Attending a new church ...

Today I attended a new church with my little one and it was great and relaxing!

Ok, so a basic history on my church experience:

At a young age, while my parents were married, I attended a Baptist or Methodist church. It was fun from what I remember with Halloween parties, Christmas parties, Sunday School, etc. Then my parents divorced while I was young. Dad got custody of us, and our church going days pretty much ended ....

Until Grand-mom the strict Catholic step in to save our souls ....

We had to attend Saturday mass with her, the go to CCD one day during the week, then on top of that we had to go to the Sister's house once a week for further instruction since we were not raised Catholic.

So, this went on for years, until one day when I was in the 5th/6th grade when I was to make my conformation/confession. My Grand-mom wanted me to stay at her house all weekend to practice what ever prayers I needed to learn for that occasion. My Uncle's new wife invited me to her church for a mother/daughter dinner. My Aunt did not have any children. I was honored that she selected me to attend with her. Well this invite, rocked the boat with my grandmother!!! She was so furious that I would dare attend this event rather then sit at her house and practice the prayers all weekend. Grand-mom through up her hands and said if I went to this other church event that she was finished with me going to the Catholic church. So like a ton of bricks being released from my shoulders - I was free from the forced chains of the Catholic church.

So in my search for enlightenment, I attend two other churches because I had friends who went there and there were some fun activities. Then my other Grand-mother (aka Nana) who was also Catholic, but not strict started to attend metaphysical classes. Nana introduced me to earth based and some far fetched ideas, some that have been with me all my life before this time.

I always knew there was a god or creative force in nature and enjoyed the beauty of nature. It was something that I could feel, see, and touch. I also believed that you did not need a "middle man" in order to talk to god. Also it made sense to me that there be both a male and female presence in the world and in god - which most Christian religions did not touch on greatly. That both male and female were equal and the Christian religion focuses mainly on the male side of things.

From there, I found my way into Wicca. But I prefer to call myself pagan. I read up on the religion and felt my self at home. Here was a religion that touched on all that I believed and did not require the "middle man" to help you worship, that the way to worship was as simple or as elaborate as you wanted it to be. I have always found the spiritual side of paganism to be deep in my heart. It is the spiritual side I have practiced and not so much the magical side.

With that, I found my self involved with a group. It was like a prayer answered to know others of like mind to worship with. However, the group became more of a drama club, then it did a real group of spiritual worship. Slowly, members drifted away, new ones came, and then went. Some effected directly by the drama of the group and other just tired of the drama of the group left. After being involved for along time, my eyes opened and my family and I left, because we were sick of the occult like atmosphere cause by the constant need of drama by the High Priestess.

Then church / spiritual group gatherings were put on a hiatus, but not my beliefs. So we briefly attended another church that was freer in spiritual thought. We did that with the encouragement of a friend. But, it just was not the right fit for our little one with her special needs.

Then come today, our attendance of the Unitarian church. It was just me and the little one. Dear hubby wants a break from religion for a while because the drama of the past hit close to home - and he just want to be left out of it for now.

My overall impression was complete ease today. The summer time nursery staff was wonderful with the little one. She had a great time exploring and playing and was very happy! I went to the service and it was relaxed. They sang songs, are open and inviting to ALL religions and backgrounds and sexual orientation and races. They embrace everyone no matter what!

The sermon was about three vilified heroes in the bible - Jezabel who embraced the collective and non-forced practice of all religions in her husband's Hebrew realm, Thomas who was the "doubting Tom" in the bible because he required physical proof that Jesus had risen, and the third peasant in Jesus's parable about the rich man who went a way and gave large sums of money to 3 peasants.

The story behind Jezebel and Ahab was that Jezebel would not would not give up her gods when she married Ahab. She influenced her husband to accept all religions under his realm and not to force his kingdom to practice only one religion. The lesson of Jezebel is that she was tolerant of other religions and beliefs.

The story behind Thomas was that Thomas required hard fact that can be proven that Jesus had risen. Thomas was not going to take hear say as fact until he saw for himself and in front of other witnesses that this miracle had occurred. The lesson of Thomas was to not accept things as fact on blind faith alone because blind faith can led you into trouble, that it is best to rely on hard fact.

Then the story with Jesus's parable with the rich man and the 3 peasants was interesting. The rich man gave 3 peasants large amounts of money with instructions to invest the money and make a profit while he was away. The first and second peasants went out and followed the instructions. They made huge amounts of profit to give back to the rich man when he returned. The third peasant buried the money and waited for the return of the rich man. The third peasant did not invest the money nor touch the money. Upon the return of the rich man, the 3rd peasant gave him the full amount of money back. The rich man was extremely upset that his wishes were not followed. He kicked the peasant out and gave the other peasant who made the greater profit that money as a reward. The 3rd peasant had refused to let his principles be ruined by greed that money can cause.

It was defiantly an unorthodox lesson, but it made complete sense and kept my attention!

To conclude, we will be attending again next week :O) I am looking forward to it - also it will help the little one with her language and social skills and following directions :)