Marriage, Faith, and Change
This is a bit of a sequel to the last post, dealing with how faith will play a role in married life for Samantha and myself.
Those of you who know us both know that we have different approaches to our beliefs. Samantha's faith comes from long term involvement in her denomination(her family goes back 4 generations). She has a seminary education and knows what she believes and why, even though, as she sometimes points out, apologetics is not her forte.
My faith is more experiential and instinctual , as I see it. It is based on spirit more than on what I read in any text, though I find sacred texts to be sources of wisdom, insight, and enlightenment.
We both decided early on that it is important to us to attend a church together and thereby grow together spiritually. Attending separately is something that we do not wish to consider. Our challenge is that she does not agree overall with Unitarian Universalist theology, and I tend to find most traditional Christian churches to be spiritually stifling.
We will be searching for a church that can meet both our needs. I personally am really interested in the liberal Quaker churches in this area, and there is a Presbyterian Church that may fit the bill for me. I also think that I might find the United Church of Christ to my liking.
I love my UU church and the people in it. I currently sing in the choir and it is one of my great joys. There is something going on there seven days a week , so I know that I will find some way to continue involvement there, even if it is more limited.
An outside option would be to attend services together at two different places, thus meeting both our needs. The way services are scheduled now, that wouldn't really be a problem. I don't think this is what we really want, but I haven't completely discarded that option.
One thing is certain. The experience is going to be interesting, and I am really looking forward to growing from it.
I'll leave it to Samantha to correct anything that I may have misrepresented about her faith. I think that I got it pretty well right, however.
Love to you all!
Those of you who know us both know that we have different approaches to our beliefs. Samantha's faith comes from long term involvement in her denomination(her family goes back 4 generations). She has a seminary education and knows what she believes and why, even though, as she sometimes points out, apologetics is not her forte.
My faith is more experiential and instinctual , as I see it. It is based on spirit more than on what I read in any text, though I find sacred texts to be sources of wisdom, insight, and enlightenment.
We both decided early on that it is important to us to attend a church together and thereby grow together spiritually. Attending separately is something that we do not wish to consider. Our challenge is that she does not agree overall with Unitarian Universalist theology, and I tend to find most traditional Christian churches to be spiritually stifling.
We will be searching for a church that can meet both our needs. I personally am really interested in the liberal Quaker churches in this area, and there is a Presbyterian Church that may fit the bill for me. I also think that I might find the United Church of Christ to my liking.
I love my UU church and the people in it. I currently sing in the choir and it is one of my great joys. There is something going on there seven days a week , so I know that I will find some way to continue involvement there, even if it is more limited.
An outside option would be to attend services together at two different places, thus meeting both our needs. The way services are scheduled now, that wouldn't really be a problem. I don't think this is what we really want, but I haven't completely discarded that option.
One thing is certain. The experience is going to be interesting, and I am really looking forward to growing from it.
I'll leave it to Samantha to correct anything that I may have misrepresented about her faith. I think that I got it pretty well right, however.
Love to you all!