So, my wife and I have been talking about going up to the altar rail for quite awhile, and due to a chain of events, such as, our Pastor saying all are welcome to have clebrations blessed - today was the day we went up for our 3.5 year celebration blessing.
My poor wife kept wanting to hold my hand and I kept needing to wiggle free, but luckily for me she didn't let go :-) So we were up at the rail with one birthday and another anniversary of 38 years. So our Pastor gave the celebration blessing, and normally our church claps right away after the blessings...well, there was about 2 seconds of utter silence, then bless him, our Pastor started clapping, then the people at the rail starting clapping, and then the congregation joined in.
Afterwards, a friend asked me if I felt the Holy Spirit during the blessing, to which I replied "No, I was way too nervious." I felt like I did the day my wife and I got married, extremely happy and a bit weak in the knees. My wife just beaming at me (which was awesome) and supportive quiet laughter at my 10 minutes of deep breathes afterwards.
It's telling and sad that not one of our LGBT parisheners uttered one word to us after church, but a number of straight parisheners did. And I don't know if it was coincidence or intentional but one lesbain couple got up and left once we got up to go to the rail, and didn't come back until after the blessings - I'm sure I'm just imagining things.
So that was my fourth Sunday of Advent.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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6 comments:
Congratulations, JS & Wife! I'm thrilled that you did this. Wish I'd been there to see it.
Don't feel strange about getting blessed. Robert blessed a lot of different things today. I asked for and received blessings for my travel and Robert extended it to include everyone else traveling home for the holidays.
As to yours being a GLBT blessing, about d@&n time!
Peace, Hope & Joy!!!!!
Very glad you all went forward. Your gift to Reconciliation, and hopefully ours to you. Did you hear the sonic boom? Peace to all.
Happy anniversary, JS. Many, many more!
san: thank you very much!
murat11: thank you; if silence or the metaphorical collective intake of breath can be considered a sonic boom, then yes.
The wife and I were very happy that we went up and witnessed for the community and also the community witnessed us - if that makes sense.
It was very nice to be given the opportunity for a public blessing of our relationship.
lee: thank you; it wasn't that I felt strange about getting blessed (I believe everyone deserves blessings) it's more the fallout that may or may not come from the act itself that brought a touch of anxiousness to the event.
It is strange in these closed minded dioceses how very liberating it is when we stand up and do something others see as alien and unnatural. The great thing about it is this - you have walked through a door that can never again be closed. You have opened it wide enough so that others can squeak through it. May you both be blessed and may that blessing extend graciously to your pastor. If he/she is in the Diocese of West Texas...she/he stepped out in faith too.
Neither event is a small thing. But both are great things.
barbi click: thank you for the blessing for us and our pastor, as it will be he who will carry the brunt of any negative fallout (and yes, we're in the Diocese of West Texas).
Peace and Blessing to you.
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