Conflict seems to be defining our relationships with one another in this country right now, although our disagreements have been brewing for several decades now. Part of the problem stems from disconnection. There doesn't seem to be anything that unites our various sides together. There doesn't seem to be an identity that brings us all together.
We in the church fortunately do not have this problem. We do possess an identity that brings us together: Jesus Christ. In Baptism, we are literally brought together to form the Body of Christ Jesus in the world.
We don't always agree with one another on every single thing in the church. We may not always like everyone we serve with either. What brings us back together, however, is our Lord Jesus Christ. Even if we do not agree on the particulars, we can all agree that we gather together in the love of God, and that love of God is made manifest by God's willingness to be present with us in this world through Jesus walking among us as a fellow human being.
In the Rite I context of our worship, we have wonderful ways to affirm God's love for us through the reading of the Two Great Commandments at the start of the service and through the Comfortable Words after the Confession of Sin. In all our Sunday services, throughout The Episcopal Church and beyond, we affirm our Faith together in the words of the Creed. In these ways we show our unity on what matters for our belief.
As individual parishes, we are called to ask how our identity in Jesus speaks to our life and work together as specific communities in the church. Even when we don't always agree, or even like each other, we are still bound together in service to our Lord and our God. Finding the specific ways our individual communities come together in unity will only strengthen our parishes and bind us more fully as the Body of Christ Jesus throughout the entire world. Then we can be a beacon of hope to others for how to put our conflicts aside and become one in identity and purpose.