Commuity Meal

Last night was our community meal.I have to admit this is one of my favorite events not just because we get to be with people from the community but because we get to be with each other working together.
Although our spread was simple,homemade soup and grilled cheese sandwiches,our company and work crew was in tune to each other.
Everyone loves comfort foods and lets face it soup and a hot sandwich on a rainy night with friends is a recipe for a good evening.
Its so nice to hear people laugh I think the best part of being a church community is enjoying each other company and laughing.
Church can be a very serious place all prayer and incense and people worrying about doing everything the right way.But fellowship goes beyond church to just liking each other and those around us.
In the 5 years I have been a member of St. Michael I can honestly say I have seen a real change in people toward not only their own church family but toward the community in general.
When I first got here this church was a closed off community that just sat on a hill locked away from the rest of the world but now we seem to be opening up and starting to relax around others.
I can't say this was done with out a great deal of kicking and screaming but slowly people are coming around and this is with great thanks and respect to Fr.Peter who has truly had to carry the cross for tolerance! (and is starting to get the grey hairs to prove it....oops did I just Write that?)
Change is hard.I know I saw it when the Catholic Church went over to Vatican 2.Some older people could not adjust and ended up either leaving or being embittered.
I remember my father saying "how can something be a sin one day,like eating fish on Friday,then not a sin the next."
I think change done gradually is more acceptable then change just flung on a person in large amounts.Unfortunately for our church change as to be in the works or we will not be able to stay afloat.
But you know a church is a living breathing thing and even Jesus,when he was on this earth,helped push forward what in his day was considered radical ideas.These ideas were about bringing the church back to the real reason it was here,not for the hundreds of rules the Jewish people needed to follow but for the real roots of the faith.
A church which can follow the roots of its faith can weather many a storm even when its success is not fully realized.