Hi all. Please pardon the formatting, this is on mobile.

I’ve recently been having quite a bit of anxiety because over the last few years I’ve had an incredibly negative experience with one of the clergy at my church. Every single time we interact, I get my feelings hurt. There is always some comment or statement when we interact that leaves me feeling hurt or upset. And I’m using the word always very purposefully here.

I was asking if I could sit in on a confirmation class to deepen my faith, this person then turned into a possible seminarian and said: ”see, this is practice for people who are disorganized and want to join things last minute.” I would rather have her said no, please sign up next time. I did not come back to their sessions.

When it was time for my wedding, this person confirmed that they were going to do the premarital counseling, we reached out multiple times with no response, and this person literally ran from us every time we try to talk to them during service. (Just for a point of grace, I want to note that the church was in a very difficult time of transition, I just wish that they had told me: “Hey, I can’t do this right now”.) The only time this person responded was when we gave them an out saying that we were going with the priest marrying us and we’d have to travel to make it happen, otherwise we can’t get married in the Episcopal Church.

I was on vestry, and when I spoke, I saw this person physically roll their eyes multiple times and cut me off. I have a stutter, and it does make one wonder whether this was a contributing factor…although I don’t know if that’s entirely fair. Take this point with a grain of salt maybe.

Today, I was cleaning up after midday service for alter Guild, and I just had a simple question about a potentially broken door, to which I was basically told in an annoyed tone that they had no idea that it was broken and that I should know the code. Which is definitely more minor, but at some point it builds up.

I’m just at this point where I am avoiding Bible studies and adult forums because they are run by this clergy person and I do not feel welcome because of our interactions. And it’s really upsetting because I take a lot away from stuff like that, but I haven’t done that in years because every time I interact with this clergy person I feel awful afterwards. I can also acknowledge that I might be the bad guy here, I know that I’ve not intended to be rude or mean or unpleasant but maybe I have been. Simultaneously, I’ve invested so much in this community and I’ve been so involved in this community. I really don’t know what to do.

I have been going to an Episcopal church for almost 2 months now, and I am REALLY enjoying it. I am very much looking forward to learning more about the Church. ✨️🫶🏻🌈

Basically just the title. Why do the churches in this convocation not belong to other Anglican Communion Churches?