St. John’s Episcopal Church has played an essential role in the life of the community of Norman since our beginnings in 1892. Our members have served and continue to serve as leaders in business, fine arts, education, medicine, journalism, politics and the judicial system. As a church community we continue to be active in community outreach, diocesan leadership, and the stewardship of the public interest.

We are a community of diverse people bound together by a common desire to live out our call to be the Body of Christ. As we receive the body and blood each Sunday, we believe that we are becoming the body and blood for Norman and for the world. This means that we place as primary our common unity within a context of mutual respect and freedom of expression.  Even if we disagree on most everything, we continue to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Because we are located near campus corner, we are in the center of action between town and gown in Norman. We like that! We thrive in the hubbub of game day and enjoy the patterns of university life. In counterpoint however, our building is designed with a cloister and courtyard that allows for a place of calm and reflection anytime. We breathe in and breathe out, we make haste, and rest, we strive for justice and peace, and we rest in the grace of God.

Our three Sunday services are each unique expressions of devotion and thanksgiving. It is good to experience each as you come into the community, experiencing the fullness of our life together and finding the best expression of your faith with it. We are fond of saying that our praying shapes our believing. It is impossible to truly know God without having a consistent and open relationship of prayer, praise and thanksgiving.

As a part of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion worldwide, we are a body that expresses its faith in scripture, tradition and reason. Tradition is not for us a static rule, but a living force connecting our study of scripture to our reasoned experience. We respect the attitudes, values and interpretations of scholars, theologians and councils in the past while remembering that faithfulness to God requires that we hold nothing before God, even our own best understanding of God. That one bit of humility leaves us open to the movement of the Holy Spirit while our life together in community tempers our enthusiasms with a deep respect for continuity. 

We are children of God and inheritors of the Kingdom. We are the Body of Christ. We are one part of a great family that covers the earth and spans the generations. We are Episcopalians. We are St. John’s Church. 

+ Fr. Dwight Helt