From sinner to member…..

This recovering Catholic is officially no longer a Catholic. YIKES! An identity that I carried through 12 years of Catholic education and many years in college, one that suppressed me and helped me grow at the same time, is no longer. I am now a card-carrying (well a coffee mug carrying, they gave us mugs) member of the United Church of Christ. Yup, S and I joined a church yesterday.

Don’t get me wrong, my family was never the, “you are dammed to hell you if you question the Pope” kind of family. We were the arrive 10 min late to the 12:30 pm Sunday mass or work really hard to get it out of the way on Saturday at 6:00 pm family. My parents listened to doubts but incorporated prayer before dinner. The education was stellar in the Catholic schools I attended. I am grateful to them for all the choices they made in sending me to that school and letting me develop my own spirituality at the same time. Besides, what other choice did they have but to raise me Catholic in the Catholic schools since my mother was once a nun. Yup folks, you read that right my mom was a nun for somewhere around 9 years. And, no, my dad did not woo her out of it. My mom decided the match wasn’t right and decided to impact the world outside the nunnery, which she did by teaching overseas, marrying my dad, having my brother and I, and in so many other ways. (I speak in past tense about her because she passed away 16 years ago not because she does not still do these things. She does it in a much more indirect and magical way.)

The Catholics are strange, and I’m sorry if that offends anyone. I kinda mean a good strange. So many of my friends are Catholic (i.e. high school friends). My dad, brother, and sister-in-law are still practicing Catholics, as are many of my extended family members. These people are all supportive of the family S and I are building and do not take the Pope’s words regarding us as vial sinners to heart, and I thank them for that. This is why Catholics are so strange; so many people that walk in the Catholic Church doors come with a broadminded interpretation of the Cannon Laws and the Pope’s dictations, all while under the pretense of following the guidance of the Pope. J You have to admit; it is a bit strange but in a good way. Some would deem freethinking Catholics an oxymoron.

All that said, the Catholic Church itself had turned me off to church altogether. That is till my wife talked about how much she would really like to get back to church. All I could think about was standing in church being bored, mindlessly reciting words ingrained in my head since childhood, and listening to the priest drone on about his old world views of today’s world. YIKES! Since then, we have found the United Church of Christ where they talk about the reality of today’s world, our impact on it, and how our actions are a representation of God’s work here on earth.

So, yesterday we stood before the congregation and were welcomed as an openly lesbian couple into the their community without a question or doubt from them. It was nice to see people take on the teachings of a man named Jesus in their actions, to welcome all who strive to be closer to God. Even more to the point, instead of a sermon this church (which has members that are old enough to be my great grandmother and young enough to be growing in S’s belly) had the PROUD Theater Group (a theater troupe of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and ally kids middle school to high school age) perform a set of monologues on religion and sexuality, doubt and devotion, fear and pride, and most of all about me an my journey back to a church.

Recovering Catholic no more, now a UCC member. As the UCC motto states, God is still speaking……s/he didn’t forget me while I was away, s/he was and is always speaking. Thanks S for encouraging me to go back. I’m looking forward to raising our baby with the support of this community.