First Contact – Part 25 – Anglican / Episcopalian

I combine Episcopalian and Anglican together in this one post for one simple reason. The Episcopal community is a part of the greater Anglican community. Here is a quote from The Episcopal Church Web site.

“The Episcopal church, established shortly after the American Revolution, has its roots in the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, known as the Church of England, had a strong following in colonial America. But when the colonies won their independence, the majority of America’s Anglican clergy refused to swear allegiance to the British monarch as was required. As a result, the Episcopal Church was formed.”

When I started searching my brain for contacts I had had with the Episcopal Church I was amazed at how many there were.

My journey begins about 1981. I was still a fledgling member of the Church of Christ. A friend from church knew I was an amateur photographer so asked me to take photos at her wedding which was to take place at Trinity Episcopal Church. This church was built in 1894 and is a nice place for a wedding. I arrived ahead of time and talked to one of the church staff about any rules I needed to observe while photographing the wedding. I was told that I should not use a flash. This concerned me in that it was rather dark in the sanctuary. In those old film days, you couldn’t just dial up the ISO setting, you were stuck with the ISO of the film you had available. But I abided by the rules. Unknown to me, my friend actually had another photographer taking pictures also. Based on the equipment he had, I took him to be a professional. Apparently I was a backup photographer in case something went wrong. However, the real photographer was using a flash. I thought, “Does he not know the rules?” No one tried to stop him. Anyway, the bride just wanted me to give her the undeveloped film, which I did. But I warned her that my photos would probably not be any good because I had been banned from using a flash. I vaguely remember the bride telling me later that my photos had not come out well, but that was to be expected given the flash restriction put on me.

When my son Andrew was 4 years old, Kathy and I decided he would benefit from being in a half-day K-4 program. At that time St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church (St. Bart’s) had half-day K-4 and K-5 programs that were considered extraordinary. Sometimes they had a waiting list to get in. Interestingly, neither of the teachers were members of St. Bart’s. In fact, the K-4 teacher was a member of the Church of Christ congregation where we went. Fortunately we were able to get Andrew into the K-4 program where he had a wonderful experience. On a down note, many other churches and schools in our area started K-4 and K-5 programs, some of which were full day. Eventually, St. Bart’s shut down their program.

When Andrew was much older he attended a couple of services at St. Bart’s Church. One evening they had a guest organist visiting to perform a concert. If memory serves, the church was dedicating a new organ. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love organ music. The organ at St. Bart’s was not as majestic sounding as those in big cathedrals, but it was quite good and enjoyable.

By the way, if you are ever in Philadelphia and want to hear an amazing pipe organ without going to a church, be sure to stop by the downtown Macy’s. The infamous Wanamaker Organ is located there and someone plays it on a regular basis. The history of this organ is quite amazing. There are a number of videos on YouTube, but I guarantee you that your computer sound system can’t come close to duplicating what you will hear inside Macy’s atrium.

When Andrew was in the 6^th grade, his class took a bus trip to New York City (where apparently all non-Pace picante sauce is made) and Washington DC. One of our stops in NYC was The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, which is an Episcopal Church. This was indeed a cathedral as evidenced by its extremely high ceiling. The tour of the cathedral was quite enjoyable. It seems that every large church and aged church building I visit has repair work going on outside. St. John’s was no different.

    Andrew Outside St. John’s

 

    Inside St. John’s

In 2013, Kathy, Andrew, and I took a trip to Scotland, England, and Wales. We saw a lot of churches and cathedrals, some very old. In York, we were able to tour York Minster cathedral. This was an amazing building. Given how magnificent it is and the fact that it was completed in 1472, my guess is that aliens had a hand in its construction.

    Outside York Minster

    Inside York Minster

 

In London, we saw the famous Westminster Abbey, which is an Anglican Church. Wow! The architecture behind this building is incredible, which again indicates aliens were involved. Fortunately, we were in London on a Sunday, so Kathy and I decided to attend Westminster Abbey’s Evensong that evening. And yes, we were able to hear pipe organ music. Unfortunately, photo taking was not allowed during the service and that was the only time we were actually inside the building. I thought the service was a bit odd. We were sitting there along with a lot of other people listening to the organ with no organ or organist in sight. The minister preached, yet he was nowhere to be seen either. After the service was over, a bunch of people began filing out of another section of the church building. I then realized that we had been relegated to the visitors’ section while the members had been in the main worship hall.

