Welcome to Blades Chapel!

Here, you are welcome to encounter God's presence. Come in and be blessed by all that God has accomplished on our behalf, and experience all that God invites us into. When people gather to worship God in faith, the presence of God is what makes this space sacred.

The Origin of Sacred Space
The Bible begins with an account of creation that describes how God and humankind were together in a garden. Unlike our everyday experience, in that garden - the Garden of Eden - the presence of God was immediately discernable and tangible. It was, in a sense, what we have in a temple: a habitation for the divine on earth. In that place, God told the first human beings to multiply and fill the earth. They were to expand the garden - the presence of God with people - to fill the whole earth.

The Pain of Separation
Tragically, humankind broke relationship with God, causing a division between the habitation of God and the place where mortal human beings would live out their days. Although God's power was not limited by any space, the closeness that humankind experienced with God, with its tangible communion, was broken. In a practical sense, God and mortals no longer shared the same space.

The Restoration of Space
The gracious God of all creation was not content to lose communion with the creatures that were made in God's image. So out of all the world God chose Abraham and Sarah to form a people who would know God and be the means for God to bless all nations of the earth. To form them and dwell with them, out of all the earth God set aside a place: the land of promise. As the people's sin and rebellion persisted, God continued to make a way to dwell among them, including a tabernacle as they journeyed to the promise land and a temple in God's city of Jerusalem.

The Body of Christ
Even though God's people as a nation broke faith with God, God's plan for salvation continued to unfold when God the Father sent the Son to dwell . . . to pitch a tent . . . among us. Jesus Christ became the temple, the place where humanity and the divine were reconciled, and the place where atonement was made through Jesus' sacrifice. Taking away our sin, guilt, and shame, God's holy presence was restored and the Spirit was sent to dwell in each of us. As a consequence, God's people have become the temple, a fellowship of the Spirit, who as a community are to fill the earth with God's unique presence as they help others experience the sacred and a restored relationship with the Creator and the rest of creation.

To learn about the mural above the entrance to Blades Chapel, click .