Have you seen the recently stained front doors of Saint Andrew’s? It is gorgeous—and it has changed color from brown to Cape Cod red.

If you google “Episcopal Church red door” you will get a plethora of links to websites, essays, photos, and videos. A red door has become a widespread meme of the Episcopal Church. Some reasons given on the internet seem more like “reasons”—the kind of web info generated from one person’s casual comment and repeated online until it becomes a “source.” The idea that the red door indicates that the mortgage on the building is paid off ¹ seems both counterintuitive (isn’t “being in the red” synonymous with “debt”?) and boastful… Others say the red connects with the “blood of Christ,” a connection to the image of Passover lambs and blood on the door lintel described in Exodus 12. Another possibility: red indicates welcome by the Holy Spirit, as her color is red. But the reason I have heard most often is that the red door is a marker of a threshold to both physical and spiritual sanctuary.

There is ancient precedent for a sign or a mark to indicate sanctuary and refuge. In the Bible, the “mark of Cain” was a sign for the protection of Cain as he walked the earth after murdering his brother Abel (Gen 4:12-17). The blood of the Passover lamb on the lintels of the Hebrews’ doors made their homes safe sanctuaries from the Angel of Death (Ex 12:6-7; 12-13). After escaping Egypt, God tells the Hebrew people that they must provide cities of sanctuary and refuge for those who have unintentionally taken a life. (Exod. 21:12-14; Num. 35:6-34). In addition to biblical precedents, pre-Christian traditions of Greeks and Roman also designated temples with sanctuary status, and this practice was adopted by churches when the Roman Empire became Christian.

In the Christian tradition, identifying sacred space as a sanctuary from civil law has for centuries been a way of recognizing that the political and social ends of expediency and revenge and the religious and spiritual values of compassion, mercy, and protection of the vulnerable are often in conflict. Thus sanctuary was created for those who had committed—or more importantly, were suspected of committing—a crime who were fleeing the threat of attack, opportunistic cruelty, and hasty and violent retribution. Clergy, respected as moral authorities, could negotiate a solution and sentence for the accused while protecting their life and well-being from hasty vigilante “justice.” Unlike the battlefield, gallows, streets, or arenas, blood was never to be shed in the interior of a church.

The English roots of the Episcopal church connect us to their tradition of church interiors set apart as spaces of sanctuary. As early as King Aethelbert of Kent’s Law Code in 597, rulers of England established and supported laws that paradoxically delineated sanctuary from civil authority. Many of these documents acknowledged the special status of the church, describing two kinds of peace: the Peace of the King, and the Peace of the Church. Having entered a space with the Peace of the Church, the fugitive had a certain number of days to suspend the consequences of a crime. Anyone who harmed a fugitive in sanctuary would have to make compensation for the injury. But those claiming sanctuary also had to give compensation for their crimes and to solemnly swear that they would amend their lives. ² English sanctuary laws changed through the centuries, but the sensibility of the church sanctuary as a place set apart persists today. Until recently in the United States there was governmental respect for the sanctity of worship spaces. American churches were recognized as “sensitive locations”—that is, as physical sanctuaries—until the current administration rescinded that policy in January 2025.

In the Episcopal tradition, the red door identifies at a glance one of “ours” and is a visual affirmation of the threshold of sanctuary. The red door demarks a safe place within, a kind of “X marks the spot” at the threshold of sanctuary. You will occasionally find churches of other denominations with red doors, but if you’re betting on it, the odds are that a red door church is an Episcopal church.

Our red doors demark another kind of sanctuary, one of psychological and spiritual safety. I frequently comment on my admiration and awe for the faith and spirituality of the recovery community. The Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church (RMEC) serves people who are recovering and struggling with any kind of addiction, and has moving weekly essays on its website appropriately named, “Through the Red Door,” https://www.episcopalrecovery.org/reddoor. The RMEC website has this introduction:

In the early days of the Church, when the front door of the parish was painted red it was said to signify sanctuary – that the ground beyond these doors was holy, and anyone who entered through them was safe from harm.