    Westminster Abbey

 

First Contact – Part 22 – United Methodist

The first time I remember going to a United Methodist Church was in the mid 1980’s. A young female cooperative student at work—also the daughter of a friend and coworker—invited me to her church across the river in Tuscumbia. It wasn’t a Sunday morning service, but rather a Christmas program. Her sister was going to be performing, so my wife and I decided to attend. It was a good show, and we enjoyed it.

My next time in a United Methodist Church was for a wedding. A daughter of some good friends in the Church of Christ was having her wedding at the First United Methodist Church in Florence. She wanted my friend Ron and me to videotape it. At that time Ron and I shared duties in the sound booth at Chisholm Hills Church of Christ. We were happy to oblige, so we set up a couple of video cameras and microphones at the church and recorded the wedding.

It would not be until 1993 that I would attend an actual worship service at a UM church, and the story behind that visit is quite interesting. Kathy and I were members at the Chisholm Hills Church of Christ (CHCC). Our preacher was Joe VanDyke. In the early 1990’s Joe began to occasionally speak about other denominations in a more positive light than usual. He talked about how as a child his family would visit churches of other denominations when they were having revivals and such. While many in the Church of Christ believed that they were the only ones interpreting the Scriptures correctly and thus the only ones going to heaven, Joe began questioning that belief. This was fine by my wife and me since we had never believed we had a lock on the truth anyway. Joe spoke this way so frequently that I just assumed the elders of the church were on board with him. However, one Wednesday evening I found out differently. The elders fired Joe. I was out of town with my job and found out about it from my wife on the phone. I was shocked.

Apparently the elders were not very forthcoming about the reason for the firing, asking the congregation to just trust them. At Joe’s request they did tell everyone it was not over an issue of morality. But other than that no other information was put forth. This did not set well with many of the congregants. Eventually a Sunday afternoon meeting was held to hopefully clear the air, but it still left many dissatisfied. Interestingly, Joe and his family continued to attend CHCC. I asked him one day why he was still coming there given he was fired. He answered, “Where else am I going to go?” In other words, this congregation had been his home for many years. Where else would be a better fit?

Over time the dissatisfaction with the situation increased. A meeting was held at one of the church members’ home. The house was overflowing with people, my wife and I being two of them. We all pretty much agreed that the elders should have been more open with us about the firing so we could decide for ourselves whether or not the right decision had been made. But as it was, we simply did not have enough information to make that judgment. Ultimately the dissenting group decided to have a separate worship service one Sunday. It was held in the Magnolia Room at a local hotel. Joe VanDyke was invited to speak at that service. Long story short, we ultimately decided to break away from CHCC and form a new congregation. Members were asked to submit their suggestions for the new congregation’s name. Someone suggested Magnolia Church of Christ (MCC) since our first meeting had been in the Magnolia Room at the hotel. That was the one selected. Joe was hired as the preacher.

We knew we couldn’t stay in the hotel forever, so we later made arrangements to start meeting at the Little Angel Day School building. This school was just a short distance from North Wood United Methodist Church (NWUMC). The school had limited parking, so NWUMC graciously offered to let us use their parking lot for overflow. Now having a connection with NWUMC, our churches eventually planned a joint service. It had to be held at NWUMC’s building for space reasons.

The big event took place on the evening of September 19, 1993. MCC members converged along with NWUMC members to participate in the joint service. Some of the music that evening had instruments, some didn’t. Our local newspaper called it a historic event. But to me it just seemed like people trying to get along. At one point during the service I had to use the restroom. When I emerged from the sanctuary I noticed a good friend that had stayed with CHCC after the split. Apparently he was there “spying” on the meeting so he could report back to his church. I found it a bit amusing. As it turned out, this friend became ashamed of what he had done and now regrets ever having done it.

Our historic meeting sent shock waves throughout the Church of Christ community. MCC was being chastised in a number of publications. Several local congregations even took out a full page ad in our local newspaper to let people know that they did not approve of MCC’s actions. I found a couple of lingering writings about the evening on the Internet: Truth Magazine and Seek The Old Paths. There are probably more.

Later MCC found an old building in downtown Florence to meet at. Lots of renovations had to be done first. Once settled, MCC invited NWUMC to a joint service at our building. This ultimately led to having alternating annual joint meetings on the anniversary of that first joint meeting.

