The mingled voices and laughter of more than a dozen parishioners drifted down the hallway of University United Methodist Church following Sunday morning service. Midday sunlight streamed through stained-glass windows, shadows dancing along the walls of the sanctuary.

Alicia Wood, the pastor at University United Methodist Church, said goodbye to one final parishioner as she strolled into the heart of the church with a smile spreading across her face.

“There’s always one more person to talk to,” she said, laughing. “Never a bad thing though.”

Since her appointment as pastor in July 2015, Wood has worked to preserve University United Methodist Church’s stance as a source of relief and refuge for members of the Syracuse community. A rainbow banner hangs to the left of its front door, emblazoned with the words “All Are Welcome” on top. It’s a symbolic gesture and message, Wood said, that is especially poignant today.

The United Methodist Church voted to maintain its opposition to same-sex marriage and gay clergy during a meeting in late February, a decision met with both favor and fervor from some members of its global community. But for University United Methodist Church in Syracuse, the decision was antithetical to the core values of members who have come to call its sanctuary “home.”

“This is like a stage of grief for all of us,” Wood said. “I feel like all of us in this faith community are just kind of walking through the stages of grief.”

In a Facebook post written by University United Methodist Church’s governing board following the global church’s decision, the board wrote: “We welcome the richness we enjoy in being a community where age, race, culture, origin, language, ability and whom you love have no bearing on your welcome or status among us.”

This fall will mark eight years that University United Methodist Church has been a member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, an organization within the United Methodist Church seeking to welcome all religious practitioners, regardless of sexuality or gender identity. But in the years following the November 2016 presidential elections, Wood said that her parish has had to work especially hard to redefine what it means to be “Christian” — both in their actions and their words.

“I think we are more social justice-oriented, and it is because of the election. It isn’t because of me,” she said. “It’s the mood and, for me as a leader, to notice what’s going on and what’s bubbling up is important to pay attention to and to empower, and we have leaders within the community doing that work.”

One of the strengths of University United Methodist Church’s congregation, Wood said, is its effort to incorporate residents within the greater Syracuse community. Galyn Murphy-Stanley, the parish’s outreach coordinator, said the church works with more than two dozen organizations within the city, but the “nut of the program,” she said, is its food pantry.

Every Friday morning for roughly 20 years, a team of about 25 volunteers has worked as a partner agency with the Food Bank of Central New York, stocking shelves with donated and wholesale foods. Wood added that more than 4,000 meals are served each month, and a free breakfast feeds visitors every second and fourth Sunday. But meeting the needs of the Syracuse community does not start and stop at the cupboard doors, Murphy-Stanley said.

In addition to the food pantry, she added that the church is a partner agency with the CNY Diaper Bank, packing and distributing more than 5,000 diapers each month. Pet owners come to purchase food for their animals, and nutritional education classes are offered several times throughout the month.

Community members can register to vote, meet with their religious groups and attend a variety of self-help meetings for individuals struggling with alcoholism, addiction and health complications. And each time they enter University United Methodist Church, they pass under those same three words that have come to define the parish’s central identity: “all are welcome.”

“We make a big deal about letting the community meet here,” Wood said. “Now, like hundreds of years ago, the church is at the center of community again. And I feel like that’s what the church needs to be.”

Murphy-Stanley said that outreach extends beyond the immediate services University United Methodist Church provides residents with. It also involves standing in solidarity with parishioners and city residents through social and political activism.

It was this same sense of unity felt on that frigid January day, Wood said, when more than 500 people spilled into the pews of University United Methodist Church’s sanctuary for the 2019 Women’s March Syracuse. Environmental activists, Syracuse Black Lives Matter members and refugee community members, among others, each took to the lectern to take a stance against institutions that had historically denied them their voice.

And each time they addressed the crowds, they spoke before those same rainbow banners, draped across the altar.

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“We need to say that the church — that Christians — don’t agree with this hate, and we need to have a louder voice,” Wood said. “We started going to all the marches and the protests and it might just be, you know, 10 of us, but you know what? We’re out here.”

During her three-and-a-half years as pastor at University United Methodist Church, Wood said the congregation has grown in size and become more vocal on issues affecting marginalized identities. She said she’s aware of the stigma some Christians have created against other denominations — a stereotype emboldened by intolerance and a lacking appreciation for difference.

“One of the reasons I felt adamantly called to become a pastor is because there’s a kind of Christian who has hijacked the name Christian and made it sound horrible and bad,” she said. “So I think that’s a small goal, but a big goal — a goal for our city, a goal for everywhere, for Christians to have a good name.”

For Wood, faith is not remaining firm and resolute in her beliefs during the easy times. It’s finding the courage and conviction to remain devote during periods of struggle and distress.

“For me, faith is when I notice I’m not being kind or that maybe I don’t have the compassion I should for a certain individual or group of people,” she said. “It’s turning toward God and asking for the courage and faith to love all people.”

Wood said she remembers the first time she walked into University United Methodist Church and saw “this grandiose space,” with its dark oak pews and prismatic stained-glass windows glistening in the morning light.

She recalls tears springing to her eyes and a deep inhalation of breath as she knew, with resounding certainty, that the Holy Spirit was here and that she could feel what so many practitioners who came to University United Methodist Church before her had felt as well, Wood said.

That, she said, is the drive that guides her every day: the resolve behind each smile, “hello” and warm embrace made available to every person seeking it.

As part of University United Methodist Church’s Lenten observance, a lone upholstered chair sits empty on the left side of the altar, a symbolic reminder for parishioners to take time to reconnect with an “unhurried God.” During the 40 days of Lent leading into Easter, the church typically removes its staple rainbow-colored banners to place the recliner — and its meaning — on full display.

This season, Wood said, the colorful flags will remain firmly in place.

“As Amos said: ‘let justice roll down like waters.’”

Published on March 19, 2019 at 9:55 pm

Contact Kelsey: katho101@syr.edu | @writtenbykelsey