Is the Presbyterian Church Harmful to My Health - Part 2
As I said yesterday, I am having food issues again over all the pressure with trying to fit into the Presbyterian Church and More Light Presbyterians. I am particularly nervous about an MLP regional conference in November. I want to go so that I can see Rev. Erin Swenson, but I don’t feel comfortable with the rest of the organization, and this is not helping the food situation. I did attend a party with our new minister last night. My friend Bobbie was there. The rest of the participants were liberal, heterosexual older ladies and they were very nice. I felt better after attending that event. Also, I just heard from Ray, of MLP, and he may be able to help me with some of my problems. So I'm hopeful.
I start Part 2 with my talks on the internet about my problems with Round Hill Presbyterian Church. I started to post on liberal boards on the internet, and I received a lot of compassion and support. Eventually, I found out about More Light Presbyterians. My cousin Richard Sharpnack had been involved with them when I lived in San Francisco. I found out they had a message board on Yahoo, so I joined it, and I was allowed to post my story of what was going on at Round Hill. Immediately, dozens of sympathetic gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and straight Presbyterians wrote to me with wonderful advice, expressing compassion, and giving me lists of churches which were LGBT-friendly. This is terrific, I thought. I’ll be able to post things on this board and meet Presbyterian friends from all over the country. I was thrilled! One person contacted me who seemed to have a more well-developed plan to do something concrete about my situation. It was some woman named Erin. I had no idea who she was, and I figured she was some lesbian in MLP. Anyway, she wrote to several people, one of them wrote back and invited me to Sixth Presbyterian Church, and I went for the first time on Palm Sunday. Anyway, I will have more to say about Erin later.
Well, at some point, which is unclear in my mind, I realized that I would never again be allowed to post anything personal on the MLP board. I was allowed to do that one time. Unless I dug out all those e-mail addresses of people who had contacted me and made a Herculean effort to stay in touch, I’d probably never hear from them again. When I look back on it now, this was very bad for me psychologically to find out that the MLP board did not allow for friendships, personal support, and fellowship. At the time, I tried to take this in stride, but I realize now it was a warning signal that my personality type and More Light Presbyterians were on a collision course.
Meanwhile, I was attending Round Hill, and nothing further offensive occurred, so things seemed to be fine with that church service. I first went to Sixth Presbyterian Palm Sunday. I immediately liked it. It was pretty, the greeters were friendly, the organ was nice, the choir was good, I liked the interim minister, and the service seemed fine to me. The bulletin talked about it being a More Light church. I was pretty sure I wanted to go to church there regularly. I was about to walk out when several people confronted me and would not let me leave without getting my phone number and e-mail address. They also insisted on introducing me to people. I was very impressed by this.
Nora took me inside to the social hour and introduced me to the woman who had contacted me. She was very nice and friendly. She was a lesbian, and she and her partner had sort of been designated as the people to take me out to lunch and then see that I assimilated into the church. However, they were going away on an extended vacation. They knew Erin (who it turned out is a transgender Presbyterian minister) and I think seemed a little shocked that I would meet someone like this on the internet, being that I am a very feminine-appearing genetic female. They announced it all around that Erin had sent me. I was unable to go to lunch with them that day. The fact that this couple was going away for a month turned out to cause all kinds of things to happen in my church life.
To be continued…
I start Part 2 with my talks on the internet about my problems with Round Hill Presbyterian Church. I started to post on liberal boards on the internet, and I received a lot of compassion and support. Eventually, I found out about More Light Presbyterians. My cousin Richard Sharpnack had been involved with them when I lived in San Francisco. I found out they had a message board on Yahoo, so I joined it, and I was allowed to post my story of what was going on at Round Hill. Immediately, dozens of sympathetic gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and straight Presbyterians wrote to me with wonderful advice, expressing compassion, and giving me lists of churches which were LGBT-friendly. This is terrific, I thought. I’ll be able to post things on this board and meet Presbyterian friends from all over the country. I was thrilled! One person contacted me who seemed to have a more well-developed plan to do something concrete about my situation. It was some woman named Erin. I had no idea who she was, and I figured she was some lesbian in MLP. Anyway, she wrote to several people, one of them wrote back and invited me to Sixth Presbyterian Church, and I went for the first time on Palm Sunday. Anyway, I will have more to say about Erin later.
Well, at some point, which is unclear in my mind, I realized that I would never again be allowed to post anything personal on the MLP board. I was allowed to do that one time. Unless I dug out all those e-mail addresses of people who had contacted me and made a Herculean effort to stay in touch, I’d probably never hear from them again. When I look back on it now, this was very bad for me psychologically to find out that the MLP board did not allow for friendships, personal support, and fellowship. At the time, I tried to take this in stride, but I realize now it was a warning signal that my personality type and More Light Presbyterians were on a collision course.
Meanwhile, I was attending Round Hill, and nothing further offensive occurred, so things seemed to be fine with that church service. I first went to Sixth Presbyterian Palm Sunday. I immediately liked it. It was pretty, the greeters were friendly, the organ was nice, the choir was good, I liked the interim minister, and the service seemed fine to me. The bulletin talked about it being a More Light church. I was pretty sure I wanted to go to church there regularly. I was about to walk out when several people confronted me and would not let me leave without getting my phone number and e-mail address. They also insisted on introducing me to people. I was very impressed by this.
Nora took me inside to the social hour and introduced me to the woman who had contacted me. She was very nice and friendly. She was a lesbian, and she and her partner had sort of been designated as the people to take me out to lunch and then see that I assimilated into the church. However, they were going away on an extended vacation. They knew Erin (who it turned out is a transgender Presbyterian minister) and I think seemed a little shocked that I would meet someone like this on the internet, being that I am a very feminine-appearing genetic female. They announced it all around that Erin had sent me. I was unable to go to lunch with them that day. The fact that this couple was going away for a month turned out to cause all kinds of things to happen in my church life.
To be continued…
posted by Theodosia @ 6:58 AM
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