Merging is a New Journey - My Church Family

 "Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing." - 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NRSV)

 We are almost at a year from when we had the official vote to accept the merger agreement.  Though that was not the start of the process (it began many months prior to this) it was the beginning of "the end" so to speak.  There were bumps in the road, most notably the stoppage of all in-person worship services in mid-March which led to us postponing our official merger service until July.

Anastasia and I at our first official service at PUMC

Before July I had been attending worship most Sundays via YouTube or Zoom at PUMC, and even though some of the names seemed familiar, I felt welcomed but a bit of a disconnect.  Once we merged, most Sundays I have been attending in-person worship, started to recognize mask-covered faces and voices, felt welcomed, but there was still a disconnect.

This past week PUMC had their Charge Conference via Zoom, and for the first time I looked at a screen full of faces and saw My Church Family.  Not the congregation members I was merged into.  Not people who I sort of knew from here or there.  My Church Family.

I don't know how the rest of the people from Wappingers are feeling.  But I can honestly say, something has changed in the last few weeks that made me feel like I was part of PUMC and not someone who simply came in from a merger.

It is strange, though, because I am normally a very introverted person.  Talking to people I don't really know is not something I like to do.  I'd rather stand back and observe.  Or stand with a group and observe and listen.  Or admire from afar.  When I took the selfie above with my niece, I fully expected to be away from things for awhile.

Yet, here I am now...seeing My Church Family at a church meeting.  Learning more about people in My Church Family.  Being in a small group with some people from My Church Family.  Singing and worshiping with My Church Family.  Opening my mouth and not being afraid to say things that are slightly embarrassing to people in My Church Family.  Just being me with My Church Family.

It obviously has taken a long time for me to get to this point.  Maybe it would have been shorter had we not been in a pandemic which caused such strangeness even after the completion of the merger.  I know there will still be new paths for me to follow in this journey, so I hesitate to say that this series is over.  But I feel like I am in a good place now.  (And soon I might begin on my project to put this series together as one person's thoughts on the process for others who went through, or are going through or will be going through the same thing.)