Church post-2020

Once I decided that I could no longer attend my church on Sunday mornings (in March 2020) I started attending an online church that had a very different format. We met via Zoom but “around the table” in our own homes. The idea was to share a meal together, including a glass of wine and a hunk of bread that was eaten throughout our time together. We didn’t have a set format, but began with prayer and raised our glasses with a toast ‘He is risen’, and began a conversation on a variety of topics led by one of us. We would share songs that had spoken to us that week, or a poem that we love, or read aloud a prayer we had come across. This was a rewarding and spiritual time for me for the next five years. I enjoyed the mix of topics and how each of us presented our thoughts in our own ways. I found it spiritually meaningful to sip wine and nibble on delicious bread throughout our time together, while focusing on Jesus Christ and what he means to me. I have never liked reducing Jesus and his sacrifice of life – both his literal life, and on the cross – to a tiny piece of bread and a thimble of wine.

And then after about five years of meeting like this, it seemed clear that this chapter of my life had come to a natural end. I have learned that it is just as important to know when to end something as it was to start it in the first place. For just over a year I didn’t attend any church on Sunday mornings. I will still attending my church’s midweek bible study, and international spiritual weekends away with church members from around the world. I was reading a pile of books written by others who had left their churches and were also seeking a new home, or had found one in unexpected places. My unexpected place is the Washington National Cathedral. When traveling in Europe I like to visit Cathedrals. In fact, while on my annual trip visiting my dad, we would spend a morning Salisbury Cathedral in England. We could never tire of the splendor of this building. I find the grandeur of the size of a cathedral humbling, I enjoy the stories portrayed in the beautiful stained-glass windows, I find the quiet, and cool air, inspiring for meditation and reflection. So when I visited DC at the end of 2025 I decided to attend the Washington National Cathedral for their Sunday morning service. I am so glad that I did! The sermon was incredible: it felt like an OT prophet calling the king to account for unacceptable behavior. It was the first time in my life that the congregation applauded at the end of a sermon! I also enjoyed the call and response nature of the prayers and the benedictions, and absolutely loved the gospel choir and band. I never thought I would hear drums and electric guitars in a cathedral!

Most Sunday mornings I attend live via YouTube. Today’s service celebrated Juneteenth. The visiting Reverend Thomas L Bowen preached in a beautiful and dynamic manner, and focused on Luke 4:21 and the word ‘Today’. While listening, my mind wandered (as it does for us Type 9s) and I reflected on what ‘today’ means to me. “Today I am …” can be a life changing sentence. It can be a declaration of a new beginning, a new identity, a new commitment to merge into the image of God. Type 9s tend to merge into others – we take on their opinions, their likes/dislikes all in an attempt to avoid conflict. Jesus is the true likeness of God, and “Today I choose to merge into Jesus”.

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped …. ” Phil 5:6-7 and onwards.