In the lives of many recovering people, it is through these same red doors that sanctuary is found on a daily basis. Initially that sanctuary may not have started in the rooms with high vaulted ceilings and stained-glass windows, but in the basements and back rooms of churches where 12-step meetings are held.

This blog was created for recovering people to share the experiences they found walking through those doors of safety, refuge and peace.

May all find safety, refuge, and peace offered by the Holy One.

And may the red doors of Saint Andrew’s offer this precious gift through grace, our dedication, and our purpose.

Jen+

¹ https://christiansforsocialaction.org/resource/the-church-as-sanctuary/

² Norman Maclaren Trenholme, “The Right of Sanctuary in England,” in The University of Missouri Studies, I.5, (University of Missouri, 1903).

Rev. Jen has set her office drop-in day as Wednesday of each week from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. for anyone who would like to stop in and visit. You are always invited to make an appointment for a time convenient for you. Mondays are her Sabbath day.

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

On Wednesdays at 1:00, we gather for about a half hour in quiet contemplative prayer. A leader introduces the prayer and a bell is chimed; we sit in prayer for twenty minutes until another chime sounds and then close with a spoken prayer. Feel free to come in any time between 1:00 and 1:20 to pray in silence in a lovely sacred space.

ALTAR FLOWER CALENDAR

An altar flower calendar is posted in Hamilton Hall. Sign up to sponsor the altar flowers to commemorate a birthday or anniversary, remember a loved one, or in thanksgiving for an important event. We ask a donation to help offset the cost of the altar flowers and other worship expenses. Be sure to tell the office your dedication so that it can be printed in the bulletin. Please make checks payable to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and in the memo field please put this information: Altar Flowers, person’s name, occasion, Sunday date you’d like for the flowers to be on the altar.

VESTRY MEETING MINUTES

If any of you are interested in what your Vestry is doing, there are two copies of each month’s minutes on the music stand in Hamilton Hall. Feel free to read and return!

SHOPPING LIST FOR NON-FOOD PANTRY

Please see the Non-Food Pantry Latest section of the newsletter for items most in need for this month. Meals and conversation in Hamilton Hall are going well. Patrons are now able to pick out items they most need. Your contributions help our budget go farther in helping meet the needs of those in Putnam County. Please scroll down to view the distribution dates and latest updates. If you can help with this ministry in any way, please contact Harriet Moore or Carl Huffman.

KROGER COUPONS

If you have any unwanted Kroger coupons, please bring them to Hamilton Hall and place in the window ledge near the “Little Library”. We would like to make them available to our Non-Food Pantry recipients so that they might be able to take advantage of them to help extend their food budget. Thanks in advance!

FREE DAILY DEVOTIONAL

We have some large print Day by Day daily devotionals in the sanctuary that you are free to take home for your personal devotions–and if we know that people would like copies, we can order the right amount. Many of you may also appreciate the on-line version of Day to Day. Click here.

Your prayers are asked for:

Haile Bane, grandson of Joanne Haymaker
Beth Benedix, friend to many at St. Andrew’s
+Tom Breidenthal
Jennifer Clarke, friend of Patti Harmless
Cindy Crawley, cousin of Karen & Jim Mannon
Arielle Hirt, daughter-in-law of Karen & Jim Mannon
Tom Kaiser, friend of Jen+ & Chris
Lynda, friend of Sarah Finlay-Black
Teresa Masten, friend of Karen & Jim Mannon
Trevor and Christy Moore, friend of Karen and Jim Mannon
Sally Motsch, friend to many at St. Andrew’s
Gene Shaw, brother-in-law of Patti Harmless
Elizabeth & Natalie Sheffler, daughter & granddaughter of Page & Narda Cotton
Deloris Smith, friend of Emily Knuth
Jenny Smyth, niece of Patti Harmless
Luke Smith, son of Mark Smith
Skip Sutton
Eugene Swanger, friend of Jen+
Larry Taylor, former member of St. Andrew’s
Donald Voermans, father of Nick Voermans
Edwina Vose, friend of Jen+
Catherine Waggoner, friend of Jen+
Dwight Ziegler, uncle of Stephanie Gurnon

Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: St. Mary’s, Martinsville, The Rev. Todd Kissam