Nancy Waits is still a relative newcomer to Central Florida, but it’s safe to say she has found a new home in St. Richard’s Episcopal Church in Winter Park.

Formerly a resident of the Florida Panhandle before relocating here five years ago, Waits has been on the mend from a broken leg sustained when she was recently hit by a car in Baldwin Park, according to St. Richard’s rector, the Rev. Alison Harrity. Despite being homebound with a leg cast that has limited her mobility, Waits has received communion each week from Burr Anderson, the church’s lay Eucharistic visitor.

Waits has been so moved by St. Richard’s stewardship that she recently sent Harrity a page out of her daily meditation book.

“The little newsprint page with the title ‘Building Community’ had printed in Nancy’s hand at the top, ‘St. Richard’s does a good job at this,’” Harrity said in a St. Richard’s news release. “Here is what Philip Yancey wrote:

‘Often, we surround ourselves with the people we most want to live with, which forms a club or a clique, not a community. Anyone can form a club; it takes grace, shared vision, and hard work to form a community. The Christian church was the first institution in history to bring together on equal footing Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free.

‘The apostle Paul waxed eloquent on this “mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God.” By forming a community out of diverse members, Paul said, we have the opportunity to capture the attention of the world and even the supernatural world beyond (Ephesians 3:9-10). In some ways, the church has sadly failed in this assignment.

‘Still, church is the one place I visit that brings together generations; infants still held in their mothers’ arms, children who squirm and giggle at all the wrong times, responsible adults who know how to act appropriately at all times, and those who may drift asleep if the preacher drones on too long. If we want the community experience God is offering to us, we have reason to seek a congregation of people “not like us.”’”

Harrity herself was moved by Waits’ reflection.

“Thank you, Nancy, for this reflection on our lives at St. Richard’s, truly a community of saints, truly the kingdom of God!” the St. Richard’s rector said.