Sgt. Mom has a wonderful remembrance of three churches that shaped her life:
Three churches, twenty-two years--- only sitting down, and writing this am I realizing how much of our family lives, how many important landmarks, how many friends came to us through those three churches, the yearly rituals--- and the weekly ones too--- which shaped our lives and affected the decisions we made and our parents made for us. Church camp, and refugee work, and ladies with fur stoles, and Pippy’s wedding, Blondie’s christening, Granny Jessie’s funeral, bagels in the car, and singing long folksongs, Christmas Eve candlelight service, “A mighty Fortress is our God”, and the long chore of learning the catechism every Tuesday, the sun shining through elaborate stained-glass windows, worrying about tripping at the communion rail in front of everybody…. I wonder what would have taken the place of all that, if Great-Great-Great Grandpa Smedley had chanced on another church instead.When I find myself enamored with the cutting edge aspects of the "emerging church," I am grateful for people like Sgt. Mom, who remind me that there's more to the life of a community of faith than being "The Church of What's Happenin' Now." Posted by Mike at August 26, 2003 10:37 AM | TrackBackAt least he didn’t decide on the Shakers… even though the furniture is very nice.