Rector tries to heal religious wounds

If the story seems common enough, the wrenching emotions are always unique to those who share a sphere of deep religious belief but then find themselves leaving it behind for something different.

According to one local woman who made that journey — and lost both family and friends in the process — there has to be healing at some point. That's why the Rev. Bonnie Roddy, associate rector at All Saints Episcopal Church, returned to Utah and found friends within a local movement to heal Utah's religious divide.

In seeking to heal her own and her family's religious wounds, she's found a wider movement to heal the community, based on the work of several local groups, including the Utah Psychological Association. And she wants you to be a part of it.

A former Latter-day Saint, she's asking people of all faiths to consider participating in a local forum to be held at All Saints, 1710 Foothill Blvd., on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

"We really want LDS people to come to this — that's the whole point." Simply drawing those who have been disaffected with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or those who feel dominated by its influence, doesn't provide balance or an accurate perspective, she said.

Panelists include psychologist Steve Morris, interfaith organizer Elise Lazar, neighborhood activist Christine Balderas, and Terry Martin, who helped facilitate discussions about the state's religious divide for Mayor Rocky Anderson's recent initiative. The Rev. Roddy will moderate and hopes to generate enough interest from Utahns who have been touched by the "faith fracture" to continue public dialogue on the subject.

The panelists — two of them LDS — have all been involved in community discussions about how to reach across denominational lines and help bring Utahns together. For the Rev. Roddy, it's a subject of more than passing interest.

"My family is very divided, and I moved back to Salt Lake City with the hope that I could find some way to help heal our family," she said, adding she is "totally cut off from my daughter. I don't know what it is that I say that sets her off. I haven't seen my brother for a year. I know that I play into it but don't know how that happens.

"I'm an Episcopal, and who I am is hard for them to deal with. My family was LDS. I'm an apostate, is what my father told me." The Rev. Roddy moved from Utah decades ago, changed faith traditions and became an Episcopal priest. But a constant search for "Eden" in her heart and her family brought her back to Utah recently.