In my mother-in-laws small New Jersey town, there seem to be two historically black churches, the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) and the Union Baptist. My mother-in-laws church had a day planned with a joint service with the AME Church last Sunday, at about 11:00 am. There was to be a meeting of some kind (information not passed on to me) in the town square before the service, and both congregations would walk to the AME Church together.
My mother-in-law is getting up there in years, and since she had sung in the choir in the early morning service at her church, decided she would wait at home, skip the public meeting in the square, and meet everyone at the AME Church.
She got to the church at about 11:00 am and waited inside for her friends from the church to arrive. The service was very loud, and had a drummer involved. She was a bit uncomfortable as she soon realized that her friends had not arrived, it was too loud for her and she was the only white person in the room!
A woman sitting behind her noticed her uneasiness and asked her if she could help. My mother-in-law explained the whole story to the woman who explained to her that she had gone to the Union Baptist Church instead of the AME. There was no way she could easily slip out.
The minister decided to have the guests stand and introduce themselves and let everyone know where they’ve come from. When it got to my mother-in-law, she explained that she must have gone to the “wrong” church! The minister and the congregation all explained that they were the “right” church to go to, and it seems God had declared that she be there.
After the early service and before the guest minister arrived, many congregants came by to welcome her to the “right” church. She had to go up the front and make a sizable donation to the church of course, and stay as long as she could. She finally got out before the guest minister started and she went home.
I don’t believe she has yet told her minister what happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment