Sharing Questions of Faith at St. Paul’s, Holley

On the fourth Sunday evening of each month, an ecumenical group of Christians gathers around tables in the parish hall of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Holley, NY. Some members come early for Eucharist; others join afterward, in time for a discussion about a book or article they have all read. Some are Episcopalians, while others belong to a local Roman Catholic parish.

In this small rural village on the eastern edge of the Diocese of Western New York, the group provides what its founder, the Rev. Joseph Kozlowski, calls “a safe space where folks can share the questions of faith.”

The Holley Faith Sharing and Discussion Community began in 2014 under the leadership of Kozlowski, a supply priest in the Diocese of Western New York, and the Rev. Colleen McHale O’Connor, of the Genesee Region Initiative, with the support and encouragement of the Rev. Robin Kozlowski, Joe’s spouse, who was ordained a deacon in 2023.

While the group stopped meeting when the pandemic began, they resumed monthly gatherings in April 2021, and attendance is now greater than it was before COVID.

“We decided to do something different when we reconvened after COVID, with Eucharist becoming a regular part of each month’s meeting,” Robin Kozlowski says. “It made sense to include the Eucharist in light of the Genesee Region Initiative commitment to offering Eucharist regularly to members of the region’s congregations.”

The group’s discussion topics have included Christian nationalism, white supremacy, dismantling racism, and the decline of Christianity. Articles by Richard Rohr, a popular author and Franciscan priest, and from magazines including Plough and Sojourners also spark conversation. Each month, Joe Kozlowski sends an email to participants with suggested reading for the next session.

“In small congregations, like those in the Genesee region, there aren’t often opportunities to have these sorts of conversations because it’s more difficult to gather a critical mass,” O’Connor says. “Members from parishes within the region are joining to be able to have these types of discussions.”

Joe Kozlowski says that while group members don’t always agree on topics of faith or images of God, they appreciate the space to explore their views together. “This is a place for community formation, to enhance faith in a structured way,” he says. “This isn’t about a private piety.”

Although the group is led by Episcopal clergy and takes place at St. Paul’s, O’Connor emphasizes that it is not a stealth recruitment effort, calling its members “yeast” in their local congregations of all denominations. “This is a group that wouldn’t have come together in any other setting,” she says. “The opportunity to share from diverse locations and social circles is one of the exciting parts. It’s interesting to build community that isn’t based on any particular church or background. We benefit from that wideness of experience.

“I find it exciting to have broader perspective,” she says. “Our purpose is not to make future Episcopalians but to have a faith conversation.”

This article was originally published on the Episcopal Partnership website.