WE GATHER TOGETHER by Edward L. Woodyard

We Gather Together Chapter Ninety-One

Sam McCulloch parked at a far end of the church's parking lot in order to make space available for stragglers to the service. He and Julia recognized Annie's Suburban parked near the front door of the church, which they suspected would be a convenient getaway car if Jason and Kelly acted up during the church service.

As he and Julia got out of the car and walked toward the front door of St. Simeon's, Sam felt comforted by his association with the church, especially after Scott went to San Francisco and willfully separated himself from the family. Its sanctuary allowed Sam to pray for those he loved, among others. He felt replenished and revitalized by going to church, especially when he knelt at the altar for Holy Communion.

For Sam, Holy Communion signified a renewal of spirit and a reaffirmation of life's goodness. After receiving the bread and wine from the rector and saying a parting prayer, Sam would return to his pew to reflect on his life and that of the other parishioners he saw kneeling at the altar: a widow in her eighties who sat in the same pew every Sunday as she had as a little girl with her parents, a young electrician with his wife and two energetic children, a banker whose son died of a drug overdose last summer, a gay high school math teacher, a father who just achieved financial success in a business deal which halted a foreclosure on his home, a divorced woman whose daughter died in her arms two years ago from a rare lung disease, a young girl who was born deaf but was now able to hear, an immigrant family from Guatemala that struggled with a new language and culture but were unified with an ancient belief in God, a longtime real estate agent who sang regularly in the choir and whose deceased husband had cheated on her, a retired architect who had just survived open heart surgery, and a firefighter kneeling with his fiancée at the altar where they were to be married in the spring.

Sam felt that the life of the church was a microcosm of the life of the town itself which wouldn't exist without the church, the town having grown up around it when St. Simeon's was built in the early 1820s, having originally been a log cabin built in a sheep pasture that was now part of the churchyard. Since then, it had welcomed and embraced all who followed, regardless of race, creed or philosophical persuasion.

As he and Julia walked up the stone steps of the church, Sam noticed the cemetery to his left. It was nondenominational and ecumenical, occupied with the bodies of the town's earliest settlers and officials, including its blacksmith, first justice of the peace, choirmaster, and owner of the general store and livery stable. In addition, there were Sam's parents and grandparents, as well as numerous friends including Doug Lundgren. It was also where Jack Drexler's parents and sister were buried – and it would be where he and Julia would rest together in eternal life.

The cemetery was where the four McCulloch children had hunted for Easter eggs every spring, even finding them behind the tombstones of their ancestors. All four children had been baptized in this church where Sam and Julia had been married; however, all four had also had been allowed to make their own decisions for themselves as to what to believe, when, where, how and why. Their transitions to freethinking had come during high school, about the time each reached puberty; regardless, growing up in the church, each child had loved its major holiday celebrations which brought them back at least twice yearly, at Easter and Christmas. Regardless, all of their grandchildren had been baptized in St. Simeon's as well, which had been fine with Cara who was raised Catholic and with Jack who had a German Jewish surname. The silk and lace christening gown that all of the McCulloch children and grandchildren wore had been fashioned by Sam's mother from her own mother's wedding dress. Sam and his brother Tom had been christened in it as well.

At Easter, the congregation would raise potted hyacinths every time it sang "Alleluia" during the recessional hymn, a tradition which grew out of an erstwhile parishioner who had been so taken with the Holy Spirit that he grabbed a potted hyacinth off a ledge in the narthex and yelled "Alleluia!" to the congregation, prompting others to do likewise. Hyacinths from Easters past were planted around the edge of the back patio at the McCulloch home, always reminding Sam and Julia of Easter's promise. They had often wondered if the same strategy would have worked for planting poinsettias; if so, they would have had a double hedge of them by now at the rear of the property from the last thirtysomething Christmases.

Growing up, the four McCulloch children had participated in the annual St. Simeon's Christmas pageant. Scott and Drew alternated roles as Joseph, a shepherd or a wise man. It was rather memorable when Annie was cast as Mary and wanted the newborn Ben to be a real life Baby Jesus, persuading the powers-that-be that using a real baby was better than using a doll, reminding them of the year that Becky Wagner was Mary and became so nervous about saying her lines that she twisted the head off the doll symbolizing the Baby Jesus and accidentally decapitated it, causing the doll's head to roll past two lambs and an angel to the pew where sat a horrified Dorothy Abernathy, head of the altar guild.

During Annie's portrayal of Mary, she was holding Ben piously when he exploded in his swaddling clothes, which had Joseph and the shepherds either gagging at the stench or convulsed in laughter. Annie, in her inestimable style, stood up in the stable, trudged past the manger and two hysterical wise men, and marched down the aisle to return Ben to his real mother, alerting Julia and the rest of the congregation that "Benjy's got smelly pants."