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In the beginning we were baptized and christened and went to church. It was a Methodist church, so as soon as you were born, you were baptised and expected with the help of parents and spiritual advisors, pastors etc., to begin serving God right away. My Mom went to church every Sunday. My Dad was an atheist and so only appeared in church on the big festival days, Easter, Christmas and all that. He started telling us about his beliefs when I was about 9 or 10 and he did raise some salient points about the rapacity of David and the stupidlity of Solomon in having 600 wives (think of the economic cost) and the like. But it didn't really take. At the same time we were being visited by college or high school kids (I'm not sure), Christians who came to help us change our church floor from the original hundred year old wood which was becoming dangerously unstable, to concrete. There was also at that time a lovely pastor form Antigua who did more than anyone to convince me that Christianity was worth following. He disagreed with Paul's stand on women, for example and in one bible prayer meeting exhorted women that if their husbands abused them, they were not to lie down and take it by any means. "Fight back! What do you think frying pans are for?" or something like that was the advice.
We were a small congregation, dominated by women. Out of about 18 regular church goers, about 2 or so were men. Most of the husbands of spent Sundays at home resting, waiting on their womenfolk to come home to cook Sunday dinner. Women basically ran everything in the church, so man-rule-and-women-obey-centered preaching was probably going to fall flat in any case. But I believe deeply that our preacher was a good Christian, who actually believed and attempted to live by that belief, but was yet aware that these were modern times and that all had value and virtue to the Lord. Oh well. Unfortuantely for him, he was a strong personality, with unique and original ideas and a habit of not tolerating BS. This put him in direct opposition to a lay minister of our church, who considered herself the grand dame and as such expected all new changes to be run by her so that she could give her stamp of approval. The problem was this. Our church and four others comprised what was called a circuit. There is one pastor alloted for that circuit, and he preaches at two of the churches every Sunday.He stays at each circuite for about 5 years, and then is rotated to another circuit. Unfortunately, there was a severe ministers and so they were rotated sometimes every couple of months and long periods (we're talking years here) would go by without us having an assigned minister. This of course, allowed her to carve out a position of power among my particular congregation, and the little dictator did not like to be challenged. Thus she complained and joined forces with another Lay Minister of the same persuasion at one of our sister churches to get said pastor moved to another circuit, by complaining and spreading false witness to his supervisors. They succeeded and the pastor had to leave. He called my Mom at some point and advised her of the situation, Mom says that he sounded heartbroken.
The lay minister had a bad habit of maligning people whom she didn't like. And she didn't like people who were more intelligent than her. When those intelligent people saw a need and started fulfilling that need, she felt threatened, because it proved that she wasn't the only one who could get things done. Mrs. Lay Preacher's sermons on Sundays consisted of bemoaning the state of the church and how everyone's hearts were so cold (ignoring the fact that she had started it by sniping at various people, esopecially young people, until they left the church in protest; and of course her ousting of the pastor was common knowlege). She also liked to claim that no-one else but her was doing anything in the church. Then she would list off the various things she had done and demanded praise for her unswerving commitment and her "humble righteousness." My Mom therefore decided to reignite the moribund choir. Mrs. Lay Preacher couldn't sing a note, but sat there every Sunday and at every Rally with us, so that it was made clear to everyone that nobody could do without her and she was an integral part of everything.
Mrs. Lay Preacher then complained that nobody helped her to coordinate the Rallies and how again she was the only one doing anything in the church. My Mom stepped forward to help. And she did both things better than Mrs. Lay Preacher and with a minimum of Pharisee-like behaviour. People were impressed, and said so. And Mrs. Lay Preacher realized then that she had made a big mistake. She was no longer in the limelight. My Mom was. And worse, people were beginning to see through her spiels of self-congratulations cloaked in mock-humility and frequent mentions of Jesus. Mrs. Lay Preacher was incensed. How dare this young upstart upstage her and darken her light that she had striven to culitivate for 30 years or more? (At that time, we had been living in the village for ... uum about 9 or 10 years. ) This was her sphere of influence! Mrs. Lay Preacher attacked. She "threw words" at my Mom during sermons. She spread gossip about how my Mom was pushing her out of the church. She adopted a "po' me, surrounded on all sides by tribulations, but still bravely perserving in Christ's name", attuitude. She underestimated my Mother. Mother pointed out Mrs. Lay Preacher's hypocrises and unChristian-like actions with acid tongue. Robed in the knowledge that hers was the more righteous position, Mom confronted Mrs. Lay Person; and Mrs. Lay Person realised that she had awoken a sleeping dragon. Mrs. Lay Person should have know better. The rest of the congregation had already anointed my Mom as a reincarnation of "Miss Maudie" a short-tempered and fiery lady who had been my Dad's Mother. Faced with verbal fire and brimstone, Mrs. Lay Person was forced to back down. She was most resentful about that. She watched her tongue, but continued to voice her resentment. My Mom, having vanquished her enemy , smiled and ignored her. The church entered a Cold War.
