The inclusive church is finally here in strength; one of the ways you can tell is that everybody seems to say and believe the same things. It raises questions for me as the church moves forward in its project of saving the world while dismissing a faith that begins with the acceptance of forgiveness.

First, is there a place for me in the church if I don't feel guilty about who I am, what I am, where I'm from, my race, tribe, nation, ethnicity, or political affiliation? Is it permissible to be white and heterosexual without feeling responsible for global warming, the Crusades, and 9/11?

In a word, am I included in this Church if I believe that my sins are forgiven -- even the big ticket systemic sins which I'm predestined to commit whether I choose to or not, since the System makes me do them?

Am I included in this Church if I believe the scripture that declares me to be a new creation in Christ, co-crucified, co-raised, and co-ascended with him in spite of my sin that quarrels with the sins of others forming an impersonal sin machine? Since individual works are insuffient to atone for personal sins, who or what atones for the sins of a collective, which are performed independently of me, thus making it impossible for me to repent? Repentance can only mean the ritual handwringing that shows I'm one of the people who really care. I don't know what it does for anybody else.

Is it possible that the prophetic gospel of our generation is that, while we are powerless to save ourselves from the powers and principalities of the "system," by faith in Jesus Christ and in union with his Risen Body, we can expect his Spirit to work through us in spite of the systemic deck stacked against us?

Is there a place for me as a priest in a Church that offers sacrifices in union with the one unrepeatable sacrifice that took place on a lonely hill long ago revealing a sacrifice offered before the foundation of the world in the mind of God? May I believe that our thank offerings -- our eucharistia -- unite us with a salvation already accomplished, replacing the old priesthood that atones for sins committed since our last breath without touching the system of of our own guilt that controls our every move? Would such sacrifices not transform an old system into a new system, the Body of Christ, releasing us from the cycle of white guilt, green guilt, pink and lavendar guilt, yellow and red guilt?

Do we hang on to our guilt because we like it? What does it do for us? Does it make us feel like good people? Is guilt our righteousness?

Does guilt make us feel powerful because many of us come from positions of power and know how to wield guilt as its instrument? Or do we enjoy pious indignation at contemplating the guilt of others, particularly those who don't feel guilty? Does one have to acknowledge being part of an unjust system that controls the world in order to take our rightful place controlling the salvation of the world?

Is this the same Church whose great High Priest prayed from the Altar of the cross, forgive them for they know not what they do? Would he not have known that their sin was systemic, and that's the reason why they knew it not? Is He that is in us, each and all of us, greater than the system that controls the world or not?

Is there a place for me in this church if I don't feel guilty, not for something, but for everything? Have I cheated someone by believing I have an advocate with the Highest God, namely the second Highest God, who, in a horizontal eternity is equally High? When this God died for the sins of the whole world, is it possible that He died for the world as a system? Or is Christ a sop for "privatized religion" after all and no match for the advocacy machine that snaps into lock step at our conventions, glibly taking the world's cross on its corporate shoulders? And now that we've taken on that cross, why is no one saved or forgiven, no inequalities closed (except sexaul ones), and least of all the habitual guilt of us cross bearers?

Is there a place for me in this church if I'm willing to believe, but not pretend, for I cannot pretend that a new system can be transformed out of a people who cling to their guilt as a badge of honor. We know how to acknowledge sin but not repent of it. When we Episcopalians make our well publicized corporate confessions, what comes across is our pride and our breeding. Our guilt is an essential part of that pride.

Is there a place for me if I strive not to conform myself to the image of this world, with its high courts and its low expectations, but submit to being transformed after the Image of Another who is in me, refusing to leave or forsake me in spite of my corruptions and collusions, known and unknown, things done and left undone? Must I await the world's forgiveness before I receive the Savior's? How would that be possible? Episcopalians historically are the world and its system, the segment of society that created, upholds, and recieves the greatest portion of its benefits.

Am I feeling guilty as a way to mask the status quo, to guarantee my permanent place in the high society of "concerned citizens"?

For all my depressions and anxieties the one thing I don't feel is guilt. I'm not certain that's a good thing. Sometimes I wish my conscience would be pierced at the world's despair; maybe someday it will. But it sunk in a long time ago that guilt doesn't do anything for me. If it did, I'd probably indulge in it more than I do.

I know that my indulgences of guilt do not save me. And I know they don't do a thing for anyone else.

The Rev. Canon J. Gary L'Hommedieu is Canon for Pastoral Care at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando, Florida, and completing a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Central Florida.