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A Season of Liminal Time

This morning, one of the 1st valuable items we heard on the news was: “At this time of the year, the sun is setting just over 3 minutes earlier each day.” How exciting!   

Earlier this week, I was engaged in a conversation about how times have changed.

This was in light of observing the life of Queen Elizabeth II, and her deep attention to tradition.

Part of the conversation centered around singing “God Save the Queen/King", and observing the percentage of people in our own country who do not know the words or tune.

For some, if you ask if they have ever sung the Royal Anthem they will respond “No.”

The "no" is not because of a lack of belief in the monarchy: it is because we do not teach it in our schools, and we rarely use it in public gatherings.  

I suspect over the past 10+ days we have heard the familiar tune more often than in the period of 12 months prior.            

There was a part 2 in the conversation.

One person reflected, on a visit to their home, about the number of churches being closed. Some were being repurposed and others simply being sold for the valuable real estate they occupy.

This was in another province yet, is not unique to that location. We experience this happening in many parts of our country, or even in other parts of the world. Some have simply become unique heritage sites being maintained by tour fees.            

The cause?            

Incidentally or not, two of the three engaged in this conversation are not church attendees.

They would identify themselves as Christian. They agreed how depressing and heartbreaking it is to witness the disappearance of these places of worship and testimony in our communities.            

It was another moment in my life with a missed opportunity.            

It was only after moving onto another conversation, "the Light Bulb" came on.

Why had I not asked them the question, "The cause" with the follow-up question, “When did you last attend church on a regular basis?”            

When asked this question, a good number of people will respond, 'I just got out of the habit; I have so many other commitments on Sunday; with COVID we just did not go to keep safe' .

There are a number of answers, and we each have our own.            

Our Bishop speaks of this time we are in as “Liminal Time.”

Dictionaries describe Liminal as, relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process. An example given by one dictionary used the example of open-heart surgery, when we are in the space between live and death.            

I am not about to say the church is in such a situation, as I am not sure if the batteries have been charged on the Church Portable Defibrillator (AED).            

The answer to 'THE CAUSE' is not just money or just people. It is about both together building a sense of community.

One example of community I have recently observed is the return of coffee and snacks after church.

Over the summer, we only provided ‘juice.’ It appeared to me people do prefer coffee and snacks.     

As we are getting closer to the end of COVID, we are fortunate we can gather safely in community, building community.            

Oh, by the way we take heart: those 3 + minutes/ day we are losing now, they will all come back with summer.

Just as the parish church may be in ‘liminal’ time, I personally take heart in knowing we will "Spring Back".

Blessings for Fall,
Archdeacon Brian.