Joining local UCC

[FireDragon76]

This January I will be joining First United Church of Christ of Orlando, Florida. So I'll probably be the only member of the UCC on this forum.

 

[PloverWing]

I'm glad you've found a good church home!

 

[FireDragon76]

I'm glad you've found a good church home!

It's the most convenient church to go to (it's within a mile and a half to my apartment) and the denomination is broad enough to accommodate a variety of perspectives.. But in the end, I cannot really put it into words, nor can I rationalize it. I suppose I just feel like I am called to this particular congregation.

If the Episcopal Church had a different tone down here, I might have joined. But down here, the Episcopal Church is very much conservative southern religion, for the most part. The UCC takes a more counter-cultural stance here, and we have a very diverse congregation.

 

[PloverWing]

Sorry about the conservative Episcopalians in your area! But I'm glad the UCC is there for you. And the spirit of each individual congregation makes a lot of difference. I hope this congregation will be a place that nurtures and welcomes you.

 

[FireDragon76]

Sorry about the conservative Episcopalians in your area! But I'm glad the UCC is there for you. And the spirit of each individual congregation makes a lot of difference. I hope this congregation will be a place that nurtures and welcomes you.

I've learned to have more modest expectations about churches. I've also learned that the expectation that churches feed or nurture you, or serve you up religion that meets all your personal expectations, isn't necessarily a healthy perspective, and doesn't allow a person to grow. The important thing is that it's a loving and welcoming community that embodies something more like my understanding of the Kingdom of God- and that cannot be discounted in a place like America, where there is a great deal of spiritual consumerism and outright religious hypocrisy and nonsense in the name of Jesus. Once I stopped thinking about the flaws in my religious experience, and thinking about what I can bring to the church, my perspective shifted. Then I just realized, this is where I belong.

 

[RileyG]

May God bless you abundantly on your journey @FireDragon76

 

[FireDragon76]

Unfortunately, my pastor's injury and recovery means I won't be able to join the church any time soon, as she is required to be present in receiving new members.

 

[FireDragon76]

I was finally received into our local congregation yesterday.

I don't really approve of the ceremony. When I belonged to a Lutheran church, it was a far shorter ceremony just based on a confession of faith. This felt more like a confirmation rite.

 

[The Liturgist]

I was finally received into our local congregation yesterday.

I don't really approve of the ceremony. When I belonged to a Lutheran church, it was a far shorter ceremony just based on a confession of faith. This felt more like a confirmation rite.

I do understand where you are coming from. Without disagreeing with you or indeed expressing an opinion on the issue one way or the other, for I no longer really have one, I can offer this explanation: it tends to be the case that in most Congregational churches, including UCC churches, at least when I worked for them, the actual voting members represent what is in many cases only small subset of the congregation, with membership being optional in terms of partaking of the Eucharist, and many other aspects of church life, and entailing additional responsibilities, so when someone new makes the commitment to formally join as an actual member, it is kind of a big deal, which does bear some liturgical similarity to Confirmation or the Orthodox service of Chrismation.

 

[FireDragon76]

I do understand where you are coming from. Without disagreeing with you or indeed expressing an opinion on the issue one way or the other, for I no longer really have one, I can offer this explanation: it tends to be the case that in most Congregational churches, including UCC churches, at least when I worked for them, the actual voting members represent what is in many cases only small subset of the congregation, with membership being optional in terms of partaking of the Eucharist, and many other aspects of church life, and entailing additional responsibilities, so when someone new makes the commitment to formally join as an actual member, it is kind of a big deal, which does bear some liturgical similarity to Confirmation or the Orthodox service of Chrismation.

TBH, I debated putting the whole thing off, but I decided to go through it anyways.

I have had a rough couple of past weeks. Getting over a lingering case of COVID, and a fibromyalgia relapse has been tough. Life is hard enough, I don't expect an "interrogation" about my beliefs out of that sort of a religious environment, particularly one that seems to have such loose doctrinal commitments in general. To use a Lutheran expression, there was alot of Law and very little Gospel. And TBH, I don't think in an ideal world, the UCC would be my first choice. So I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, really.

 

[The Liturgist]

TBH, I debated putting the whole thing off, but I decided to go through it anyways.

I have had a rough couple of past weeks. Getting over a lingering case of COVID, and a fibromyalgia relapse has been tough. Life is hard enough, I don't expect an "interrogation" about my beliefs out of that sort of a religious environment, particularly one that seems to have such loose doctrinal commitments in general. To use a Lutheran expression, there was alot of Law and very little Gospel. And TBH, I don't think in an ideal world, the UCC would be my first choice. So I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, really.

Well in the two Congregational missions I set up a few years ago, we did not implement such a service, for a number of reasons including a desire to avoid setting up anything that might discourage participation by the highly marginalized people one of the two missions serves. Also I don’t think Park Street Church in Boston does anything with the quality of a confirmation when new members join.

As a matter of personal preference, I don’t like the Western style of confirmation liturgies which are intended as adolescent rites of passage and require memorization of the Creed and the Catechism, and in some denominations involve a diocesan Bishop or District Superintendent testing the young people on their knowledge as part of the liturgy. While some ardent teenage Christians might well enjoy that, in the same way some actively try out for and compete in the Academic Decathlon or other forms of testing themselves, others might find it a stumbling block; I have encountered too many Western Christians who lost interest in the faith at least for a number of years as a result of having to go through that type of service in their adolescence. Thus I implemented Chrismation based on the Orthodox liturgy which follows immediately the baptism of anyone, and this allows any energy of youth who want to test themselves religiously to be directed to the benefit of the entire congregation through altar and choir service.

 

[FireDragon76]

Well in the two Congregational missions I set up a few years ago, we did not implement such a service, for a number of reasons including a desire to avoid setting up anything that might discourage participation by the highly marginalized people one of the two missions serves.

That's a good point. Several people in the congregation have spouses that don't attend and aren't members, often I suspect related to religious trauma. I don't think the message being preached necessarily matches up with some of the practices. There's alot about the liturgy or order of worship that often fits into being this kind of haphazard and ill-thought-out kind of thing.

Also I don’t think Park Street Church in Boston does anything with the quality of a confirmation when new members join.

As a matter of personal preference, I don’t like the Western style of confirmation liturgies which are intended as adolescent rites of passage and require memorization of the Creed and the Catechism, and in some denominations involve a diocesan Bishop or District Superintendent testing the young people on their knowledge as part of the liturgy. While some ardent teenage Christians might well enjoy that, in the same way some actively try out for and compete in the Academic Decathlon or other forms of testing themselves, others might find it a stumbling block; I have encountered too many Western Christians who lost interest in the faith at least for a number of years as a result of having to go through that type of service in their adolescence.

I have seen similar problems with Confirmation at my old Lutheran church, BTW, and in my own experiences with Methodist confirmation when I was younger. It simply doesn't do what people believe about it. It functions too often as "graduation" from church altogether. Maybe this is part of the reason Mainline Protestants have trouble retaining people?

Thus I implemented Chrismation based on the Orthodox liturgy which follows immediately the baptism of anyone, and this allows any energy of youth who want to test themselves religiously to be directed to the benefit of the entire congregation through altar and choir service.

I think what you are describing overall is a blind spot of some churches, and is part of the reason that people simply pass over religion in increasing numbers. The cultural framework that made sense of those practices and attitudes really isn't there anymore, so those practices lack real power over peoples lives.

I have some experience with Eastern Orthodoxy and Buddhism, and of course Lutheranism, and I find the approach to western religion sometimes offputting. Religion is primarily something you do (or done to you, in the case of Lutheranism). Faith isn't a purely subjective and internal thing.