It's another new day. They're all new. So, what else is new? The pandemic is old. So is safe distancing. So is human stupidity. And human kindness. I am underslept, but that's okay. I will have breakfast, take the clothes out of the dryer, then go down for a nap before starting work. Not a lot of work to do today, two short phone calls.
Now it's later. Now that the Anglican Church and I are history, there is this rather interesting void I am about to step into. I have no idea what is waiting for me. A well-meaning, but non believing, friend in an email today said that she thought the Anglican Church was open-minded, and it was a bit of a surprise to her that I would leave.
A lot of people don't seem to realize that open-mindedness is not the most important feature in a church or in a Christian denomination,. Helpful, yes, very helpful. But this is not a club for people of like minds. That isn't nor ever was the purpose of church. Any faith community becomes problematic when it becomes dominated by one particular way of thinking that simply shuts out everyone who is not like them.
But there is still a lot to be said for an open-minded church, but it has to be an open-mindedness that has its springs in having an open heart. Some of my Gentle Reader will already understand how I was so dreadfully and shamelessly stonewalled by both the priest in charge at St. Faith's, and the archbishop when I appealed to her for support. Pastoral help in the Anglican Church comes in the form of spiritual direction, and that is an ethically-bankrupt cash grab. If you can't afford a spiritual director, then, unless the priest particularly likes you, you get nothing.
I don't care how open-minded the Anglican Church is. They leave little or no room for people who are poor or on low incomes. This is still the church of the establishment, the purview of the well-heeled bourgeoisie.
I was treated disgracefully by those people, because of their lack of love. Now I'm moving on. Thank God, I'm finally moving on!
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