The sanctuary could seat maybe 100 people, maybe more if they pulled out more chairs and squeezed in a bit. I'd guess there were forty or fifty people there Saturday night. A few children sat in the back with their parents. One teenage girl was among them. I didn't notice anyone I'd call high school or college age, but I wasn't studying the crowd demographics. I was looking around though.
I'd say there were more women than men, maybe a 60-40 split. I'm not making a distinction between being a gender and presenting as a gender. I only mentioned the speaker's condition yesterday because she did. I make no assumption about anybody else.
The Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia focuses on the LGBT community, according to their website. There is a rainbow flag outside marking the entrance. The background behind the pulpit is the rainbow "stained glass" that you can see on the website home page.
I'm not sure what to make of the crowd. Most people sat in ones or twos with empty seats between them and the next person, which makes me think they came for the event and weren't regular members who knew each other. On the other hand, the reverend greeted me as I was leaving, which makes me think she spotted a stranger and knew the other people. But on yet another hand, maybe she did that because I was leaving and she wanted to make sure she caught all of the strangers. She introduced herself, asked me my name. I asked her if the program would be on the website. She said "it could be," but I will scan it and post it over the next couple of days. She asked for my e-mail. I had given her my male (first) name, but might point her at this blog, so I gave her my Meg e-mail. We were gathered because of the problem of hate, but trust is the first step in a solution. Besides, less trustworthy people than a reverend know my male self and my hobby: the women who did my makeup, store assistants to whom I said "this is for me" and then handed my credit card, for instance.
I didn't speak to the other congregants. I did seek out the woman who spoke, to tell her how moving her speech was, and that I was sorry I couldn't find the place so I could have heard the whole thing!
A nicely dressed woman was sitting in front of me. I could have commented on how nice the service/ceremony was to her. I just didn't think of it.
Postscript: as of this morning, the pastor has not dropped me a note. Hopefully, she will. I have some questions.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
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Meg
ReplyDeleteA very nice post. There are good people everywhere.
I hope that the pastor does contact you but it may also be worth while for you to send her a short note to again thank her for organizing the service and giving her a link to your blog.
What you have done with this blog is a wonderful thing for so many reasons, not the least of which is to provide a first person account of the many issues that are faced by folks such as us.
Thank you again for the work that you do.
Pat