Today’s guest, The Rev. Don Frye is the Episcopal priest in West Dundee. He and his partner have become good friends in a short period of time.

What does community mean to you? Why is it important? How have you felt connected? Where do you feel connected?

I have been a member of many communities in my lifetime.

My first community was of course my family. It is where I was loved, disciplined, taught lasting values and faith. It was not a perfect community but no community is perfect. But there was love. I still love my family, but my family has made my sexual orientation one that is hard for them to accept me and my partner because of their religious beliefs. So our community is strained and civil, but the love is not unconditional with them.

I have belonged to several religious communities within the Christian tradition. I learned my love for God through the stories of the Bible. I have been comforted, challenged and made to see myself in these stories of men and women of faith. Communities of faith like my family invested in me as much as I have participated in the life of these communities, but I had to walk away from most because of my sexual orientation. I found a community where I was fully accepted as a gay man. That community has confirmed my call to be an ordained leader among them and I serve a community where I teach that true religion, true community is based on loving God and others, especially doing to others as you would have want others to do to you.

So what is important about community for me is loving God and others. It is not always easy living in community. I have to stay connected to others so that I continue to grow, learn and live truth with my community and other communities.

I feel most connected in communities where I served homeless single men and women, welfare moms and their kids. I feel connected when I serve as a hospital chaplain serving patients and their families when they are dealing with their anxiety and fears in the midst of medical decisions. I feel connected when I celebrate with my faith community the joys and sorrows of life. I feel connected with my partner as we walk through life together. I feel connected to my friends of other faith traditions as we wrestle with what it means to be people of truth and love in a world where peace often eludes us due to fear, greed and mistrust.

I will always work to stay connected with various communities. I do not want to be defined by just one community because that would limit my personal growth and change in my life, as I seek to be an agent of change in my community and the world.
The Rev. Don Frye