St. Matthew / San Mateo

If you are passing by and feel intimidated or angry because of religion, please know that there is immunity granted when you enter this place; immunity from the ravages of religion and misuse of Divine revelation.  We live in a time of religious zealots and TV evangelists attempting to take power in our land.  How do you find persuasiveness rather than coercion and will-to-dominate in religion?  The answer is St. Matthew/San Mateo Episcopal Church.  Here operates an unconditional surrender to the freedom of God to speak to whomever in whatever language is understandable to you.  Immunity from religious control is granted you upon entry.  St. Matthew's offers sanctuary to everyone and promises this glorious freedom of God as the climate to explore the healthiest living that religion affords. 

The norm of St. Matthew/San Mateo is the stranger making himself/herself at home.  All names are sacred here but none must place one's name on a list to be taken seriously.  Perhaps you quietly dropped by wanting to reconnect in your relationship with God.  Or to surrender a burden.  Or pray for a loved one.  Or to meditate on a hard personal dilemma.  Or to find a moment of peace.  This church has a high ceiling and broad aisles to allow the contained soul an opportunity to venture forth in multiple directions.  St. Matthew's offers ages of spiritual space in which individuals may be on pilgrimage.

If you are passing by and feel that life is fragmenting into a vast number of irreconcilable, shattered pieces, then please know that we hold an outrageous hope that, in God alone, all aspects of life are in unity.  We believe that God is the Alpha, the beginning and that God is the Omega, the ending of all things.  So we are called to extravagant hospitality in the confidence that a gracious welcome is central to our purpose as a community.  And yes, we are part of a specific religious tradition.  We are so, not because one religious tradition exclusively contains all truth, but because when one goes on a long journey toward ultimate unity, one has to depart from one specific place.  St. Matthew/San Mateo, Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, is our point of departure.  And our companion and ultimate confidence in the journey is Jesus Christ.  We believe Christ to be the clear manifestation of God's love for all of creation and the expression that all of our lives are in ultimate unity even beyond the finality of death.  In the midst of what appears to be an ever-increasing fragmentation of life, St. Matthew/San Mateo offers a House of Prayer for all people, an abiding hope that there is a Oneness at the center of human life.

Enter, pray, and may your time here be blessed.