The church I grew up in was Big Rockfish Presbyterian Church in North Carolina.  It was founded in 1844 and I believe the sanctuary dates to that time as well. It’s a wooden clad building that is very simple and eloquent. Having been built before the Civil War, it has an upstairs slave gallery around the parameter of the sanctuary. The stairs going up to the gallery are at each end of the lobby or narthex of the church. They are narrow winding stairs that open into a small classroom space that then opens into the galleries. The building is situated amongst long leaf pines, oak trees, and a very old cemetery.

This was where I was baptized, confirmed, nurtured, and loved. There are many stories, personalities, and experiences. Only a few days ago I mentioned on face book that I am a dual citizen, both Canadian and American. A friend from Big Rockfish Presbyterian Church commented, “I hope you are still a BRPC ambassador.”

I have been thinking about that, and yes, I am.  I do represent the love and the faith that has been the one constant in my life. Of course, the ways love and faith are expressed, shared, understood, and lived have changed or have matured and grown. The youth group, the Sunday afternoon trips to a local nursing home and the stop at the general store for a RC cola and a moon pie, hide and seek in the cemetery, giggling in church for no apparent reason, weeklong revival meetings, the potlucks on the grounds, the homecomings, the many funerals especially those of young people killed in Vietnam, and the people – Linda (the choir director, the first one I remember addressing by first name), Sunday School teachers – Mrs. Dove, Mrs. Cashwell, Mrs. Wood, my own mother and father,  the men of the church who stood around and smoked (yes, this was tobacco country)and so many more.  And there among them were aunts, uncles, and cousins as a part of the family on my mother’s side that I loved seeing each week and often after church at their homes. All of this love is still with me today.

I hope that all faith communities and families can be a place where love is given and received, faith is awakened and nurtured, and lives are shaped with and for justice and compassion.