"Portico":
Noun, from the Latin, "porticus",
a colonnade or covered ambulatory
often at the entrance of a building.
A Portico is an entrance, a passageway, a link from something behind to something ahead. It's an opening, a threshold, a focal point for what lies ahead. It's that "Eureka" moment of discovery when what lies ahead begins coming into focus.
For those of us involved in the emerging life of The Portico in Charlotte, North Carolina it's a metaphor for all we hope to become as an emerging community of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
We are a community looking ahead to what we might become more than behind to who we were. We are people sailing into uncharted waters as we seek to find new ways of being church.
We are an "experimental" church: A bit raw and edgy but seeking new ways to be "real."
We don't ask "how has it always been done?" We're not yet sure of everything we're going to become.
But as we share the journey, not knowing where we're going is OK with us. We think being on the way is at least as important as the destination !
