By Reverend Rebecca Bryan
Republished with permission from the Daily News of Newburyport in which the column originally ran on Oct. 4.
“I am spiritual but not religious.” “I tried church a long time ago, it’s just not for me.”
As a minister, I hear these sentiments a lot. People share them with me as the most common reasons they don’t come to church, or didn’t used to.
“We’re too busy” is another I hear a lot.
When people who have started coming to church say these things with me, they do so as something that they used to believe.
After only a short time in church, they often change their mind and tell me, “If only I had realized how important being part of a spiritual community is …” or, “I was looking for this kind of community for a long time and didn’t think it existed …” or, “It’s good to be with other people who are concerned about the things we are.”
People are hungry for what faith communities offer though they may not realize it. I see this hunger every day. Many people carry some much unresolved pain from past experiences with religion that they avoid trying anything religious again.
Though this approach may ensure that they don’t experience the same or different hurts, it also makes it very difficult to heal those wounds and makes it impossible to benefit from being a part of a faith community.
Only a faith community can offer many positive things. Top among them are that being a part of a spiritual community offers respite from the challenges of living in a busy and often overwhelming world.
It makes a space in our schedules to attend to our spirituality. And it allows us to be a part of a multigenerational community of people who care deeply about one another and are working together to bring good into the world.
There are, of course, exceptions to this vision of faith communities. Some churches exclude and pass judgment. People within spiritual communities can be hypocritical and leaders can be untrustworthy. But that doesn’t mean we give up on finding healthy faith communities in line with our values.
Being a part of such a community is an important part of being spiritual. It helps us restore our faith in life and rejuvenates us for the rest of our lives. Joining together in earnest relationships with other people not because of any job title or status in life but because we care about similar issues is refreshing, even transformative.
The diversity of our religious landscape enriches us all. There are commonalities and differences around the table when the Newburyport Interfaith Clergy Association meets each month.
The respect we have for each other allows us to learn from our differences. We enjoy each other’s company and share in the struggle to make meaning out of the events happening in the world.
Last October, Congregation Ahavas Achim was filled to the brim when hundreds of people from Newburyport and surrounding towns gathered in solidarity after the shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
People filled the synagogue and lined up in the streets to show their support. That neighborliness is what this geographic community is all about. It is developed in our neighborhoods, in our schools, and yes, in our faith communities.
I urge all who have stayed away from church or faith groups because they think they are too busy or don’t need it or have been hurt by religion in the past to try again.
Doing so offers the hope of making our Newburyport community all the stronger for our differences.
The Rev. Rebecca Bryan is minister of the First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist Church in Newburyport.
https://www.newburyportnews.com/news/religion/in-the-spirit-a-call-to-reconsider/article_a8a960de-4587-56a8-b61a-ce9b9e05365f.html