December 20th, 2024

“In the Bulb, there is a Flower”

​It was 2004, and a very emotional and important decision was being made that would greatly impact York's Emmanuel UCC on East Market Street. Attendance had been quite low each week, and maintaining the church was simply not possible. The congregation had previously written a “Living Will” that required the church to do a self-examination if a lower attendance or low financial marker was met. Church members were wondering how they could walk away from a gorgeous building that was such a spiritual and meaningful part of their lives, some for their entire lives. It was heart-wrenching to think about going elsewhere. Margaret Sultner, who has attended Emmanuel for over seventy years, remembered this time. “I was a member since I was six, and I knew nothing else. It was hard to let go of a home away from home.”

Emmanuel's pastor at the time, Rev. Della Fahnestock, surprised many in the congregation with an innovative proposal. Perhaps Emmanuel could live on in a unique way--continuing its commitment to share faith and community outreach, but without a building. With much prayer, discussion and open minds, Pastor Della and about twenty interested people created a new reality and vision for the church, “traveling light” as Jesus had done.

Twenty years later, Emmanuel remains an active member of the United Church of Christ and is thriving as a home for spiritual sojourners. Decisions are made through a consensus-building process. The congregation identifies as “covenant participants” instead of “church members” and renews their covenant yearly. Those who desire a connection to the church but without joining are “Friends of Emmanuel.” The church's Living Will is reviewed yearly and updated when needed, ensuring that the church remains healthy. The church also is intentionally small, under thirty covenant participants. According to the Living Will, if attendance grows to 40, a second church planting would be considered.

As followers of Jesus, committed to “traveling light,” the congregation has needed to be flexible about meeting spaces. Over the years, worship services have been in a room at a Community Center as well as in a hotel conference room. For the past five years, Hayshire UCC has generously rented its Fellowship Hall to Emmanuel for Sunday worship.

Since its 2004 restart, wonderful pastors have led Emmanuel. For the first eighteen years, there were settled pastors: Rev. Della Fahnestock, Rev. Kay Rader, Rev. Mike Loser, and Rev. Laura Ramsey, as well as Interim minister, Rev. Rick Pulling and supply pastor, Rev. Dominique Denman. Since 2022, the church has continued to thrive without a settled pastor. Instead, a flow of diverse supply pastors has added dimension to the church: MiD Spring Davidson, Rev. Joslin Kearse, Rev. Megan Mathieson, and currently MiD Jamie Gruber. Everyone agrees that the congregation has spiritually grown through their presence.

Emmanuel's congregation size and weekly attendance have been steady during the last twenty years, with between ten and twenty attending in person or, since Covid, also over Zoom. The church's Mission Statement, read together weekly, includes that the church will, “…actively sustain a creative and constructive presence in the world.,” making a commitment to live faith outside of “church.” With no building issues to take care of, money and energy can be used elsewhere. Tithing to Our Church's Wider Mission is built into Emmanuel's annual budget. Zooming services two Sundays a month saves rent money for quarterly charitable donations. As a Creation Justice congregation, Emmanuel cares for God’s creation by tending trees at Nixon Park, writing environmental voting postcards, hosting guest speakers, collecting plastic and paper for recycling, and together reading and discussing books on environmental issues. As the first Open and Affirming congregation in the York area, Emmanuel has been supporting our LGBTQIA+ siblings, sponsoring and attending events, and creating a safe worship space for all.

Additional church outreach has included: Sandwich sales and a yearly yard sale, with all proceeds going to a girls' school in Kenya; writing Letters to the Editor on a variety of issues, such as book banning; volunteering at Mr. Sandy’s Veteran Center to do clean ups, and providing meals and treats to the homeless veterans. In recent years, the church has donated supplies and packed backpacks to Church World Service, participated in the Race Against Racism and annual CROP Hunger Walks, prepped food at the York County Food Alliance “Squash Hunger,” and led sing-alongs at Margaret Moul Home. During the Covid lockdown, Emmanuel sent monthly donations to local charitable organizations.

