Church news and job news, both good
Happy feast of All Saints, and a happy Reformation Sunday as well to those who're celebrating late. The Lutheran congregations in the Madison area had a special evening service, complete with brass choir and a very enthusiastic rendition of "Mighty Fortress", which happened to be at the church my family attended until I was about seven or eight years old. The layout hasn't changed much since I was there last, so it all felt weirdly familiar but much smaller than I remember it. I sang in the choir, which would have been more fun without this lingering cough. The sermon was good, the brass group played good arrangements of my favorite hymns, and the people were very pleasant. Which segues awkwardly into my actual point, which is that I may actually be ready to leave the Lutheran church.
This move has been a long time in coming, and now that I'm definitely going to be staying in Madison I don't want to put it off any longer. I didn't exactly intend this evening to be my last hurrah with good old Luther, though it served that purpose well enough, and I'll probably keep going to church with my family on occasion. I keep being struck, though, by how much more my faith has grown whenever I've been overseas, and I can't help but wonder how much of that is because I was in such a different church environment at those times. I'm not quite ready to write down all the questions I've been struggling with lately, but I will say that the answers I've been getting from the denomination I grew up with feel, and have always felt, a little too pat.
What I really want, in my heart of hearts, is to be back in Oxford, where walking to Exeter for evensong felt like coming home--how I miss that place--but that's obviously not an option. There are three or four Episcopalian churches within driving distance of my home, and several of them have sung Eucharist. I think I'll try one of those next week.
Which all reminds me--I'll be staying in Madison indefinitely. I have a job, thank God, with an amazing and vibrant company that hires interesting people and does good work, and their kickass benefits mean I might actually get to see a neurologist sometime soon and get this whole thing figured out.
Still writing.
This move has been a long time in coming, and now that I'm definitely going to be staying in Madison I don't want to put it off any longer. I didn't exactly intend this evening to be my last hurrah with good old Luther, though it served that purpose well enough, and I'll probably keep going to church with my family on occasion. I keep being struck, though, by how much more my faith has grown whenever I've been overseas, and I can't help but wonder how much of that is because I was in such a different church environment at those times. I'm not quite ready to write down all the questions I've been struggling with lately, but I will say that the answers I've been getting from the denomination I grew up with feel, and have always felt, a little too pat.
What I really want, in my heart of hearts, is to be back in Oxford, where walking to Exeter for evensong felt like coming home--how I miss that place--but that's obviously not an option. There are three or four Episcopalian churches within driving distance of my home, and several of them have sung Eucharist. I think I'll try one of those next week.
Which all reminds me--I'll be staying in Madison indefinitely. I have a job, thank God, with an amazing and vibrant company that hires interesting people and does good work, and their kickass benefits mean I might actually get to see a neurologist sometime soon and get this whole thing figured out.
Still writing.