Clergy from left, Deacon Amy Schmuck, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired, and The Rev. Mary Ann Hill. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com
By Deacon Cynthia Z. Biddlecomb, (ELCA) retired
It’s Lent, and my Thursday evenings are booked up with our annual Los Alamos Lenten Program. I am happily enjoying the Soup Suppers, with soups brought each week by the six different congregations participating. Class offerings follow the supper, designed to appeal to various interests. The evening is capped off with a Prayer Service, calming me for a night of peaceful sleep. I’ve participated in this for 24 years, ever since I moved to Los Alamos.
What is so precious to me is that these six congregations enjoy “doing Lent” together. We get to meet people from other congregations, even those with which we are less familiar. But all of us come to enjoy the Christian camaraderie, mixing our worshipping communities into one larger community for just these five Thursdays.
In my many years of Christian practice, I had rarely before been a part of creating an ecumenical (if Protestant mainline) community with other people of faith. So often our labels and practices divide us rather than unite us. But in this town, we have been “doing Lent” with each other over several decades.
Creating community is what church is all about. We tend to forget that. Jesus told us to, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Yes, we are individuals in need of forgiveness, but we also need community. The saddest experiences I’ve had with churches have been when the goal of living faith in community is sacrificed for the need for “being right”. People in the pew can so easily give up on a congregation because of something someone said or did, or because they don’t like what the pastor or the denomination is prioritizing. Those who leave abandon other people with whom they had lived in community.
Most Protestant denominations are based on congregational piety, meant to unite us in community as Christian worshippers. The community we have formed then welcomes trained leaders (clergy) to help us achieve our congregational goals and aspirations. You might liken a congregation to a family, never perfect and often dysfunctional, but always intended to hold all members in love, accepting that opinions or paths may differ.
Accepting the differences of family members is not easy. In congregations, acceptance can be divisive. What is more important than opinions, though, is “loving one another”. Our paths may diverge, but the ultimate goal is God’s love, shared in our little Christian communities, our congregations, where all are accepted and we care for one another.
This Lent, let us look to the Christ that we see in each other. Let us help one another create and strengthen our worshipping communities, welcoming others as we do.
(The Lent Program is held 6-8 p.m. Thursdays at Trinity on the Hill, 3900 Trinity Drive)
Editor’s note: ‘All Shall Be Well’ is a column written by local women clergy, including The Rev. Mary Ann Hill, Rector, Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church (momaryannhill@gmail.com); Deacon Amy Schmuck, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (deaconamy@bethluth.com); and ELCA Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, M.Div., retired (czoebidd@gmail.com).