Wednesday, January 11, 2017

The Second

Last week I received a message from a parishioner complaining about the bulletin format and how it can be fixed.

I dubbed that "The First," as in, the first complaint by a parishioner about something I had done.

Today I got the second complaint.

When I was on a site visit to another congregation they had what they called a "Letters to God" program where the children could "send" questions or comments and the priest or Christian Ed person would answer them.  I really liked the idea and was looking forward to either a) participating in it should I be called there, or b) beginning a similar program should I be called elsewhere.

I was obviously called elsewhere and I've been working with our youth director and another Sunday school teacher to get it up and running.  Considering I showed up just before Advent, it wasn't exactly number one on the priority list.  But this past week it was finished and I received the first four letters.

Two were love notes to God and two posed questions.  One was, "Hi!  Wassup?"  The other one asked, "Why do we have incense?"  It's the second one that I will address in church.

And today I got a phone call from a parishioner wanting to talk about this program because he doesn't agree with it.  To be fair, I'm not exactly sure what his concern is because he wanted to have a face-to-face meeting rather than over the phone; and he did tell me what the general topic of his concern was so that I wasn't blindsided.  So I set up an appointment with him for next week to talk about the Letters to God program.

I will listen.  And I will ask him why he has a problem with allowing theological inquiries from children.  And we will hopefully come to an understanding that this is an okay thing.  Really.

3 comments:

spookyrach | 9:20 PM, January 11, 2017  

So, this morning, as I held my third warm cup of pee collected today, I sort of grumbled to myself about that not being my idea of a fun time.

I will take the warm, plastic, LIDDED cups of urine any day over complaint letters and the like. Hope things go well and you're able to come to an understanding with your people.

Reverend Ref + | 4:33 PM, January 12, 2017  

The good news, though, is that these particular people were upfront about coming to see me. I've had disgruntled people who would rather work to attempt a parking lot coupe, and that's much worse.

Straightforward I can deal with.

Lady Anne | 10:58 AM, January 14, 2017  

Oh, boy! We've had those "parking lot coups" as you describe them, in our own parish. It's not fun to be blindsided by the opposition. (I do like that expression - absolutely perfect.)

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