About a year ago, I shared something that I had written several years ago, The essay recounts how I, about 50 years ago, discovered a little white church in the woods near Oxford, MS, where I was attending the University of Mississippi — or Ole Miss. In my post last year, I added that I had moved to the little town of Water Valley, MS, which is about 20 miles away from Oxford. Water Valley is a more affordable place to live than Oxford, and one of my reasons for moving to Water Valley was that I felt the urge to relocate that little old church where I had found peace years before.

Soon after I landed in Water Valley, I became acquainted with a person who had lived in the Water Valley community all her life, and she toured me to all the old country churches in the county where I currently live. I wrote about several of those buildings. But I had not yet found MY little church in the wildwood. Unfortunately, I ceased my quest for over a year, and I settled in the first church that invited me to attend. I had grown up in the denomination of this church and soon, I recalled the many ways that my beliefs and behaviors do not match that of the people who comprise that denomination. I became very unhappy, and that is when I truly gave up on finding MY church.

I left the church of my childhood about 50 years ago, and I became Episcopalian for years after that. It seemed to me that the church of my childhood was a church of “Don’ts” and that the Episcopalians were more a body of “Dos”–a more positive bunch. The philosophy of the Episcopal Church more aligns with my understanding that we are invited to live more abundantly.

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10

Because I perceive that the Episcopalians are less judgemental, I will conclude that thought and move on to my reason for moving back to the Episcopal Church now.

During the season of the 2024 election, I saw a lot of people who called themselves Christians but who supported an immoral and indecent man for president, and that highly offended me. I decided that I wanted nothing more to do with that mindset, and I quit going to church. Because I currently live in a small church dominated by this thought pattern, I quit leaving my house until I absolutely had to do so. I wrapped myself in a tightly woven cocoon and I hid, but when the election concluded in the favor of the majority of the people in this town, I decided that I needed to move away entirely. I was on my way toward moving away, and a series of people began inviting me to begin worshipping at the tiny Episcopal Church that is only blocks away from my house.