UU Symbol by meganstuke

I was visiting with a friend last week - a friend with whom I have a lot in common, both in personality and philosophy, about church, or rather, our lack thereof. And as we talked, I heard a faint death knell ringing - the knell for the death of Sunday morning.

We were discussing her recent adventures at the Lawrence Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship, and I shared with her that I had some history there. I worked with their youth group for a couple of years, and attended services sporadically. I always liked what I experienced there, but I was single and busy and, well, Sunday mornings were for SLEEPING IN. So, eventually my attendance dwindled and then stopped completely, and I haven't attended any kind of services since.

My personal sense has always been that I'm too disorganized for organized religion, and I am not really into pushing my kid into one belief system or another. He's welcome to explore and find the right thing for himself when the time is right, and I'll schlep him to whatever kind of service he wants to attend. I am not an adherent of any one belief system, except that I believe in human rights and equality and social justice. I've just never felt like I needed a church to support me in those beliefs.

Until now. My friend mentioned that she's taking her daughter to the U/U Fellowship because she wants to give her some background into world religions. We both agreed that even though we aren't disciples of any one faith, we'd like our kids to know about those faiths, both for cultural reference and for possible religious investigation later. I want my son to know about Jesus, Mohammed, and Buddha. I want him to know about the Torah and the Bible and the Qur'an.

My friend and I both know the time is coming to give up those Sunday mornings again and start attending some sort of services. I recalled to her that while I may not affiliate anymore with the church of my youth, there were things that were really lovely about having that church community. I knew a body of adults who cared for me. I was comfortable and happy in my church with my friends and my youth group or Sunday School peers. It was a friend group outside of school and a community I could trust. And I want that for my son. I would like for him to know a community that is not built just on our location or school.

The older I get, the more important that word, "community," is to me. I place more and more reliance on the solidarity of my connections with other people and the connections we make with one another's children. "It takes a village to raise a child" might be a gross cliche, but I put some stock in it. And I think a community of similar-minded thinkers, whether they be religious or philosophical or activists, is an important community to have.

And just like that, there goes Sunday morning. Dang if being a grown-up isn't hard.