Shenandoah Association UCC Experience #1

So on May 2 (5th Sunday in Easter, Year C for lectionary followers), I went to Glade Church. It's a smaller church that is a suburb of Blacksburg, It started out in the early 1900s as a Lutheran Church but in the 1970s was sold to a local Baptist church, part of the SBC, as a mission church. The congregation "antithetically" to the overwhelmingly conservative majority resigned unanimously from the Southern Baptist Convention and became a constituent body in the Alliance of Baptists, an association of progressive and affirming churches. Over the course of a few years the congregation decided that it further needed a denominational affiliation and was accepted into the United Church of Christ. The church sanctuary is very pretty. All wooden. The walls are white and are adorned with original artwork. On the alter was a small quilt. Each time a new person or family joins the church, he or she brings a scrap of fabric and it is sewn onto everything else. The church is very progressive which was a new experience for me. When I think about that quilt it reminds me of the construct of the Body of Christ for believers. We're all pieced together. We don't all seem the same or have the same talents but by virtue of Jesus we're all sewn together. I like the practice and I know that that church is very meaningful to its local community.

I take pride in the fact that a week prior, Harry Knox of the Human Rights Campaign preached there. I stood in the pulpit that a nationally-recognized figure had just stood one week prior. I feel a great sense of pride in it.

http://www.hrc.org/about_us/2638.htm