Monday, September 20, 2010

Back-to-church time

Although not all Unitarian Universalist churches observe the “summer break” plan – my parents’ large church in Concord, for example, runs a year-round program – it is typical for small- to midsized UU churches including the one I attend in Carlisle to take the months of July and August off from regular services and either offer an alternative style of services such as lay-led or simply close altogether.

Returning to church yesterday morning after three months off (official Opening Day was last Sunday, but I was driving Rick to the airport), I realized as I sat in the pew how beneficial the time away had been for me. I often end the church year with twinges of burn-out. It takes a lot of volunteer effort to run a church like ours – smallish in membership numbers and even smaller in terms of paid staff, but robust in its range of offerings and initiatives – and by June, I’m usually more than a little worn out from the effort of doing my meager part. I’ve had enough of teaching Sunday school, baking muffins for coffee hour, mixing up brownies for bake sales, attending committee meetings, writing publicity notices, weeding the church garden, and figuring out what I can afford to pledge for yet another year.

And over the summer, I never feel any regret that I’m not at church. In fact, if I’m to be honest, some summers – including this past one – I sometimes start to wonder why I go at all. As a faith, Unitarian Universalists aren’t required to attend church. Our covenant says that “service is our prayer”; you could be a good UU without ever setting foot in a church, if you instead devoted your time to community service and charitable works.

In the summer, I bask in the extra free time. I sleep late on Sundays, fit in more walks and bike rides, make better Sunday breakfasts for my family, read the Sunday paper over coffee, take weekend trips, have brunch with friends. “Why bother with church?” I ask myself at those times. “Isn’t this” – whether ‘this’ is running along the beach or talking with friends – “a worthwhile form of worship in its own right, and just as valuable? Would it make more sense to devote Sunday mornings to quality time with my family rather than rushing everyone out the door to church once fall arrives?”

Yesterday morning, though, I’d had a long break, and everything felt fresh and new, and it all reminded me of why I go to church. The music – choral, organ, harpsichord – was far more beautiful than anything I could have re-created in my own home. The sermon drew upon Bible accounts I wasn’t familiar with and made salient points about the importance of stepping to the plate when voices of dissent are needed. Our minister’s face was comforting and familiar at the pulpit. I saw friends I hadn’t seen since June, and during coffee hour heard about one parishioner’s great new job and another parishioner’s newborn twin grandchildren. Acquaintances I don’t know well inquired after my parents and expressed concern over their recent health challenges.

Besides, on top of everything else valuable about church – the music, the rituals, the covenant, the sermon, the readings – it provides an hour of quiet uninterrupted reflection. And no matter how much I might claim I observe some form of Sabbath throughout the summer, I don’t sit in a pew for an hour meditating and reflecting. I just don’t.

The church year is still new. I don’t have to teach any Sunday school classes until the middle of next month; the committees on which I’m currently serving haven’t started meeting again yet; and surprisingly, no one approached me yesterday about duties for the Harvest Fair. All of that will happen, and I might once again grow a little bit weary and wonder if it’s worthwhile to go.

But then I’ll try to remind myself of how it felt yesterday: quiet, peaceful, welcoming. Sitting in the pew of a building more than a hundred years old, which houses a congregation that has been meeting for more than two hundred and fifty years, is indeed different from observing the Sabbath in any form at home. July and August convince me that it’s effective to take the summers off, but September convinces me it’s worthwhile to come back. The music, the readings, the fellowship…that’s what makes a church. It brought me in yesterday morning, and it will bring me back again throughout another church year.

1 comment:

  1. I had the same reaction yesterday. As much as I enjoy the summer and time off, it felt good to be back.

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