Three-Quarters Time Church?
Here goes. I'll admit from the outset that what follows is unrealistic at best, highly idealistic at least, and possibly judgmental at worst.
I've been an Episcopalian since 1991. I still don't understand the summer shutdown that we seem to take such joy in. Memorial Day to Labor Day (more or less 13 weeks), we typically suspend Sunday School, minimize meetings, consolidate liturgical schedules and streamline the remaining liturgies as much as possible. Of course, this calendar adjustment is reminiscent of an agrarian society when all hands were needed in the fields for the growing season. People didn't rest during the summer -- they worked as hard as they could for as long as they could -- their winter survival depended on it. Now, we think summer's just time to rest from church.
We send the unmistakable message that we are going into stasis for three months. We all but say out loud, "Nothing much is going to happen, so you won't miss much if you spend your Sundays taking in the local Starbucks or golf couse or reading the New York Times in the park."
The church nods off programatically for June, July and August. Wake us up when school starts.
I'm all for sabbath rest. I'm all for the re-creation afforded by recreation. I understand that with children out of school (and with most of us not working in the fields) summer is the time for travel (or at least a change of scenery on the weekends). And yet...
I wonder if we can get along without all the activity in church for three months of the year...why do we need to exhaust ourselves the other nine?
Maybe the issue isn't that we slow down too much in the summer...maybe we try to accomplish too much the other 39 weeks of the year. What do you think?
Here goes. I'll admit from the outset that what follows is unrealistic at best, highly idealistic at least, and possibly judgmental at worst.
I've been an Episcopalian since 1991. I still don't understand the summer shutdown that we seem to take such joy in. Memorial Day to Labor Day (more or less 13 weeks), we typically suspend Sunday School, minimize meetings, consolidate liturgical schedules and streamline the remaining liturgies as much as possible. Of course, this calendar adjustment is reminiscent of an agrarian society when all hands were needed in the fields for the growing season. People didn't rest during the summer -- they worked as hard as they could for as long as they could -- their winter survival depended on it. Now, we think summer's just time to rest from church.
We send the unmistakable message that we are going into stasis for three months. We all but say out loud, "Nothing much is going to happen, so you won't miss much if you spend your Sundays taking in the local Starbucks or golf couse or reading the New York Times in the park."
The church nods off programatically for June, July and August. Wake us up when school starts.
I'm all for sabbath rest. I'm all for the re-creation afforded by recreation. I understand that with children out of school (and with most of us not working in the fields) summer is the time for travel (or at least a change of scenery on the weekends). And yet...
I wonder if we can get along without all the activity in church for three months of the year...why do we need to exhaust ourselves the other nine?
Maybe the issue isn't that we slow down too much in the summer...maybe we try to accomplish too much the other 39 weeks of the year. What do you think?
posted by FrGaryB | 3:31 PM
1 Comments:
There are a couple of Unitarian-run blogs that I read occasionally (Unitarians of the old-school New England virtually-Christian type, not the newagey syncretic type) and they go a step further. Apparently it is a general Unitarian practice to _not have church at all_ in the summer. Everyone says "buh bye" around Memorial Day, the "Settled Minister" gets the hell out of town or sleeps until noon every day, and everything is locked up until September. I guess that's the extreme case.
Like you, I'm not sure why we do attempt to "provide" some of the "services" (ie Sunday School, some types of fellowship events like going to baseball games, Vacation Bible School, etc.) In the case of a good bit of - for lack of a better word - children's programming, it doesn't fit with the model of formation needed for kids in a sacramental tradition. In the case of "adult programming" it seems to cater to those who would like to belong to a church without ever having to mention or think about God.
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