We've Always Done It This Way

 I've been actively involved with the Episcopal Church for over fifty years.  I started attending just as the "new" Book of Common Prayer was being introduced. It took several years and there were various versions of the book in the pews.  It was referred to as the new prayer book back then and to this very day, some folks still call it the "new" prayer book.  I have had conversations from time to time with folks who still use their 1928 prayer books for personal prayers and daily offices, and they would tell me that they receive a special level of comfort using those forms and reading those words.

I have served on the Vestry of several parishes and since being ordained I have been expected to attend Vestry meetings with voice, but no vote.  As a result, I can give you countless examples of what it is like when somebody proposes that the parish changes something like service times, or carpet color or how or when to decorate the sanctuary for holidays.  Most often those things are met with suggestions of forming a study subcommittee to look into it which is of course code for "We've Always Done It This Way" and we're not interested in changing it.

Well...the year 2020 came along and served up something that exploded that resistance to change. Sadly, right now, it just isn't safe to do church the way we always have.  Some very difficult decisions had to be made, we had to become creative in order to continue to do God's work.  

As I write this, we are just beginning the year 2021.  Things will continue to change, new traditions will start, some old traditions will be lost forever, but know that as long as we stay focused on doing what God has called us to do, we will get through this and hopefully learn from our past mistakes and not repeat them.

I am struck by how what we are experiencing in the Church right now is not new at all, but a return to the very beginnings of our Church.  Church gatherings were not held in buildings built for the purpose of worship, but in homes. Often times church members would bring their animals with them and one of the jobs that the first Deacons had was to be sure that animals were kept in place or be made to leave.

These Church gatherings were much more like our daily office services than our Eucharistic services.  It would take very many years before worship would come to resemble what we have all experienced on most Sundays, for most of our lives.

Here's to 2021 and here's to doing something old in a new way!!!