Church Director Message for September 2011

As a little boy living in a home of non-practicing Christians with little or no written literature around the house and conversation limited to “pass the salt”; I now know that I was living in a stimulus void.

One would guess that I was at that “perfect place” to commune with God; time on my hands with no distractions. Except………. I had no idea of the concept of God………….in fact, I did not know God even existed.

One can understand then why a little boy like me would end up spending countless hours in the land of Fantasy and Imagination! Can’t recall exactly what went through my mind; but I do recall spoons being racked across my knuckles at the dinner table bringing me “back”. And the tittering of classmates in the early education years as the teacher waited patiently for a response to her question to a boy “who was not there”……….funny how the tittering brought me back; but never the teacher!

My early brushes with religion happened outside the house……….saying the Our Father at school each morning……….and being sent off to Trinity Anglican Church to be a part of the choir………….for I did have a beautiful boy soprano voice back then. It was during those times that the word God and the images that different teachers and preachers were painting about God began to stick rather then fly away like most images in my land of Fantasy and Imagination.

It wasn’t till I met my wife Carolyn that I was introduced to the fact that God is real! That the images of God formed in my earlier years were not pictures; but rather memories. It was the Holy Spirit’s way of helping me to recognize God in my life. Thus began my spiritual journey.

Several decades later, I continue to look for the presence of God in my life every day. I have been told that this “feeling” I am experiencing is one of yearning to be with Him. That I traverse on a healthy journey……..that I am a man of hope……not despair…… because of this yearning.

A component of this journey is to surround myself with people of like beliefs. We all do this when we celebrate the Eucharist. We freely sing, pray and talk about and with God. Then we leave church and our journey becomes private.

My hope this Fraternal Year is that we will share with each other more freely our common journeys of the reality of God in our lives.

Brother Dallas.

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