Reflections of a Householder

Pond at the Minuteman National Park Visitor Center,
Lexintgon, MA

While getting caught up on my high school alumni notes this weekend, I read that that a former classmate was ordained in July as a Benedictine priest. This after years of exploring Eastern spirituality and then living at a monastery in the Mohave Desert.

It is difficult for me to reconcile this holy image with my memory of the teenager who would sit and talk with me at lunch about cars, guitars, and surfing (the three primary obsessions of any So Cal teen) and then carry my books as we walked to 5th period Civics. But I am happy for him, and incredibly impressed that he has committed himself so completely to his pursuit of truth. Congratulations, Father Cassian.

I, on the other hand, am shopping around for God, or (more precisely) a new spiritual home. As a Unitarian in Los Angeles, my options were pretty limited. My preferred church was a good 40 minute drive away. Between the commute and coffee hour (free-trade, of course), I was lucky to get back home by 2:00.

But now I find myself in Unitarian Central - there are six congregations within a 5 mile drive. For the first time, I can be picky. On a rainy Sunday a few weeks ago, I visited First Parish in Lexington, right on the Battle Green. With its tall white steeple, Hutchings pipe organ, and old cemetery out back, it is the quintessential New England Church. Yesterday, I attended services at the Follen Church Society, also in Lexington. Follen is the oldest standing religious structure in Lexington. It was also the site of Emerson's last regular preaching gig before he chucked it all for Transcendentalism. They've kept his pulpit all these years, and now the congregation's brand-new slip-of-a-thing Reverend Claire preaches from it every Sunday at 10:30. A self-described Jewnitarian, she gave a beautiful sermon yesterday about Yom Kippur, imperfection, and atonement. I like to think Emerson would have approved.

I couldn't bring myself to take photos inside the sanctuary, so I've taken a few from their website.

Follen Church Society
755 Massachusetts Ave.
Lexington, MA

The sanctuary was shaped like an
octagon so that church-goers could
see and hear the minister and each other
easily.

Detail of Emerson's pulpit. Originally, the pulpit was at pew-level
so that the minister was not above his congregants. 

In a sign of the times, the old Unitarian church building in Woburn is now the Satsang Center. I like to think that Emerson, who was influenced by the Vedas, would have approved of this as well.