I miss church.

Ha, that got some heads turned now didn't it? Hee-hee. For awhile we were attending a Unitarian Universalist church in the city. We started off there in the summertime and really loved the speakers and the casual-ness of it all. Services were held in the chapel and you sat in chairs that stack together when the service is over. Afterwards you could find most of the assembled visitors in the community room chatting and having coffee. The color and variety of conversations met some inner need. Even Neall, who isn't as social as I am, enjoyed Sunday morning. Sermons were administered by church members who'd gone to visit a 3rd world country and brought back slides of his work there, or a civil rights leader, or an african artist/photographer guy with such a heavy accent you couldn't understand much of what he said but his photos brought his point across the way words never could.

But then the summer was over and the majority of vacationing church members returned. It's not that I didn't like them, they were all very nice, it was just different. Suddenly church was crowded, there was not enough parking, people were *gasp* dressed up, lol. I felt out of place again, like I was not part of the group, an outsider. The sermon was formal, the music piped through a gigantic organ, I was expected to sing along from hymn books, lol. We said the word god. A LOT. Coffee hour was a mass of bodies forming little circles and cliques. Only the children drew attention towards us, conversation tending along the lines of "oh, they're so well behaved""thank you""and they have such lovely faces""thank you, we live them too".

I have nothing against the word "god" (nor do I have anything against GOD). It just wasn't what I was looking for in the church world. I LIKED the summer casualness, the conversation that encompassed multiple aspects of faith/life/the world, the chance to speak with people previously unknown to me about something other than the children and their good behavior. I appreciated the opportunity to see music played by 2 violins and a bass rather than an organ. I feel the power in the world around me, I don't need to apply names and constraints to it in church Sunday morning.

When the city church failed to meet my needs we tried another one. This one I liked on some level but Neall didn't. The atmosphere was fun and casual. But, there was no parking and no seating. On the way to the services we had multiple people with kind intentions pointing us toward child care. We weren't interested in child care, we wanted to attend as a family. The lack of seating revealed the reason for dumping the congregation kids into child care en masse. So, that wasn't for us either.

So, no church fits. That's ok. Today though, I miss it. Perhaps we'll head to the "summer church" today. Maybe the "I miss church" feeling is coming from somewhere for a reason. Maybe a liitle bit of coffee and conversation and acknowledgement of the world around us is what we need to give our spirits a boost.

Yes, I think we shall!