I RECENTLY ATTENDED ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH for the Service of the Longest Night titled “Blue Christmas.” This service, led by the Rev. Jeanne Forte, was aimed at providing solace for those suffering during the holiday season — those feeling loss, loneliness, sadness. The service was lovely and the mix of sermon, song and prayer was comforting.
It was no surprise the next morning that I thought about my personal journey in finding a spiritual/religious home. I wonder how many others are on this quest. I am ethnically a Jew, and being in synagogue with its prayers and sermons was enormously helpful after my husband’s death. I honored him by touching the Torah during Yom Kippur. I prayed with others who mourned their losses. The journey to Israel, which included living with an Orthodox Jew for two weeks, helped me to enter the world of a truly religious observer. And Joseph was an extraordinary person of kindness and wisdom.
Having accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah whom Jews are still waiting to find, I am now equally comfortable in churches, from Catholic to Protestant to Unitarian. I have visited on occasion small community churches and many in between ending in the mega Bayside Church in Sacramento, which my grandsons attend. Bayside has extensive programs with outreach to thousands in the Roseville area.
My experience in Taiwan with the Baptist missionaries left me with the wish that I could fulfill their mission and accept Jesus in a fundamentalist belief. That will probably never happen, but better people than the Suggs I will never meet.
Last year I saw the play “The Book of Mormon.” I was hesitant to see this play/musical because I thought it would “diss” Mormons. I think the world of the Blomdal family and would not ever want their beliefs to be ridiculed. However, the message of the play is one of love and connection to good deeds as the central purpose of Mormonism. Who could ever “diss” the good work of the Mormons?
In travelling the world, as I have been fortunate enough to do, I have entered Muslim mosques and watched the genuflection, the rituals of prayer through the day. This is a culture that realizes its limitations in the sight of God — a humble people. So sad that the dark side of the interpretation of God’s will is what is at the forefront — that terrorists are what many westerners think is Muslim.
And then there is Buddhism, which I have touched through Spirit Rock in Marin and several sanctuaries through the Bay Area. Their teachings of meditative practice and wisdom for peaceful living have influenced my life.
One may at this point see me as a dilettante, but I see myself as a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Mormon, Buddhist. I am comfortable in any place of worship that helps me to feel a connection with God. I would choose always to be with people walking on this Earth arm in arm as we face life’s challenges together.
Ellen Blaufarb is a marriage family therapist and mentor at Liberty High School. She can be reached at meblau@sbcglobal.net.
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Ellen, I loved your writting it really expressed my thoughts. I do appreciate and feel comfortable in any house of worship. Like a vein of gold the Goodness Of God unique to each house, is found. We must love an treasure our differences and as you said so well ” arm in arm ” we can achieve peace.
Ellen, Although it may be on the other side of the philosophical spectrum, wondering whether you have ever explored secular humanism.
Ellen, If you are interested, there is a Center for Inquiry located in San Francisco:
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/sf
As I believe that it is a sense of community that you hold to be very important, know that the CFI offers weekly book clubs and dinner socials to major lectures with prominent speakers, Additionally, CFI’s grassroots groups host dozens of activities every month.
From the piece: “I am comfortable in any place of worship that helps me to feel a connection with God.”
I can understand that sentiment exactly.
After attending three different churches in Benicia for many years, my wife and I decided to follow a dear friend of ours as he became music director at a Church in Richmond. We found that Church to be one where a very positive and loving message was delivered to many people in the neighborhood as well as to those seeking to turn their lives around from drugs or prison.
We attended that church for several years and enjoyed it immensely.
Very nice article. At the core is faith, not religion. For each individual, belief and faith in whatever entity is the key to good acts. For me, faith in God and Jesus Christ is the basis of my being. For others, it may be Allah or Buddha or … Humanity itself.
People need to find their own path. Your article states that idea very well.