Take Me to Church
(manually x-posted)
I went up to my hometown last weekend as we were decommissioning the rural church I grew up in. The building was packed to the gills with people home to say goodbye, prompting the minister (who is a useless tool) to start his spiel by saying "It's lovely to see the building full - where have you all been?"
Passive aggressive twat.
He also used it as an opportunity to 'invite' us to his home congregation. He was supposed to be the minister for both pastoral charges, but according to the locals, the biggest reason the church is closing now rather than in 2025 is they can't stand Rev Colin and they are all looking for churches that he's not at. So he won't be getting the sudden boost in congregation he's been counting on.
Poor muffin.
It's a little sad - my dad, myself and brother, 3 of my cousins, all of my nieces were all baptized there, Adam, Cheryl and I were confirmed there, we played murder in the sanctuary during Youth Group - but at the same time, it was the right choice. We've all adopted the "cult of secularism" (direct quote from the service) and like it that way, thanks.
That said, it was a nice meal, I didn't get struck by lightning, and the church is being purchased by a local Mennonite congregation.
After that I went out to see all the changes at my brother's - they are getting into chickens, so they had a massive new barn with all the latest tech built behind the old bank barn. 18K baby birds in a week and a day. Crazy change.
We also hung out next door at my aunt and uncle's for dinner, and all the girls played together nicely. The only boy had hockey - I don't think he regretted missing the family time with 5 girls at all.
I've also been doing genealogy. I'll have many more stories as I get further into the history, but so far I"m pretty sure my great grandfather got his first wife pregnant before marriage and they moved to Michigan to hide the fact. Can't figure out why she's buried in North Dakota instead of Ontario though.