You Are Welcome Here
The Why and How Welcome Booklet
Founded in 2008 in New York City, St. Lydia’s is a progressive, anti-racist, LGBTQ-affirming congregation in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn with a mission to work together to dispel isolation, reconnect neighbors, and subvert the status quo.
Experiencing worship and participating in community life is the primary goal of making church together, but much of the theology, practice, and experience at St. Lydia’s has a depth not explained overtly in the liturgy. This booklet exists to offer a fresh clarity of articulation to anyone who is curious about the whys and hows of this way of doing church.
‘Dinner Church’ is a term coined by St. Lydia’s first community coordinator, Rachel Pollack Kroh. Waffle Church came a few years later, the brainstorm of the first Waffle Church minister, Sarah McCaslin. While it’s easy to imagine that Dinner or Waffle Church means ‘church with dinner, or waffles,’ the Lydian understanding of the phrase is much deeper, and this document of core practices exists so that congregants new and old, and friends near and far, can get a clearer sense of what this community does, and why.
These Lydian practices have come from sources too numerous to name. The most direct influences include St. Lydia’s founding pastor Emily Scott, founding community coordinator Rachel Pollack Kroh, and founding Waffle Church minister Sarah McCaslin; St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco (and its founders Richard Fabian and Donald Schell); Music That Makes Community (and its former Executive Director Paul Vasile and former Community Curator Charlotte Moroz); Not So Churchy (and its founding pastor Mieke Vandersall); and Saint Paul’s Chapel NYC (and its former service leaders Daniel Simons, Clay Morris, and Marilyn Haskel). Some Lydian practices have roots in ancient tradition, while others have simply emerged from the community’s experiments over time.
In addition to an exploration of foundational principles, this booklet also features descriptions of what one is likely to encounter on a visit to St. Lydia’s, including walkthroughs of both Dinner Church and Waffle Church services.
The booklet was initially drafted by Jacob Slichter and Christian Scharen, with input from Emily Scott, Donald Schell, Richard Fabian, Daniel Simons, Ciera Cope, Sarah Lubic, and Debbie Holloway. The booklet was designed by Joanna Landrum.