COMMENT: New Year's re-solutions?
By Keith Simmonds
It’s that time of year again. The re-set button moment of annual living. When some of us, or most of us, focus on creating change. At least for next week.
There are times, of course, when we really do break with the way things have become. When we refuse to tolerate the way things are.
I recall one United Church congregation that did that. Upset with the policies of the United Church of Canada and a decision that put human rights over biblical interpretation, they picked up en mass and left. In 1988 any number of people walked out of the churches they’d spent their lives building and either built new ones, joined other ones, or left all together. They’d studied on the issues of the day and resolved to solve them by the law of two feet.
In 2000 I began attending one such church. At the time of the movement of the two feet the congregation had dropped from 200 to 20 people. When I joined them 12 years later they were some 200 strong. Same numbers, different people.
The new folk were from all walks of life: various political persuasions and socio-economic backgrounds; all ages and many genders; a scattering of ethnic heritages, musical abilities, and approaches to spiritual renewal. They spread among pews vacated by the former congregation like a patchwork quilt. A crazy quilt, stitched together by nothing more than an uncommon desire to found a place of worship and acceptance in which any one of us could know that we are all the beloved creations of a loving creator.
The people I worshipped with, shared community with, was married among and considered God with were not cut from the same fabric that I was. They did not necessarily agree with my view of ways to restructure our social contract, nor did they necessarily name God in the same way I did, or find satisfaction in worship using the same language, rites, rituals and prayers that I did. But they allowed me space, they welcomed the Sikh godparents that stood with my partner and I at our son’s baptism, and they offered me the opportunity to see the richness and diversity that our world has to offer, that God has put here for all.
In the face of the decision and resolution and breaking away of the former congregation, theirs was a re-solution, a re-solving of an ancient conundrum. It could not have happened had not the former group resolved to make the room necessary for the new growth to take place. Seeing that empty space, and all it signified, the newcomers resolved to fill in the old gaps, with a new and deep rooted response. I, in my own development, owe a great deal to both.
This year, I resolve, to look at the places I occupy that prevent others from springing into new life. This year, I resolve, to send out a few new shoots in the spaces vacated by others. This year I will re-solve by re-setting my self to make room whereby my community may do the same.
Keith Simmonds is a diaconal minister in the Communities in Faith Pastoral Charge serving Beaver Valley, Rossland, Salmo and Trail.
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