 |
| Pastor Del |
My wife and
I met with Pastor Del on a Monday Morning. To say we were a bit nervous would
be an understatement. The man we were
going to speak to was our Pastor for over thirty years. He has helped me
personally through some hardships (brought on by my own stupidity) and did so
with Grace, Compassion and the Love of Christ.
He loved us and all his parishioners, and we were about to tell him that
we were leaving.
It was my
wife who started us on this present course, so she is the one who spoke. I did not interrupt with my own thoughts;
instead, I let her tell her story. She
recounted to Pastor Del how lately she felt drawn to the Catholic Church,
loving the beauty of its liturgy and how she had a longing for the
Eucharist. Pastor remarked, regarding
the beauty of worship, how he thought “we have that here” and we did not
comment what we were thinking that there is no comparison to Liturgy and to
what takes place among these God fearing Christians. No doubt, it is sincere
from their hearts but it cannot compare to liturgical worship. Pastor Del went on to say, “You know, the
Catholics believe the Eucharist is the actual body and Blood of Jesus, do you
believe that?” She said “yes” and I could see on his face that he was
surprised.
He then
moved on to me.
“So, Jim,
where do you stand in all of this?”
I reminded
him about our meeting back in 2011 – I
didn’t expect him to remember the details; the only reason I remembered is
because I blogged about them here and re-read them before our meeting this day-
I said that I had met with him then and talked to him about my desire to join
the Orthodox Church but was prevented from it by the wise counsel of Fr. Gary who said that if my wife wasn’t on
board to stay where I am. That has
changed, I told him, my wife now understood the importance of receiving the Eucharist
and encouraged me to do so.
When I got
to that point, Pastor Del interrupted me and said, “Are you telling me that you
are both leaving the church?”
We both
said, “Yes.”
He said,
“You’ll have to excuse me a moment.” He then stood up, walked out the door. He was actually gone a few minutes and my
wife and I sat in awkward silence. I
resisted the impulse to fill the silence with an attempt at a witty remark and
I am glad I kept silent.
He came
back, apologized for leaving and said he been praying. He told us he believed it would be a mistake
to leave. This is where God brought you guys, he said, and we shouldn’t leave. Our response showed him that we were resolute
in our decision. He made a remark about the Eucharist and how it’s done in this
church (to be honest I don’t’ remember the specifics of what he said) but I
countered that there really was a difference between the Nazarene church and
the Catholic /Orthodox view of things. He cut me off saying it was no use
arguing about theology (or something to that effect.) I could see he really
didn’t want to talk theology which, is a shame, because that was the reason we
were leaving. He then told us we would
always have a home here, that he would always consider himself our pastor.
He concluded this hard meeting by praying for us. As soon as he said
“amen,” I offered my own pray, thanking God for this godly man and the things I
learned from him. I specifically mentioned how our board meetings were a
spiritual affair; we started in prayer which lasted at least a half hour. I
said I was grateful for the good example that set.
We ended the
meeting with a hug and he said it would take a while for him to get over
this. Karen told me later, with a smile, that after he prayed, she was
going to cross herself but thought that might put the poor over the edge.
 |
Some church board meetings resembled the picture above. Thankfully,
that was not the case for our church. We led and finished with prayer. |
The
following Monday was board meeting. As Sunday School Superintendent, I was a
member of the board so I thought I should go.
I figured this would be my last
board meeting. Pastor had asked me in our Monday meeting if he wanted me to tell
the board or should he. I said, he could do it. (I thought I might get too choked up to do it.) For some reason, I had thought he would announce it at the
end of the meeting or, make it a topic on the agenda. Instead, after sharing a scripture and before
we began our time of prayer, he announced that Karen and I would be leaving the
church. He said the reason was that
Karen believed that the Eucharist was the literal Body and Blood of Christ. I
sort of interrupted him and said, “Well, there’s more to it than that.” Pastor replied that seems to be the main point
of what she said. In a sense, he’s right. In our meeting, Karen held back a bit, not mentioning how the church
services had not been something she could become engaged in and thus found it
hard to worship (and for some other reasons I won’t get into) and that the Liturgy really helped center her thoughts on Christ but she hadn’t
mentioned it because she thought he would take it personally as a slight
against him. So her views on the
Eucharist seemed to be the only reason we were leaving.
I went on to
say that while Karen was going to be Catholic, I was going to become Orthodox.
I, almost jokingly said, “If you want to know more, you can read my blog.” A board
member named Ted spoke up.(He has an amazing story on how God literally saved
him after a horrible traffic accident…. I might share that here sometime in the
future, if Ted allows.) Ted said, “Wait a minute- You and Karen will be going to different
Churches? No offense, but that’s a red flag to me.” It was a surprise to both Karen and I that
Pastor Del did not bring up this very point during our meeting. I think it is because he
was so shocked by the news of us leaving and quite upset by it that the thought
didn’t enter his mind. I answered Ted
that the Catholics have many Masses in one day while the Orthodox only
celebrate the Liturgy once on a Sunday so Karen and I can go to a later Mass
together. I know some hard core Orthodox
may object to me attending a heterodox service, but this is something I
discussed with Father Gary. He says (and
I quite agree) that sometimes attending a service with a loved one is an act of
love towards that person. I assured Fr.
Gary that I would not be receiving communion at the Mass. Our going to separate Churches is a cause of
concern to myself and Karen but we have discussed it and will continue to share
our spiritual lives with each other, praying together and encouraging each other.
After this
short discussion, we began our time of prayer at the board meeting. Our habit
is to go around the room with each board member praying out loud and Pastor Del
would always conclude the prayer. As I said,
this would take at least a half hour and it made for very unified and calm
board meetings. I was touched by the
many prayers for Karen and I with some even weeping because of our
departure.
We concluded
the pray and went on to attend to the business of the church.
I must say
it was a difficult night but I truly am touched by the love and concern of all
these people for us. We have been
friends and fellow servants of Christ for over thirty years and saying good-bye
is not easy. But I know God has great
things in store for me and my wife as we continue on our journey.
Keep us in
your prayers.
.jfif)