By the time of the CHCC split, I had already declared myself an agnostic although most people didn’t know it. Given Joe VanDyke’s willingness to take heat over his “liberal” position regarding people in other denominations, I decided I needed to confide in him about my deconversion. I set up a meeting with him one Sunday afternoon at his home. I explained to him my newfound beliefs and how I came about acquiring them. He was a bit surprised and of course didn’t agree with me. But he remained cordial throughout our conversation.

The only other times I have attended a United Methodist Church was for those joint services with NWUMC. That wasn’t very often since it was just a few years later that my wife began going to a Baptist Church and I followed along as I reported in my previous post.

The CHCC split and the supposed falling away of MCC by meeting with the NWUMC was my first major exposure to how divisive religion can be. Of course, I was viewing the events as an outsider, but from within. I was already an agnostic, but I was still involved with the church. It reminded me of a line spoken by Deanna Troi in a 1989 episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” entitled “Who Watches the Watchers”. She says, “Are you sure you know what he wants? That's the problem with believing in a supernatural being - trying to determine what he wants.”

Throughout the world there are people with widely varying beliefs. Many think that they are right and others are wrong. Even within the same religion, say Christianity, many different beliefs about God, the Bible, Jesus, and so forth are prevalent. Hey, even within a single church building you can find people who disagree about what is pleasing to God and what is not. If you have to be exactly right about everything in order for God to save you, then I would say that at most one person will make it, but more likely none. The way I look at it is this. We have all been put here on this Earth through no choice of our own. We have a limited time to live in our fallible human bodies. We’re all trying to make sense of our situation. How we got here. What our purpose is. Where we are headed. How we should live, and why. Given our differences in DNA, personal experiences, and learning backgrounds, it seems highly unlikely that there will ever be widespread agreement on these matters. We need to grant each other a lot of leeway in our search. And as long as others are not using force to impede our search, we should follow Idina’s and Demi’s recommendation: “Let It Go!”

First Contact – Part 12 – Catholicism

My earliest memories related to Catholicism were of a Catholic school just a block and a half up the street from our house in Louisville, KY. It was named Most Blessed Sacrament, but my friends and I used to jokingly call it Most Blasted Sacrament. It seems kind of silly now, but as a child it was a real hoot.

I do not recollect ever attending a Catholic service or even going inside a Catholic Church building as a child. The first time I remember being inside a Catholic Church was to attend a wedding. It was in 1979, just a short time after graduating from college. My friends Richard and Denise were getting married. My wife Kathy and I had graduated from high school with them in 1973. Kathy and I did not wed until 1982. Richard and I actually attended school together from the first grade all the way through college. We lived just a couple of blocks from each other.

I had become interested in photography in high school and began buying more professional level cameras and lenses while I was in college. Richard knew of my interest, so asked me to be the photographer at his wedding. I had never shot a wedding before, but he was aware of that and still wanted me to do it. But he had a twist. He also wanted me to be his best man. At first I thought that would not work. However, given that I could put the camera on a tripod and set the timer for the pictures I needed to be in, I agreed to do it. All worked out fine. However, I do remember getting a bit annoyed by having to kneel so much during the ceremony.

Yes, that’s me third from left with the fro and mustache. Cool dude, huh?

Being mostly associated with Protestants growing up, I was skeptical of some of the beliefs of the Catholic Church such as infant baptism, holy water, transubstantiation, Mary worship, and so forth. But I eventually came to realize that when it comes to the supernatural, there is really nothing more bizarre or unbelievable than another thing. If God truly exists and he is omnipotent, ruling by fiat, then he can choose to deal with man anyway he wants. He can ask us to worship him in any way he wants, and he can ask us to believe anything he wants us to believe. Basically, anything goes. It then boils down to what we individually decide is the proper way to determine what his desires for us are.

After moving to Alabama, I came to realize that some of my friends at work were Catholic. I attended a few services to see what it was all about. The most memorable visit to a Catholic Church was to attend a performance of the musical “Jesus Christ, Superstar”. A friend from work was performing the role of Jesus, and he did a great job. Interestingly, the man who played Judas Iscariot was probably the best singer of the bunch. But somehow it just didn’t seem right for the bad guy to be that good.

