[Magdalen] Maybe back to church for real now

[Lynn Ronkainen]

Good posts from both of you.  I'm right there with you Scott
Peace
Lynn

On Oct 6, 2021, at 6:07 AM, Roger Stokes <r.s.stokes.65 at cantab.net> wrote:

Scott,

I am totally with you in regretting that judgement of all who have not yet returned to church in person. There's a host of reasons why somebody is not willing to do that yet including the risks riding public transit means in spreading the virus and vulnerable people in the family. As you say, there is one who judges and who knows the secrets of our hearts to inform that judgement.

I also think it wise to reassess your role in church. Often seeing someone always in a particular role means that others do not offer their services and so their vocation to some ministry is not being used, and that leads to the impoverishment of the Church. You may well find some new, currently unmet, ministry and can also be a stand-in when necessary in your previous roles. The pandemic brought a halt to what was habitual and with it a chance to reassess. One thing I am finding personally helpful is daily Morning Prayer on Zoom which is joined by up to seven or eight of us depending on other commitments  though it can sometimes reduce to a couple.

Roger

On 05/10/2021 22:49, Scott Knitter wrote:
> Has anyone had trouble getting back into the churchgoing habit on Sundays?
> I have, and I think as of Sunday I might be back.
> 
> The pandemic disrupting church really disrupted me, too, in ways I didn't
> even realize. I've been back maybe four times since the pandemic started.
> It's just been difficult to get myself into doing what it takes to get
> there.
> 
> I'm sure if I listed the difficulties, they'd sound like excuses. Anyway,
> people at church have been very patient with me, and new folks have stepped
> up to serve in liturgical roles I was used to serving in. To be honest,
> deep down I'd like to go back and just attend until I find something new to
> contribute to or be involved with. I had been serving as a subdeacon or
> other needed role every Sunday morning and some Sunday afternoons, and
> every Wednesday evening until I finally worked out a deal with another
> parishioner to alternate Wednesdays with her. I'd been feeling like I was
> in those roles for the rest of my life.
> 
> I don't just want to go back and resume that. And no one has said that's
> expected.
> 
> A fellow parishioner posted an article/reflection (not written by her)
> today about how by now if you're not back in church, you're just enjoying
> Sunday mornings in PJs on the sofa, watching church instead of
> participating. I wrote a comment saying I didn't think it was fair for
> the article-writer to assume everyone not yet fully returned is preferring
> PJs and sofas, and it isn't fair to assume or judge what people are doing
> on Sundays instead. I deleted that comment once it had been commented on.
> 
> I do want to go back but not in the familiar fear of being judged; it's so
> unnecessary (and largely absent, but there are those who seem to
> judge...perhaps I'm projecting). There is One who judges, whose property is
> always to have mercy.
> 
> I know attending is about more than "getting fed." But some nourishment
> might be needed before I can enter into a new mode of contribution. Maybe
> it'll just be vestry...maybe we've come around the mountain to my turn
> again. :^|
>