To Church

I attend a Unity church when I can get myself organized to go. It's been about a year. Years ago I attended a Unitarian church.

I get a little itchy in churches. I realize that there are economic realities to running any organization, but this church is very focused on communicating the needs and financial goals. I suppose if those messages weren't built into the services then nothing would ever get paid for. So, I grit my teeth through the end of each service. I also find myself almost eternally annoyed with the congregation. No matter which service I attend, there are people who arrive late. I mean half hour to forty-five minutes late. And they don't discretely take the first available seat. They march to the front of the congregation and look for the best available seat.

Still, the pastor just continues to deliver her sermon. I was skeptical about Reverend Erica. She sings and when she first started with the church I feared this would turn into a poor televangical, Tammy-Faye type tear fest. But this woman is smart and funny and she's the reason I've continued to return. Today she read "The Gettysburg Address" and discussed the spiritual elements of the speech. It was good enough to endure the standing and singing and hand waving that I had to do as part of the congregation.

Then they had a member of the congregation sing. Normally we have professional musicians come and donate their talents for an opportunity to pedal their CD's. In the summer, though, with attendance down, the church makes do with who is available. I did not catch the woman's name and I bit my tongue when she told us that she was going to sing an Ave Maria. In the past singers from the congregation have maintained only a casual relationship to the pitches and keys of their songs. But this woman was a very good, trained soprano. Later she brought down the house with a gospel number. It was an excellent service.

Then I spent the rest of the day tooling around on my bike, hitting a hardware store and finally finding a disposable grill for the Fourth. The weather was perfect for such errands.

It was a good weekend.