It was a wonderful surprise last Sunday afternoon, arriving at St. Paul’s Church and having nearly 100 people in the church looking for an opportunity to ring our bells to commemorate the 100 years since the signing of the armistice, ending World War 1.
I can’t help but wonder why: what brings people to the church for these occasions? I’m not one who usually thinks it’s helpful to be curious about what motivates people, because it often enough leads to judging people’s reasons. So, I didn’t ask, but many people told me so anyway. It might have been that they were curious about the bell tower, it might have been a desire to commemorate the importance of the armistice. Several people rang the bell in memory of a particular veteran that they knew personally or who was related to them.
I dare say that even though very few people actually said so, it was an opportunity to be with God. Perhaps some people, in some way, desired an encounter with God. There was no sermon on Sunday afternoon: no hymns, no coffee—just an opening prayer and people patiently lined up to ring the bell, as if they were on their way to receive communion.
Upon reflection perhaps this could be one more gift we can offer the wider community—a place for people, beyond ourselves, to encounter the divine.
A church that exists only for itself has a limited life expectancy, but one that lives for others has eternity on it’s side.
On the St. Paul's website I read recently, under the heading "How do people start attending Church?", that "a friend's invitation" is by far and away the most popular reason given.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the attendance at the bell ringing was simply an example of that?
Something that I learned from my volunteer work with PEI Home and School Federation is that engaging parents and guardians in the work of a public school is much more successful when the request is specific and time limited.
Ironically, I heard reports that a request like "can you come to the school for 30 minutes on Monday morning to pick nits out of students' hair" can get a better response than "would you sign up for volunteer duty" or "will you come to a meeting."
The invitation you gave to the bell ringing, at least for we non-parishioners, had both benefits: come into the church for a limited amount of time to engage in a specific activity. It wasn't "you are welcome to join our church" or "all are welcome," it was "Sunday at 4:45 p.m., come and ring a bell."
That I happened to experience a bit of divinity in the process was a welcome side-effect.