Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Going to church

I got about 5,000 words written today and did most of the work on a bracelet I'm making (I'm trying to teach myself how to do mosaics with beads and wire), and it's a little while until Trevor gets home, so I figured I'd blog a little more about our move.

When we were looking at places, friends of ours asked if we were taking into consideration what congregation we'd attend. We just explained that wherever we chose to live would be in some ward boundaries or other. People seemed shocked that we would be assigned to a congregation, rather than picking one. Me, I never belonged to a church where I could pick a congregation, so I think the concept of doing so is odd. I'm used to going to church with a bunch of people I may or may not want to be around for extended periods of time. I've been in wards where people declare that all Democrats are evil and that environmentalism is of the devil, so suffice it to say, I can keep the doctrine and the people separate in my mind.

As soon as we knew our address, we plugged it into the LDS meetinghouse locater (which is online - I use the link from mormon.org) and learned which ward we'd be in. It required a short ride on the Underground and a longer one on a bus, but we made it there on time on Sunday, and just loved it. There are a lot of African and West Indian immigrants in east London, and our ward was no exception. It's a young ward too, which is a little scary. If I had to guess, I'd guess at least one of the counselors in the bishopric and the relief society president are younger than us - and what's scary about that isn't that I have any lack of faith in their abilities, it's that I shudder to think what kinds of callings we'll get. It's also a growing ward, with quite a few new members and others coming to investigate. Trevor and I agreed that it's a fantastic ward.

And then a week later, he went to a stake priesthood meeting and learned that it wasn't our ward. We were right on the boundary, and the ward that we were to go to was an equally long trip in the opposite direction. Sooo, last week we went to our real ward, and we love it too. Again, a frightening number of young looking people in high callings, a lot of immigrants and children of immigrants, a wonderfully involved relief society president who came to see me after I had to stay home one Sunday to take care of my son who had a cold. All the shuffling around also put off us getting callings - but Trevor got called to be the gospel essentials teacher last Sunday, and I know I'll be called to something next. It should be interesting.

I must confess, though, I'm really glad to be out of the US right now. I love the church, but the mixture of American politics and folk doctrine was getting offensive. I voted for Obama. I'm a vegetarian. I'm a liberal. I have a current temple recommend that I am worthy to hold - this really shouldn't break anyone's head...

3 comments:

  1. Amen Sista! I totally agree that politics has NO place at church. And I think someone should start a blog about crazy folk doctrine. I've got some DOOZIES I've heard! Ahh...all the blogs I would write if I had the time.

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  2. And here I was, thinking that I must be getting old, because both the bishop and the RS president are now younger than I am. Although maybe they pick people of a certain age for those callings because they have the optimal combination of experience and energy. And speaking of callings, do you have any inkling as to what you might be called to? I'm thinking Young Women ... *g*

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  3. Lol, Abbie. I think the most disturbing one I've heard is that Obama is the antichrist - not a comment you want to make if you're a member of a church that literally believes in the antichrist. Political disagreement is one thing, branding someone as the epitome of evil is something I'll leave to our leadership! (Did I tell you that Trevor's brother, Matt, just got engaged to an Abby?)

    And yeah, Melanie, I shudder to think, but the stake doesn't have a lot of young women, and I think I saw maybe 2 in our ward. Then again, since I have done the early morning seminary thing, maybe I'll be okay with the six or whatever number of callings I end up with.

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