All Things Bright and Beautiful

I have an understatement I'd like to share with you: organized religion is complicated.  On this bright and beautiful Sunday morning, I've been thinking a lot about the fact that we don't go to church anymore.  It's a particularly striking fact when I give you some personal statistics that belong to Mateo:

• His paternal great-grandmother was an ordained American Baptist minister
• Both of his grandfathers are ordained United Church of Christ (UCC) ministers
• His mother went to divinity school
• His father went to seminary
• His parents actually met and fell in love through being involved in the UCC

As you can see, we've got a lot of ties to organized religion up in here.  Geno and I both literally grew up in the church (that's what happens when you have ministers for fathers), and have both been crazy active in both the local and national church.  But now?  Um, not so much.  And why is that?  Mostly because we haven't found a church home that fits us theologically and is within driving distance.  (At one point we were actually contemplating driving to Boston every Sunday for church, and did make some fun cameo appearances at Hope Church.  Ultimately, however, that was not a sustainable, nor gas-money friendly, plan.  We also briefly had a great run at First Congregational in Montclair, New Jersey, but that too ended when we moved back to Connecticut.)

It's frustrating to be the cliche, young(ish) adult who leaves the church, but then comes back when the kids show up -which is exactly who we're on the way to becoming.  We really want Mateo to have a church home the way that we did growing up, but we also feel pretty strongly that we need to find the right place.  I know that even without an organized group of people to worship with, we can still teach him about God, compassion, social justice and songs involving animals going in by twosies-twosies...  But do we want to?  One of the reasons I've always loved church is because of the community of people who worship, grow, laugh, fight and make-up together.  I want Mateo to a part of that, and honestly, I want Geno and myself to be a part of that again, too.  But no matter how much we want it, the theology and commitments of the place have to be the right fit. 

And so I wonder: Are we being too picky?  Why can't we be Unitarians?  (We've tried that unsuccessfully a few times.)  Would it be possible to start our own church?  (You know, in all our free time.)  Can Terry Yasuko Ogawa please get ordained soon and start a church for us?

I know that for us, there's no easy solution to this issue, and it may take quite some time before we transition again from the church of the Sunday New York Times to an actual Sunday morning church service.  So until that day, I'm making sure that Mateo gets his weekly dose of hymns, because I do want him to know that all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things bright and beautiful, the Lord God made them all.