What I've been doing Sunday mornings -

[kyburg]

Yesterday was week three of going to church. No, really. And I'm still here to talk about it, fancy that!

I took these folks up on their invitation.

And I gotta say - they are really cool.

Boy, I need to talk to someone about website maintenance. Somebody is either sick or dead (and I think that the most likely cause for most of the site not worky). If there is something I've noticed about them, it's that things are nailed down - just. This is a *tiny* congregation - maybe 250 all told, tops. Yesterday was a big day - confirmations were done for this year's class, all four of them, so the place was nearly full. But the picture on the website only looks big - those pews won't hold more than five people each, and there's only the one aisle. Wee. Intimate.

And they have no trouble sharing.

There's a Korean Presbyterian church that uses theirs for services. A Catholic group (not the Roman Catholic one, probably some Eastern schism they don't talk to well) that does as well, on Saturdays. DCFS uses their church home to provide space for supervised visitation between parents and kids in foster care (this gets important in a minute, stay tuned).

Tons of community-use groups like AA, NA, etc. use their facilities, wee though they are, week-round.

The first week we (Xander and I) went, they had a bounce house set up - they were having an open house BBQ to kick off their membership drive for the year. Okay, my timing is good! Win!

Xander got a solid half hour of jumping in the bounce house alone - which made sitting through the opening part of services easy, and then we both went to the church house for Sunday School together (I'm not leaving Xander alone with anyone we haven't been introduced to - not daycare, not sitters, nothing. And right now, limpet kid is limpet. Strange people shut him right up.) The rest of the kids are all much older - they split Sunday School into two classes - 0-5 years, and everything else. 0-5 has a daycare worker and a room to themselves, and is basically Go Play time.

These are the rooms and staff that DCFS utilize - so they have to be safe, clean and adequate to task. This is one thing I don't have to worry about. It's also nearly entirely non-denominational, if you get my drift. Decorations are tasteful and childish - the biggest indication this is a church facility at all is in the 'living room' where the banners are, and the bookcase has all the children's bible books. (Including the one I remember reading as a child. I'm looking forward to having another look at it.) It has a kitchen you could cook a banquet in - neat, tidy and well appointed. But still, small.

Xander and I sat through the youth group because it was mostly about setting up the BBQ stuff, but the second week they had their daycare worker back - and the youth group was out on mission in Long Beach. So Xander had her all to himself! I said this place was small.

(Yesterday, he had competition - another little boy about 2.5 years old. That's the class. Daycare ratio is less than 4 to 1, state licensed. You tell me.)

No, we didn't stay for BBQ - nothing kid would eat, and I hadn't packed a lunch. So we made our initial splash, met everyone, signed the guest book and went to McDonalds.

We won't be the only family made by international adoption - even in a group this small, there's another family with a child from Russia, about 12-14 years old. I haven't met his parents yet, but I'm looking forward to getting a chance to. They have a family fellowship group that meets Sunday nights at 5 PM - that'll probably be Jim's only chance to interface, and also will be far more to his liking, as it's not a traditional sermon and singfest.

Standing outside the bounce house, one of the other Moms was telling me about the women's interfaith group that meets here as well (I'm reminded of the group rowanf used to do? I think that's who I remember doing it....) Why yes, the girls here go have tea and cookies with pagans and turrrists! AND THEY LIKE IT. In my neighborhood, it's entirely possible we will have Buddhists, Shinto and Santeria in addition to the Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups. This is going to be FUN. Can't wait.

Jim works Sundays, so this has been my project so far. So far, it's been completely positive. Most of the elders now know us on sight, make much of Xander (think a whole bunch of grandparents with toys and cossets) and he gets to play with some really fun toys (I heard all about it going home yesterday). There was even CAKE yesterday! My kid loves birthday cake, oh very yes he does - *laughs*

I started considering this even before we went to Taiwan, and I decided to really Do Something about it because I can be fairly sure kid attended church with his foster family, and it would be a comforting, familiar experience for him to resume. (silverkun, I've been taking the Find-It with us to keep him busy during services, and it's worked like a treat.) I suspected I might find it at the least soothing, if not a time to just sit quietly and not run after kid for an hour. It's also resources, support, friendly faces - and gee, nobody says a harsh word. About anyone. Just not the UCC style, doncha know.

Yup, teh gay is not a problem here. They're actually pretty proud of that stance. Sermon topics have been largely geared towards self-improvement like 'how do you plan to age well - looking at the envitability of needing care at the end of life as reaffirmation of how we all need each other, instead of dreading the moment you have to own up to needing help' and how really fscking HARD it is to be Christian when the culture would have you be an asshole instead.

They also don't ask for a credit history.

There's no gift shop, no bumper stickers proclaiming YOU'VE BEEN TO CHURCH, nothing to buy, parking is free and the hymnals are well-worn and a bit musty. Choir is less than 15 members, and I may be generous at that. They don't have stained windows - just clear glass that looks out on gardens well-kept and always blooming (this is California, we can do that) with native, and nearly-native plants.

I don't think I've seen any fish on the cars in the parking lot, and mine probably has more on it with its Coexist and KTLK 'all that's left' bumperstickers.

They also said the bounce house was such a hit, they're going to have it again soon.

Confirmation class wore dresses (they were all girls), but one last-minute addition showed up in jeans, y-back orange shirt with a black bra underneath - and got baptized. (I think they used one drinking glass full of water - *pat* *pat* *pat* - okay, yer good!) Biggest day of the year, and I was hardly underdressed in my slacks, tunic and hoodie. I wore my Stitch hoodie to church. What.

*rolls eyes* Yeeees, we talk about God and Jesus. But more like 'here's the best example we got and hasn't been wrong yet as long as we agree we can be wrong about some things, m'kay?' There's also this undercurrent of 'you're pretty awesome, and we acknowledge that, cause God don't make junk' thing going on.

There's also one other REALLY good reason to be doing this.

My kid is not going to be getting exposed to Chrisitianity by these guys because I didn't provide anything but a vacuum. Fuck. That.