Attending A Church On Life Support

LAST SUNDAY I attended services at the little Presbyterian church deep in the wooded valley,rather than the cuhrch of my true "faith", the Unitarian church. I got a ride, and the drive is short and extremely scenic. There were nine human beings in the building, four clerical officials and five congregants. The weekly goal is to reach double digits; this week,"we" failed, if only barely. If its any cosolation, it feels good knowing that I am truly contributing, just by being there. At the coffee and donut party before church the entire governing committee of four was present, so they decided to have a meething, their monthly meeting, then and there. I just sat ans listened. It was illuminating, and very sad. All four committee members are well into their seventies; at seventy I am a relativeyoungster in this church. Their stated goal is to keep the little church alive until the year twenty twenty eight, so as to reach its two hundreth anniversary. I got the impression that after that date, they are all willling to accept the reality that they themselves will not live long, and that it is unlikely that any infusion of new members will keep the church going. Other churches in other small towns all across the country have and are shuttering their doors,as membership declines, and teh Christian religion shrinks in America. An admirable, appropriate, and doable goal, it seems to me, to keep a church alive artifically for three years, for the sake of achievement and tradition. The main problem is raising the money to do it. They are looking for help from a wealthy benefactor, such as they have gotten before. I wish them luck. All I can do is come to church every now and then, and put a few bucks in the collection plate when it comes to me. Next week, this coming Sunday, I will be back at the Unitarian church, even though its a twenty mile drive for me. Its worth it, but not every Sunday.I'not sure i will everbeamember of any organized religions, or attend one every Sunday, although I sometimes think that if the Unitarian church were within, say, a few blocks of my house, rather than twenty miles away, I would. It almost seems like everybody in the world is a defacto member of the Unitarian Universailist church, whether they know it or not,and that Unitarianism, philosophically, surounds and absorbs all other religions in the world, all four thousand two hundred of them,the way Hinduism surrounds and absorbs Buddhism. I still havent heard the merest mention of either Jesus Christ or God at a Unitarian service, and that's fine with me. I know for fact that UU accepts and loves both concepts. The Presbyterian minister,a good friend of mine, begins each serviceby telling us that he is a one trick pony,that he has the same message every week, and that message is that we can rejoice in the fact that Christ forgives us for our sins. In fact he delivers a fresh and interesting sermon each weak, and the forgiveness through Christ part is fine with me, even though it is not central to any of my personal religious beliefs, nor even part of them. I like being educted and inspired by Jesus, by his teachings,but not forgiven by him. The forgiveness I truly need and seek is the forgiveness that I can give to myself, but sometimes fail to do so, even when, under similar circumstances,I would forgive anybody else. Sometimes we can be too hard on our selves. In whatever religion we choose teo live, comfort, motivation, and motivation are of paramount importance, and self forgiveness especially. That will remain true no matter how many religions people invent to emphasize them.