Monday, July 13, 2009

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Fini

What do I do about church? Where do I go? I get together, about 9 times a year, with an Independent Catholic Community. I could start a home group that would meet once a month, I'm not ready to start today, or next week, or even next month.
I am very lucky, I live 20 miles away from another episcopal diocese. I would have to commute to church though. I already commute 10 hours a week. I could go to the catholic church, I sort of grew up in the catholic church, I could "pass" but my heart isn't there.

I forgot to include in the last post that the "canon to the ordinary" told the priest that I wrote "pissy emails" and according to the priest, "said something much worse than that but I won't tell you because it would hurt your feelings" I suspect that little of what I was told that the bishop or the cannon said is true, I suspect a comment might have been made. I have a hard time believing that adults in positions of authority are as immature as I have been led to believe these people are, but who really knows.

Thus ends my story...Thanks be to God.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Do Justice, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with your God

So, after the priest told me not to come to that service, I left. I told her I wasn't planning to stay anyway and this was a good time to cut my losses and walk away. After I told her that she wrote me a letter saying that she had pulled my eucharistic minister license and I could no longer be a lector or read prayers at the church. Okay I wasn't planning to do any of that because I left the church. She went on to say that she would restore them when I wanted to reconcile. WTF?

I happened to know she was at the church and went over and tried to talk to her. A huge mistake in retrospect. I don't think she heard a word I said. Her last words were; "now that we have reconciled you can be a lector again." Adventures in missing the point.

Once home after gathering my thoughts, I wrote a letter trying to explain how deeply hurt I was by her behavior over the past six months. My trusted friend proofread it, for grammar, clarity, and inflammatory statements. The priest wrote me back and told me not to attend that church for at least 6 months. Not a problem except a good friend of mine is leading evening prayer next week when the priest is out of town and I plan to be there to support her.

The church has fewer than 30 who attend on Sunday Morning. All the priest can talk about is growth and hospitality. She seems to forget that those who attend regularly are as equally deserving of hospitality as those who are passing through. It seems pointless to try and bring new people in when those who have been there, those who serve, and perhaps ask questions seem to disappear. Eight in the past 2 years. The reasons we were given didn't make sense so I started to question, which is probably one of the reasons I am no longer there.

I wrote to one of the people I used to serve with and told him to feel free contact me if he had any questions. His response was "I don't get involved in personal things that don't involve me. I hope that in six months YOU can reconcile and come back". People who were my friends, who encouraged me to make waves now don't want anything to do with me.

What happened to doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with god?