I may have mentioned that people at my Baptist church loved to sing. Several of us in youth group joined the adult choir as soon as we could. Every Sunday night we also sang together in youth group, and we harmonized around camp fires. We sang on the church bus on the way to area-wide youth programs, which our association held a few times a year. Christmas and Easter were, of course, prime singing seasons, with the adult choir preparing a cantata (John W. Peterson, not Johann Sebastian Bach) for Sunday morning service. If Dec. 25 fell on a Sunday, so much the better! But for youth group, the joy of the season was Christmas caroling. We met at church, then carpooled to several stops, most of them homes of the “shut-in” church members. (We now call them “homebound.”) We knew the words to multiple verses of Christmas carols, and at least one member could start us off on a decent pitch. We’d sing a few carols in four-part harmony, and sometimes be invited inside to thaw out with cookies and cocoa. That invitation was a special treat, not only because we were usually benumbed with cold but also because those Hungarians made delightful Christmas treats. I suppose now that one of our youth group leaders called ahead to each home, making sure our company would be welcome. And it occurs to me that some of those leaders must have paid babysitters so they could be with us. At the very least, they gave up a cozy evening with their own families to drive us around the city and suburbs, and often, to a Christmas party after caroling. I loved those people, even in my innocence of what it meant to take charge of dozens of kids. Thanks be to God for them!
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Baptist GirlI was a conservative Baptist girl who grew up to become a career Christian, working first in a Baptist school and then in a Baptist college. For about three decades, it was very good until it wasn’t, and I had to leave. But the Baptists formed me. This is my homage to the good times and good people of the world I left, finally, at forty-three, when I became an Episcopalian. These are my memories; others might disagree with my recollections. So be it. Archives
January 2024
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