My church experience today was almost like being a mormon in the 1970s. One church meeting in the morning. Lunch at home and then another church meeting in the evening. Thankfully, it is only the timing that reminded me of the “olden days.”

Our morning worship service included a sermon from Rev. Ellen about what Jesus means to her: http://www.uuchelmsford.org/worship/current-sermons/sermon/10308-jesus-and-the-ministry-of-presence.html. Church remains a little more full than usual. The concerns of today seem to have sent some of our neighbors in search of one another and they all meet up at First Parish.

In addition to the 10 AM worship service, there is a service at 5:30. This one is shorter and less formal. Oldest son, who is leading the church’s youth rock band, known as UU School of Rock, was having them do a practice performance at this evening’s service. So, even though I had already been to church once today, I went again. Drdad and my mom came too. The kids performed well. They have a big role in the morning service coming up on December 18 so this was a nice practice session. Our 2 older grandchildren are in the band that their father directs.

We usually try to have a nice Sunday dinner for the 4 generations who live at our house. Get out the nice china and insist on table manners and social niceties that we worry less about during the week. The evening service got in the way of that. Also, youngest son was speaking this evening at a neighboring church’s Our Whole Lives (OWL) course about human sexuality for young teens. Part of the OWL curriculum includes a Q&A with gay, bi, and transgender people.

Youngest son felt that his own rather non-dramatic coming out was ineligible for inclusion in such discussions, but he is actually in a demand as a speaker. He grew up in a household where being gay is recognized as a valid way of being, and not that big a deal. Gatherings at our house usually include gay friends and our faith community includes families and couples with diversity of sexual orientation.

That doesn’t change the world though and youngest son waited until he was done with college to formally come out. For a long time he felt there was no need to come out. His straight brothers were never expected to make a formal declaration of being hetero sexual, why should he? His story is one of the many in the tapestry of human experience of sexuality that gets shared in the OWL program.

So, I made a big pot of veggie chili and left it out for whoever turned up hungry. Grandson sat looking at his bowl. His sister asked why he wasn’t eating. He said, “It’s Sunday, I’m waiting for Daddy to be at the table to be served.” I assured him that I had the power to waive the Sunday manners requirement for people who had spent a late evening at church and still had homework waiting.