This is the very brief reply I received to an email I sent to a high ranking member of the church that I just left. What she doesn't know is that
1. I have copped her comment for a blog post
2. How little she was really saying
3. How much she was really saying.
She didn't explain anything, of course, leaving me to read between the lines, or should I say line, given the brevity of her reply. So she perceives that the church is a work in progress. Un-huh. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Yeah, it's an already given. The church, all of us, yes of course, all a work in progress. Just like the world is going to go on turning, the sun is going to rise tomorrow morning then set again tomorrow evening. Somewhere it is going to rain. Somewhere the sun is going to shine. Elsewhere it will snow. There will be cold weather and warm weather. In the Serengeti in Africa a zebra is being eaten by a lion. Or a carmine bee eater is perched on the back of the zebra's brother:
Somewhere in the world a child is being tucked into bed and somewhere else a child has just died from starvation. Somewhere in the world someone is being shot to death. Somewhere else a patient is recovering in hospital surgery. A woman is giving birth. Another woman is having an abortion. Somewhere in the world someone is getting married. Elsewhere they are filing for divorce.
And on it goes...
So, what does the church have in common with this comment that the church is a work in progress and with the same problems of the world? This is how low our expectations have to be for Christ's Body?
The church I have just left is what I would call a dysfunctional parish. There exists absolutely nothing in the way of pastoral care. If you are hurt, upset, if you have been shunned, mistreated and emotionally abused by other parishioners, if you are lonely and isolated, if you just need someone to talk with over a cup of coffee, then hold your breath if you want to vent or debrief or feel heard. No one, especially the priest, is going to give you the time of day.
This parish church is full of hurting, wounded, marginalized people. Many suffer from addictions, mental illness, marriage dysfunction and divorce, loneliness and ill health. This is the proverbial hospital full of sinners. A hospital without doctors or nurses. Here the favoured cliché is: "Wherever you happen to be along the way you are welcome here."
Lovely words. Lovely meaningless words. Within two months of beginning to attend this parish I was suddenly being hounded and harassed to give money to the church. Yes, it was during the stewardship campaign, the popular euphemism for "Fleece the Flock." No matter how much I tried to tell them that I was neither working full-time or earning much above minimum wage they simply did not seem to get it. In a church where the priest pulls in a whopping ninety-six thousand dollars a year? This is beyond obscene.
And on it's gone. I can no longer take this and I have voted with my feet. I do have the good fortune of having just lucked into another parish where people actually are made to feel welcome and people are friendly and supportive. I am going to make this my home parish.
To my ex-parish I have this to say in parting: Spare me the platitudes, spare me from the clichés and please stop boring me with beautiful meaningless words. If all you wish to aim for is to be a reflection of the world, a world that neither knows God nor wants to know God then you have completely missed the point for your existence and you have made yourselves obsolete. If you are going to welcome everyone within your walls, into this sacred space, regardless of their wounds or tragedies or social inabilities and traumas then make sure you have at hand all the pastoral help and simple informal friendship at your disposal to offer them, or you are doing nothing outside of stoking your egos and people's wounds are going to go on festering. Be a real work in progress infused and guided by the Holy Spirit, or you're just going to be a piece of work.
Heed the words of St. John the Baptist: "Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance."
No comments:
Post a Comment