God Bless The Church Ladies

by Kelly (not Kitty)

One of my favorite things in Brisbane was the little Anglican church I attended, St. Michael and All Angels. They had the same spirit of openness and joy that my church in DC, Augustana Lutheran, does. I was looking forward to worshipping with them again.

They have a mid-week morning service on Wednesdays. I don't know why I never attended that when I lived here but I decided to drop in my first Wednesday. It was me, 4 old ladies, and the pastor. They all looked at me with that "I know I've seen you before look". When I re-introduced myself, their faces lit up. They all remembered me and were delighted to see me again.

After the service, the ladies invited me to meet them a little later for lunch. Which I did and had a great time. The ladies range in age from their late 70s to their mid 90s and have been meeting up for a weekly lunch for a very long time. Which means they have an ease and comfort to their interactions that I enjoyed furiously.

Earlier that day I spotted a flyer for a study group at another local church. The study was based on the work of an author I read quite a bit of (and is the foundation for a book group back at Augustana). When I discovered that one of the Lunch Ladies was also planning to go, it went right on my schedule.

My congregational book group has been together for several years. We've all wrestled with our relationship to orthodoxy (shaky, at best), how current scholarship is changing what we as Christians "know" (a lot), and admitting to a lot of doubts and suspicions. Makes for some very lively discussions.

This group hadn't quite gotten to the same "orthodoxy is crap" place that our group has gotten (and, again, pretty sure I was close to the youngest person there, white hair notwithstanding) but we still had a wonderful conversation. Soooo glad I went!