Bishop vonRosenberg's May Letter Dear Friends, On my way to the recent House of Bishops' meeting, I tried to catch up on some of the reading I had not done in advance. In the context of the pamphlet, that phrase described the collegiality of bishops. Belonging within the Church comes about because of baptism.
Baptism is the sacrament of belonging.
In terms of the Church, if we have been baptized, then we belong. It's as simple as that. By virtue of baptism alone, we belong. Various individuals or groups in the Church have not sensed that they belong at different times in our history. For instance, African Americans have not felt part of our community of faith from time to time, and in the past, women, too, may not have felt that sense of gracious belonging.