A day of rest, which started with a 25-mile bike ride. It is rest in the sense that it’s not what we normally do on Sunday. We are resting from church. We are resting from being with the beloved community.
We had a little church and quite a lot of the beloved community last week in Pittsburgh, at the Mennonite Church USA convention--6,000 fellow Mennonites and we knew a surprising number of them. One could not walk down a hall or a street without being hailed. This is a good thing, to be with one’s tribe.
It is surprising, too, to rediscover how much we are still members of the tribe. We often think of ourselves as atypical Mennonites but we aren’t really. There are a lot more like us—urban at heart (though we are now rural), well-traveled, decidedly liberal politically, and inclined to spiritual expression and experience that is not exactly churchy. We love the church but are not drawn to traditional churchiness.
Our last church was just about churchy enough for us—great singing, sermons that pushed the intellectual and spiritual edges of Biblical interpretation, regular potlucks, and a caring community in which problems were faced openly.
The church we attend now is bigger and blander but incredibly hospitable and we are being drawn into a beloved community there, too. We also sense more variety in outlook, taste, and political opinion. That is not a bad thing but we do not express our views entirely freely yet. We conceal more; perhaps everyone does. Maybe that is inevitable in large churches. The fear of exposure and offense comes to the fore. It is something we will have to work through, given how important we have found openness and honesty to be in our church experience. Openness and honesty are not particularly churchy, unfortunately. But I have told some members of our new church about this blog so here we go.
For example, in this larger, varied community, when and to whom could I speak of dreams? Of the fact that my scientist husband has discovered his gifts as an energy healer? (He zapped my right knee halfway through this morning’s ride, to great effect.) Most important, how would this church receive our gay and lesbian friends? We have hints that some but not all members of this beloved community would welcome them as they are.
I try not to concern myself with church politics but politics are part of the dynamics of large and even small groups of people. They intrude on even a joyous project like the Congo Cloth Connection.
There are three Mennonite groups in Congo. Marie-Jeanne and Gaston were not the only Congolese guests at the Pittsburgh convention. Two ministers were also present who happened to be members of the other two groups. Congolese Mennonites, like North American ones, have had their differences. There was a little encounter in the Congo Cloth Connection booth in which the two ministers asked why they had not been informed of this project. I believe a satisfactory answer was given them by the appropriate persons. But I did not see them greet Marie-Jeanne, who was sitting right there at her sewing machine. Maybe I just missed it.
Our Pittsburgh Congo Cloth Market, by the way, was a roaring success despite my initial fears. We had fun. We made connections. We raised awareness and enough money to fund two job-training workshops for Congolese women. And we still have cloth left for future markets.
SEWING ANGEL
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