jesus Christ our Lord who with you and the Holy Spirit are One God, forever. Amen.
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