We were a small congregation, dominated by women. Out of about 18 regular church goers, about 2 or so were men. Most of the husbands of spent Sundays at home resting, waiting on their womenfolk to come home to cook Sunday dinner. Women basically ran everything in the church, so man-rule-and-women-obey-centered preaching was probably going to fall flat in any case. But I believe deeply that our preacher was a good Christian, who actually believed and attempted to live by that belief, but was yet aware that these were modern times and that all had value and virtue to the Lord. Oh well. Unfortuantely for him, he was a strong personality, with unique and original ideas and a habit of not tolerating BS. This put him in direct opposition to a lay minister of our church, who considered herself the grand dame and as such expected all new changes to be run by her so that she could give her stamp of approval. The problem was this. Our church and four others comprised what was called a circuit. There is one pastor alloted for that circuit, and he preaches at two of the churches every Sunday.He stays at each circuite for about 5 years, and then is rotated to another circuit. Unfortunately, there was a severe ministers and so they were rotated sometimes every couple of months and long periods (we're talking years here) would go by without us having an assigned minister. This of course, allowed her to carve out a position of power among my particular congregation, and the little dictator did not like to be challenged. Thus she complained and joined forces with another Lay Minister of the same persuasion at one of our sister churches to get said pastor moved to another circuit, by complaining and spreading false witness to his supervisors. They succeeded and the pastor had to leave. He called my Mom at some point and advised her of the situation, Mom says that he sounded heartbroken.
The lay minister had a bad habit of maligning people whom she didn't like. And she didn't like people who were more intelligent than her. When those intelligent people saw a need and started fulfilling that need, she felt threatened, because it proved that she wasn't the only one who could get things done. Mrs. Lay Preacher's sermons on Sundays consisted of bemoaning the state of the church and how everyone's hearts were so cold (ignoring the fact that she had started it by sniping at various people, esopecially young people, until they left the church in protest; and of course her ousting of the pastor was common knowlege). She also liked to claim that no-one else but her was doing anything in the church. Then she would list off the various things she had done and demanded praise for her unswerving commitment and her "humble righteousness." My Mom therefore decided to reignite the moribund choir. Mrs. Lay Preacher couldn't sing a note, but sat there every Sunday and at every Rally with us, so that it was made clear to everyone that nobody could do without her and she was an integral part of everything.
Mrs. Lay Preacher then complained that nobody helped her to coordinate the Rallies and how again she was the only one doing anything in the church. My Mom stepped forward to help. And she did both things better than Mrs. Lay Preacher and with a minimum of Pharisee-like behaviour. People were impressed, and said so. And Mrs. Lay Preacher realized then that she had made a big mistake. She was no longer in the limelight. My Mom was. And worse, people were beginning to see through her spiels of self-congratulations cloaked in mock-humility and frequent mentions of Jesus. Mrs. Lay Preacher was incensed. How dare this young upstart upstage her and darken her light that she had striven to culitivate for 30 years or more? (At that time, we had been living in the village for ... uum about 9 or 10 years. ) This was her sphere of influence! Mrs. Lay Preacher attacked. She "threw words" at my Mom during sermons. She spread gossip about how my Mom was pushing her out of the church. She adopted a "po' me, surrounded on all sides by tribulations, but still bravely perserving in Christ's name", attuitude. She underestimated my Mother. Mother pointed out Mrs. Lay Preacher's hypocrises and unChristian-like actions with acid tongue. Robed in the knowledge that hers was the more righteous position, Mom confronted Mrs. Lay Person; and Mrs. Lay Person realised that she had awoken a sleeping dragon. Mrs. Lay Person should have know better. The rest of the congregation had already anointed my Mom as a reincarnation of "Miss Maudie" a short-tempered and fiery lady who had been my Dad's Mother. Faced with verbal fire and brimstone, Mrs. Lay Person was forced to back down. She was most resentful about that. She watched her tongue, but continued to voice her resentment. My Mom, having vanquished her enemy , smiled and ignored her. The church entered a Cold War.
