LABOR DAY SERVICE AT CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH--Hear Murfin Preach
My, my, how the immage of the working class has changed from RALPH CHAPLIN'S defiant rebel to some fat old man gnoshing on a pastrami sandwhich at a Mannhatten deli. What does this tell us of UU views of working people?
As far as I can tell, the LABOR DAY services that I have been leading at the CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH for the last couple of years have been the only religious observances of this secular national holiday in McHENRY COUNTY. Oh, maybe the occasion might get a passing remark from the pulpit, some BIBLE verse endorsing the dignity of labor might be stapled awkwardly on to the proceedings, or some progressive cleric might utter a prayer. But no one else devotes an entire service to the occasion.
Many churches are less than jammed this weekend. Parishioners are off celebrating the last big weekend of the summer. Many Protestant churches are more interested in gearing up for the “homecoming” service next week when the Church Year roars off into high gear after the summer doldrums and Sunday School resumes. We used to skip services entirely because so few people showed up.
Then I asked if I could “have” the day to do the summer service that was usually assigned to me. I had wanted to do a labor service for years-on or around MAY DAY, the real INTERNATIOAL LABOR DAY. That idea was shot down pretty firmly by the Worship Committee and the Church Council, who wanted “more spiritual” content and absolutely none of this “class nonsense.” Even the usually supportive REV. DAN LARSEN, my friend and collaborator in numerous progressive causes, didn’t feel like stirring up complaints from members who might decide on next year’s pledge based on their level of offence at my red ravings.
I pointed out that on the Labor Day weekend those who would be offended just by the topic would have plenty of excuse to stay away. It didn’t hurt when I pointed out that those who did show up might throw a few extra bucks in the collection plate-summer being a financial dessert for the church. And so I was allowed to hold my worship service. Thirty or forty people showed up the last two years, enough to make unlocking the church worthwhile.
Anyway, any readers of this blog are welcome to hear me “preach” this Sunday at 10:45 a.m. at the Congregational Unitarian Church, 221 Dean Street in Woodstock. The topic is Where Are They? Unitarian Universalism and the Working Class. I will even sing JOE HILL’S The Preacher and the Slave and Dark as a Dungeon by MERLE TRAVIS.
You don’t have to be a Unitarian Universalist to attend. Hell, you don’t even have to be a Christian. If you are agnostic, you don’t have to worry that the roof will cave in on you. If you are religious, you don’t have to be concerned that you will be struck by lighting for apostasy.
Hope to see some of you there.