Merrits United Church West Lincoln Ontario (in Two Parts)

I spent Easter the way I love to spend Easter, at my In-laws stately country home amidst the hustle bustle of the good food, fresh air, wine, chocolate and playoff hockey.  Brunch that Sunday was set early a twenty minutes East with even more family, so my wife and I stayed behind and visited her childhood parish, Merritt's United for service before we sped away down the QEW to more playoff hockey and more chocolate.

Merritts is a small church on the intersection of two nondescript country roads, the sort of building you'd never come across unless you were looking for it. Small without being Spartan, it's an immediately comfortable building split into two floors.  The upstairs chapel could sit 150 comfortably and the basement hall/kitchen is exactly as you would imagine it.  A piano, stacked chairs, pictures of generations and lineage and a worn tapestry of the last supper.

Service was delayed on Easter on account of the reverend was held up at the second of the three churches in her charge.  This is a truly unfortunate fact of life for the rural United Church of Canada, there is neither the funds nor the congregational turnout to justify every church having it's own minister.  So our Pastor bursts in with her husband in tow apologizing for being late and jumps right into service.  Not one of the 35 souls in attendance seems the least bit upset.  The sermon was quick and remarkably informal (even with the robes, it was the most informal service I've yet seen).  There was no communion, there was a quick children's service for one child (my daughter) and there was a short and sweet rap up.  This was service as an item on the "to-do" list, it was requisite and to this observer it was about as uninspiring as the story of the resurrection can be.  I counted three times where the minister checked her watch.

That all said, everyone in attendance was quite happy with the entire production.  They were all smiles as they said goodbye and wished each other a Happy Easter.  I was... bored, and only a little upset, having been recently to a swath of energetic and motivated churches, I couldn't understand it how this could be so sedate.  I was putting off writing this post and now I'm glad I did because I was back at my in-laws this Sunday for a visit and found out that this Sunday's service at Merrit's was being forgone entirely for an annual brunch in the church basement.

This brunch was attended in droves, upwards of a hundred souls squeezed into the basement being fed by volunteers and treated to a happy and talkative community of friends and family.  It was excellent.

Now, in saying this, I don't want to put down the breakfast. The pancakes and devilled eggs where second to none, and the coffee wasn't bad either, but truth be told, people weren't stuffing the place to "standing room only" for the grub.  They were enjoying the fellowship, catching up with people they might not have seen in a while and sharing gossip with their immediate neighbours.  I heard a hundred "oh she's getting bigger"s and "what're you up to now?"s and other general niceties.  This was the extended congregation of Merrit's United in full force, coming together to break bread in numbers that just never happen for a regular, or even holiday service.

If someone belonging to that parish asked for help they'd get it, this community is involved, compassionate and integrated, they just don't show up for service.  I'll bet that each and everyone of them is a Christian when you ask them, they just don't by and large feel the draw or see the point in showing up on Sundays.  A regular told me that they'd be lucky to get a dozen people to a regular service.  It's a chicken and egg problem now, but lack of attendance started it all.  So what's the problem?  Is there a problem?

One thing is for certain, for these Protestants, if church feels like a chore, they aren't going to go.  They have enough chores to do at home.