A few days ago I listened to a one hour speech by a man that had been a Presbyterian pastor, but gradually came to realize that the teachings of the Catholic Church that he had thought were anti-Biblical were actually Biblical. At the end of this journey of discovery, he resigned his position of pastor at the Presbyterian Church and of teacher at a college and joined the Catholic Church. Here’s a link to that speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW-qX6DgcPw

PB&J and Dating

I’m sure everyone has a funny story about dating. Well, I am no exception. The story I am about to present to you is totally true. I have told it to many different people over the years, and everyone thought it was a hoot. So, I decided to share it online as well.

Back in June and July 1980 I was attending a Church of Christ in my hometown and studying the Bible with a local minister and teacher. On July 13 of that year, that minister baptized me. Several months later that same minister decided to play matchmaker and set me up on blind date with a young Christian girl seven years my younger (I was 25, she was 18). Sue (not her real name) was a very attractive girl, but a bit shy. Most of the time I had to carry the conversation during our dates. I asked her about this a couple of times and the best answer I got was that she was a bit uncomfortable about our age difference.

Even thought Sue was a bit shy about talking, one thing that Sue was not shy about was making out. Whenever I would take her home, she would invite me in. We would have a short conversation with her parents and then they would conveniently leave the room, allowing us to have an extended kissing session on the couch. Her parents probably allowed her this leeway knowing that if her date got too fresh, they would be nearby to protect her.

One day Sue went with me to a town 70 miles away to attend my first cousin’s wedding. It was a bit of a struggle driving that far since I was finding it more and more difficult trying to think of things to say given that she barely ever instigated a conversation. So, I decided that on the drive back, I was not going to say anything unless Sue said something first. During that entire 1-1/2 hour drive she only said one thing.

While driving along with nothing to talk about, I suddenly realized that I was getting hungry. So, I started thinking about what I wanted to eat. Then it dawned on me. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That’s what I wanted to eat. The more I thought about it, the more I craved it. Yes, indeed. When I got back to my apartment I was going to fix me a good ole PB&J sandwich.

We finally arrived at Sue’s house and I just dropped her off. I didn’t ask if I could come in as usual, and I guess she sensed that she shouldn’t ask me either. So, after making sure she made it into her house safely, I headed home.

Just as soon as I entered my apartment, I headed to the kitchen to fix that PB&J sandwich I was craving. My roommate was still awake and began inquiring about how my date went. I said, “Well, let me put it this way. On the way to her house I wasn’t thinking about making out. I was thinking about getting home to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” From that point forward, whenever my roommate or I asked the other about how a date went, we simply answered that we either were or were not thinking about a PB&J sandwich. That was all the information needed.

Now fast forward almost two years. It’s July 1982. Kathy, my fiancé at the time and now my wife of 29 years, and I were preparing to be married. One thing we wanted to prevent was my car being decorated. So, we locked it inside her parents’ garage. Well, when it was time to head out on our honeymoon, Kathy and I went to the garage to load the car. Lo and behold, we had been double-crossed by her brother. He had found the garage key and allowed everyone into the garage to “trash” my car. In reality they mostly just filled the cab with balloons and other decorations, but I was still angry. One of the decorations was a PB&J sandwich inside a plastic sandwich bag hanging from the rearview mirror. When my wife saw it, she asked what it was for. I said I would tell her later. On the road I explained to my new bride the significance of the PB&J sandwich. She got a real kick out of it.

Now, fast forward a week. Kathy and I are returning home from our honeymoon. I had explained to my roommates that they needed to vacate the apartment by such and such a date. (They were moving into another apartment in the same complex.) Well, when Kathy and I entered the apartment we found my PB&J-sandwich-hanging roommate sitting at the dining table eating and talking on the phone. When he looked up, he said, “Hey, Randy.---RANDY!!! I thought you weren’t going to be back for several more days.” It turns out the other roommates remembered the return date correctly and had already vacated the apartment. They tried to tell the straggling roommate, but he had insisted they were wrong.

Well, now it was Kathy’s turn to be angry. My roommate spent the next several hours moving his belongings to his new apartment. Kathy decided we might as well clean the kitchen cabinets while he made his move. We were up until after 3:00 AM. Finally the move was completed and we were able to go to bed.

A couple of days later while I was at work, the roommate came over to visit Kathy and pick up a few remaining items from his old room. While there, Kathy asked, “Do you remember that peanut butter and jelly sandwich you left in our car?” He responded, “Yes.” Kathy said, “We didn’t need it!” And indeed we didn’t.