Today, and I type these words on Sunday, thoughts of Sunday’s past filled my mind. My wife and I were watching a baptism. Proud parents, family and friends all at the altar with an especially calm baby. He was going to leave everybody thinking about the ceremony and the communal pledges. Not an unruly nature.
We were in a parish church and with the priest “rejoicing at this baptism” and reciting “you are now a pilgrim with us.” We, the congregation were taking on a special responsibility in nurturing this young child.
America was like this in the beginning. Small churches, parishes—communities caring for each other. Well, of course, America is now outsized and a decreasing number of people are looked after by the parish church or any church.
Writ large our census tells us we are now a nation of mostly big cities. We are also very mobile. Fortunately for my wife and me mobility is accepted at Holy Trinity. The parish holds.
Now you can quarrel with my romanticism. Actually, the word parish denotes a sub-division in a larger church. I like to think people make the parish, not the lines on a map. But then I like to think the word united goes beyond a description of a land mass; as in United States of America.
And given that our quadrennial election is less than 48 hours away and united is very much at risk, I go back to the Priest’s words: “you are now a pilgrim with us.” Is there a “with us”? As we look around life’s fences do we see friends or divisions?
Campaigns are never pretty but sometimes they resolve for at least a few years our disagreements. Or maybe at least mute the fierce attacks. But, is that possible this time around? Is that possible for the former President? Will he attempt to lead as he has campaigned? If so, the parish writ large will remain deeply fractured. If he disdains in thought, word and deed those he takes to be his enemy, if he is elected, he will become a lame duck in January, just after being sworn in.
Obviously, telescoping a small parish into larger and larger units of government is dreaming, but if we are going to take guidance from the constitutional words of our founders, we might also look at the spiritual world of the founding.
The parish service ended in song. We sang “America”. It had been a long time since the words of that song left my lips. But one phrase in particular lingered:
“God bless America; land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above”
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
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