{"id":1397,"date":"2008-09-08T08:16:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T08:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:12:20","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:12:20","slug":"church-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Church Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SMUaTQLpTgI\/AAAAAAAABN8\/dJRzUcuKEzI\/s1600-h\/church\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;float: right;cursor: pointer\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SMUaTQLpTgI\/AAAAAAAABN8\/dJRzUcuKEzI\/s320\/church\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><br>We are well and duly launched at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firstunitarianprov.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">First Unitarian Church<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Our inaugural Sunday with its water \u201ccommunion\u201d was a lot of fun, not so travelogue and much more recollections of home, neighborhood, and region. And the deeper purpose was met, I thought. It really did feel like a gathering of the streams back into the main current\u2026<\/p>\n<p>There was some beautiful music. And a couple of prayerful moments, too rare among us, I usually feel. And we brought it in at an hour!<\/p>\n<p>I awoke with my brain bubbling\u2026<\/p>\n<p>We have lots on the plate.<\/p>\n<p>So much to do.<\/p>\n<p>Our congregation isn\u2019t officially \u201cwelcoming,\u201d that is officially welcoming to the LGBT community, something I feel strongly we need to correct. Today I have a first meeting with some leaders about this subject.<\/p>\n<p>This evening our Safety Review committee will be considering the recommendations we\u2019ve gleaned over how to make an open community as safe for its children and adults as we can without violating that basic premise of being open\u2026<\/p>\n<p>There is also illness among us and I\u2019ll be spending some time attending to that. (As well as scheming on holding up and expanding the lay ministry program here\u2026)<\/p>\n<p>There are also adult education programing issues on the table.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re looking at some social justice stuff.<\/p>\n<p>A committee is starting to review our governance.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m thinking about the various spiritual practices we offer and don\u2019t, and scheming on where to go next.<\/p>\n<p>And, I find I\u2019m worried a bit about finances.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s just what\u2019s on the top of my head\u2026<\/p>\n<p>I also worry a lot about the cultural\/religious misappropriation language in the proposed denominational statement of principals and purposes. It is a serious mistake. A very serious mistake. I wonder who among us is standing in the wings should it pass, waiting to volunteer for the job of grand inquisitor.<\/p>\n<p>Oh well, that\u2019s church life. The sublime and the silly, all elbowing up together.<\/p>\n<p>Gotta love it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-1507994318145045218?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are well and duly launched at the First Unitarian Church! Our inaugural Sunday with its water \u201ccommunion\u201d was a lot of fun, not so travelogue and much more recollections of home, neighborhood, and region. And the deeper purpose was met, I thought. It really did feel like a gathering of the streams back into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Church Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are well and duly launched at the First Unitarian Church!Our inaugural Sunday with its water &quot;communion&quot; was a lot of fun, not so travelogue and much\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are well and duly launched at the First Unitarian Church!Our inaugural Sunday with its water &quot;communion&quot; was a lot of fun, not so travelogue and much\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-08T08:16:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T19:12:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SMUaTQLpTgI\/AAAAAAAABN8\/dJRzUcuKEzI\/s320\/church\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life.html\",\"name\":\"Church Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-09-08T08:16:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-01T19:12:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"We are well and duly launched at the First Unitarian Church!Our inaugural Sunday with its water \\\"communion\\\" was a lot of fun, not so travelogue and much\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/09\/church-life.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Church Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/\",\"name\":\"Monkey Mind\",\"description\":\"Easily distracted...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\",\"name\":\"James Ford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Ford\"},\"description\":\"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. 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