Worship is interactive at Emmanuel, including alternative versions of the Prayer of Our Savior, “Readers Theater,” and sometimes a Fruit Salad Communion. After the one-hour service, there is an hour of open and respectful discussion, in which all ideas are welcome. Listening to and learning from one another is essential. Another essential is music. The congregation loves to harmonize when meeting in person, especially during its favorite hymns. One such hymn, “In the Bulb There is a Flower” by Natalie Sleeth, has lyrics that seem to touch directly on the church’s story. The second stanza includes,“…from the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.” For the past twenty years, this congregation has seen God’s mystery unfolding in so many ways. May God continue to reveal God's self well into the future, at Emmanuel UCC York!​

Adam and Eve Revisited
3/12/2022
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During a recent discussion springing from our reading of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, we noted the positive nature of the Skywoman Falling creation myth of the original peoples in the Great Lakes region compared to the very negative Adam and Eve creation myth in the Bible. What we need to know, however, is that it is only the Christian interpretation of the Adam and Eve story that views it as a negative fall from grace. It is my understanding that Jewish folks do not see the story as a fall or in the negative ways we Christians view it.
 
I am not a scholar of Jewish theology, so I do not wish to address the story from a Jewish perspective. But I would like to offer a different take on the story for Christians to consider.
 
The issue I have with the traditional Christian interpretation of the Adam and Eve story is two-fold. First, it presents an incredibly negative view of humanity. This fall of humanity from grace supposedly makes us so depraved that only the death of Jesus can restore our relationship to God. In fact, there are those who insist that we can never overcome our depravity and the only saving grace we have is that, if we believe in Jesus and his salvation, God does not actually ever see us, but only sees Jesus standing between God and us. I find this concept, that we have to deceive God in order to be in relationship with God, appalling.
 
While there are certainly times when I also hold an incredibly negative view of humanity, my overall attitude is that of the more positive parts of the Genesis creation narrative – that the creation as a whole is inherently good and that humanity, created in God's image, is therefore also inherently good. We are distressingly capable of unspeakable evils, but the answer to such evil is not additional evil – i.e., the "necessary" death of Jesus. The answer has to do with the amazing and unconditional grace of God.
 
Which brings me to my second concern about the traditional interpretation of the Adam and Eve story. It presents an incredibly negative view of God. If God is so angry at humanity that only the death of Jesus can satisfy his anger, then we are not dealing with a true God, but a God who is only a reflection of our own worst inclinations. If God is pure love, then there is nothing that can make God so angry as to demand a sacrifice. If God is pure love, then God is limited to love as the only response possible in the face of humanity's disappointing tendency toward evil.
 
So, if the traditional Christian interpretation of the Adam and Eve story leaves us dissatisfied, is there another way to see the story which is more productive? I think there is.
 
I see the story as a reflection of humanity's movement from a dreamlike state of innocent ignorance to a state of responsible knowledge or awareness. The garden of Eden sounds like a paradise, but is that the kind of life we truly want to live, with no awareness of good and evil and no choice but to live in this dreamlike state? Could we truly appreciate such a life if we had no knowledge of any other possibilities?
 
Instead, when Adam and Eve eat the apple, they become aware that they can make choices and they become responsible for their choices. That responsibility might seem like punishment (expulsion from the garden), but in fact it opens up a whole new world of possibilities, both good and bad.
 
We see the same movement acted out in the maturation of our children from infancy to adulthood. Babies are totally self-centered, but nobody faults them for being that way. It is necessary for their survival. As they grow older and become more aware of their surroundings, we begin to expect them to be less self-centered, to share their toys, to take on certain chores (which they often see as punishment), to do things to help others and so become more responsible. By the time they leave the nest, we expect them to be responsible adults who understand that the best life is one in which they are as willing to help others as they are to help themselves.
 
So I see the story of Adam and Eve as a reflection of our experience of life in which we eventually find it possible to make choices based on our awareness of the world around us. Far from being a negative thing, this is what makes life challenging and exciting and worth living. While it allows for many poor decisions to be made, it also presents us with exhilarating possibilities of goodness and grace.
 
God's role in all of this is not to give us an escape route from our responsibility, but to shower us with an abundant and unconditional grace which is meant to nurture within us a desire to be gracious ourselves. It is a tremendous risk, but God remembers that the creation is inherently good and so counts on that goodness to eventually prevail. I find this way of seeing the story as far more inspirational and encouraging than the overly negative traditional interpretation.
 
I welcome your comments.
 
Michael Loser
Covenant Participant