Lenten Invitation
How much does this rock?
I was just asked by the local Methodist church to lead their Ash Wednesday service.
The reason I think that's so cool is that first of all, it's a tiny town here and I'm friends with their pastor and I love that they went across denominational borders to make this invitation. I have spent the past three Ash Wednesdays worshiping with them, which makes it even more of a kind of fellowship experience. I'm shocked that they think a Unitarian Universalist is worthy to do this for them. And I'm grateful. We tried to plan a pulpit swap with the UCC church and one of their pastors (the other one is a delightful, non-sectarian person) had a problem with it, because my folks are just too heathenish. I was fit to be tied, and I don't mean in fun way.
Secondly, I've never presided over an Ash Wednesday service and I look forward to the stress of it. I like that kind of stress; it forces me to study a lot, and to learn.
But most of all, it's just so neighborly and possibly a little bit scandalous, and as I said, that just rocks.
I was just asked by the local Methodist church to lead their Ash Wednesday service.
The reason I think that's so cool is that first of all, it's a tiny town here and I'm friends with their pastor and I love that they went across denominational borders to make this invitation. I have spent the past three Ash Wednesdays worshiping with them, which makes it even more of a kind of fellowship experience. I'm shocked that they think a Unitarian Universalist is worthy to do this for them. And I'm grateful. We tried to plan a pulpit swap with the UCC church and one of their pastors (the other one is a delightful, non-sectarian person) had a problem with it, because my folks are just too heathenish. I was fit to be tied, and I don't mean in fun way.
Secondly, I've never presided over an Ash Wednesday service and I look forward to the stress of it. I like that kind of stress; it forces me to study a lot, and to learn.
But most of all, it's just so neighborly and possibly a little bit scandalous, and as I said, that just rocks.
posted by PeaceBang at 9:42 PM
5 Comments:
That rocks majorly.
Tell your UCC neighbor the Unitarian Controversy is ancient history, and if training UU clergy is good enough for ANTS today, swapping pulpits with them ought to be good enough for him (or her) too. Then make him/her sit down and watch the UCC "bouncer" TV ad on a continuous loop for at least two hours, followed by a multiple-choice quiz on what it means.
In our town we buried the hatchet with the Congregationalist schismatics (they left us) back in 1903 or thereabouts, and have been holding regular pulpit exchanges ever since. (Ironic, since pulpit exchanges was one of the precipitating causes of the Controversy in the first place.) During WWI we even worshipped together with them again as one congregation, to conserve coal for the war.
Hey, the Methodists were always more like the Unitarians than the Congos in the sense of being Arminian, anyway.
In my previous settlement we had a pancake breakfast/Bible study every Wednesday at 6am during Lent. Our guests were always the Methodists. They thought it was funny to have pancakes for some reason...
That's too bad about the UCC church...
I almost said, if the "bouncer" video indoctrination doesn't take, you could always send someone with real-life "bouncer" experience, like "Big Moose" Tierney-Eliot here, for some personal persuasion on how the UUA/UCC interface can and should work.
As the person who introduced "Sucketh mightily" to the UU blogosphere, may I consider "rocks majorly" a shout-out?
Or is that too much of a reach?
CC
Yo, cc.
Although in the spirit of the season (solstice, not Lent), perhaps it would be better to say, "Io, Saturnalia!"
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