"And I Won't Tell No One Your Name..."

[psalm_onethirtyone]

Our church service yesterday was so beautiful. We were out of the church, we were in the front yard of the Landis Building, which is this wonderful old old old house with a big sloping lawn and wonderful big trees and a porch with beds on it so you can sleep out there and look at the snow or the flowers, depending what season it is. So we were out of the church, and Daphne set up an altar underneath a tree that shaded her all around, and we had folding chairs for pews, and Elizabeth brought her guitar to play the music for the hymns.

We had all the best hymns yesterday, too. We had Lord, be glorified, which is very, very simple, and very beautiful, and Leaning on the everlasting arms, which should be illegal it's so much fun, it's one you can clap to, and it's very nice. And our middle hymn was We are one in the Spirit, the lyrics to which I am going to reprint, because--guh. It describes what Christianity is supposed to be, when you take out all the loud scary shouting people who want everyone to go to hell.

-1-
We are One in The Spirit,
We are One in The Lord.
We are One in The Spirit,
We are One in The Lord.
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.

Chorus
And they'll know we are Christians by our love,
By our Love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

-2-
We will work with each other,
We will work side by side.
We will work with each other,
We will work side by side.
And we'll guard each man's dignity
And save each man's pride.

Chorus

-3-
We will walk with each other,
We will walk hand in hand.
We will walk with each other,
We will walk hand in hand.
And together we'll spread the News
that God is in our land.

Chorus again, twice.

I love it so much. Isn't it perfectly wonderful?

And then our Gospel Reading to-day was the ever popular EEEEEAT MEEEEEE verse (John 6:53-59, and I am going to hell for making fun of it), and Daphne's sermon was about understanding it. Was about how special it is for us to eat Jesus' body and drink his blood, because they were like medicines we took into our bodies believing that they would help to heal us, like her blood pressure medicine and my fluoxetine and everyone else's medicines and vitamins, and how for Christians that good, healing medicine is so necessary to our bodies and our spirits for living. It was very nice.

And it was just nice all of us being on the lawn, under the tree, in our little folding chairs, while Daphne didn't have any vestments except the stole, and we used pitas instead of the manna, and afterwards I threw a water balloon at her and soaked her, muahahaha >:D!, and I don't know. This is, I think, how it's supposed to be, Christianity. It's just our own worship. Everyone worships in a different way, sort of like everyone grieves in a different way, and we all have our own beautiful ceremonies and our wonderful-worded prayers, and no religion is any better than any other.

We just need more people to realise that, right? And we need a lot more Christians to get soaked with water balloons, in the hopes that they'll figure it out.

Comments

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Oh-- I love you.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

I love you.

Your package came to-day. You are the best Manon in the whole world. Thank you so much. Percy's already trying to write back to Mordred, but he needs to wait for me to have lunch.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

^_^! Yay! (I was afraid it would come while you were still away, and get rained on or something.)

*snuggleloves*

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Nawp! It came to-day, and it was wonderful, and it was eee, and I love you. ^____^

*glomps* Thought about your story yet?

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

That's exactly how Christianity is supposed to be--all of it. If you will suffer a humble humanist to say so. ^___^

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Of course, silly. When we do it right, though, it's so wonderful. We just don't do it right all that much.

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

*smiles and snuggles* No need to "though"--I know you folk do it right, and frequently. Because religion is about love, and behaving in a manner in line with the divine--and really, as a whole, Christians do a pretty good job at getting it right. ^____^

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

We try, I guess. Some of us--maybe most of us? Maybe it's just the anomalies who get noticed.

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

That's what I think.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Yes.

♥

[jiasachan.livejournal.com]

That really is a beautiful hymn. Just this image of helping one another and loving and everything-- I quite agree, that's what Christianity is meant to be. But then again, I'm an agnostic-just-this-side-of-atheism/Unitarian/godless heathen or what have you, so I know precious little about anything, honestly. I should have paid more attention to the youth group meetings at my church where we studied all kinds of religions, but I hardly ever went, and the only one I remember much about is the Wiccan lady who came in, because she taught us a dance and gave us chocolate muffins. XD Obviously, I'm easily pleased.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

I know. Just--eee. In our version, 'man' is 'one', so that it's for everyone. --That sounds really incredibly cool. I wish we'd done something like that! oooooh. The muffins are only part of it, honestly. No, really...!

[jiasachan.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's lovely. ^__^ --It was! We learned about Buddhism and were taught how to meditate, too. Except I really sucked at it. Honestly, I have the attention span of a hummingbird on speed. The concept was really wonderful-- they made an effort to teach us at least something about a few different religions, and to help us understand the positive aspects of each. In theory, it's a great way to break down stereotypes, and also to enforce the idea that all religions and philosophies include something good and that there's something to be learned from them all, which is one of the big ideas behind Unitarianism to begin with. Unfortunately, we were all a bunch of bored teenagers, so not much of it stuck, and mostly we just enjoyed the muffins. XD

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

It is! ^___^ -- Ooooh, that is just so nifty. eeeeeeeee. I want to do that, eee. <33333 Your church wins, even if you weren't interested. XD

[jiasachan.livejournal.com]

It's-- really kind of an amazing place, and the more I think about it as I get older I appreciate more about it. I just can't quite gather the motivation to actually go there. XD I suppose I'm just not willing to give up my Sunday mornings, especially during times when I'm extremely busy, like near the end of a show. But I do like to go for special occasions-- Mother's day (Victoria, the minister, told us about her adoptive mother, and about her decision to have an abortion when she was younger, and about her daughter now) and the Easter/springtime celebration (two girls did a dance thing about Persephone and Hades) and things like that. And I went on the coming of age retreat things, which were lots of fun. I'm just not very good about being involved, I guess. XD Every now and then is nice, but I'm no good at doing it on a regular basis.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

--Well, to be perfectly fair, I have that problem, too. I tend to go either when I get poked or when I'm a service participant, or when it's something special, because otherwise I do prefer to sleep in. >_> Ungodly me. But--still. Is better to be a good person with a good heart and go to church for special occasions than to go always and be nasty and evil, right? :D

[jiasachan.livejournal.com]

Precisely! I just guilt about it occasionally because it's one of those Family Things I should probably do more often. ^^

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

I could throw water balloons at Christians if you think it would help.

...why, yes, this is to subtly disguise the fact that I have no idea about anything. XD

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Big, big red and pink and green and blue and orange and other colours? At Billy Graham? And Fred Phelps, who is a "Christian" very much in quotes?

XD Hey. I have no idea about any other religion than mine own.

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

I don't know who they are, but sure!

I doubt hardcore atheism counts as a religion, though. XD

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Oh, you innocent little sweetheart. You don't know either of them? Billy Graham is okay, if totally scary sometimes, but Fred Phelps is a psychotic professional hater who likes to travel around the country hating people.

Some places it does! XD

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

Nope, never heard of them.

Then I have found a calling--!

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

In that case, you are an incredibly lucky person. I once got personally harrassed by Fred Phelps (http://www.godhatesfags.com/). :D

Yay! The Church of Zara!

[erinpuff]

^_____^ I like that hymn. I especially like that it's in minor. *dork dork*

I miss church already. :-\ I wish I could find an awesome church at school to go to, but I'm sort of afraid to look because so many churches creep me out, and my church at home is so wonderful. Wah.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Is it? XD I have no idea. I am musically stupid, I really am.

Awww. I know, it's hard to find a good one, especially if you have high expectations, and--woe. I wish you could find a nice one.