Today our Confirmation class meet once again in the Bowling Alley. I can't help thinking that it is too bad that Lee's Chinese Restaurant isn't still open - we could've met there and in the process honour and continue a long lineage of Minnedosa United Church Sunday School and Youth Classes that met for coke and fries at Lee's ... Many of those who grew up in our Sunday School over the years share memories of heading across the street for their class ... Mr Chipperfield was a favourite with the 12-14 year old boys for just that reason.
But Lee's, like our building is a memory now ... it sits vacant across the street waiting for someone to come along and revive a long standing Prairie tradition. For now, our local Bowling Alley is the place where each week a small group of young people have gathered with me to discuss faith issues and to move towards becoming a full member of this United Church of ours ...
We talked about many things, but what has struck me over and over, is the willingness of these young people to engage the issue of faith. We've talked about the history and legacy of the United Church of Canada. We've talked about what the Bible actually says about things - today was the Christmas stories; we talked about how different Matthew and Luke really are, and how we've melded both stories and their contradictions into one narrative ... From there we moved to talking about the place of Gays and Lesbians in our lives and in our society ... then we talked about God and how we envision and experience God in Church and in our lives ...
It's a good conversation to have ... it gives me hope for the future. I have no doubt that whatever it is we create to replace what we've lost, these young people will play a role in authoring a new history that will, to coming generations, be like those wonderful stories of hot fried and cold coke at Lee's that are told and retold by the young people who now are parenting the young generation of today.
In 30 years maye the young people I sit in the Bowling Alley will tell their children, or grandchildren about the year their church burned down and they had confirmation in the Bowling Alley ... hopefully when they come to show where it happened, the Church, the Bowling Alley and their faith will be more then a mere memory ... Hopefully it will be a very real presence in our world ...
One can only hope - for from hope arises action and action ensures that hope will in time be realized ...
L'chaim
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