Is it overly romantic to value a piece of holy ground, a sanctuary where people have prayed, and been baptized, and converted, and married, and buried from, for almost three hundred years, and where people know they can go when they want to get close to God? I am reminded of those well-known lines by Philip Larkin: One of my colleagues suggests consolidating the six small Reformed churches of the Township of Saugerties into one regional congregation of sufficient size and strength, and then let these old buildings go to historical societies or whatever. Of course we’d all prefer to have vital, dynamic congregations where peoples’ lives can be transformed. (Not unlike the churches of Iraq.) It’s probably true that if not for their dear old buildings, they would have disbanded years ago (as happened to the little Anglican Church that I supported in Ontario). I have colleagues who want to close down churches like Katsbaan, because the only mission of their congregations seems to be to maintain their own survival. She cheerfully maintains, against the odds, an enduring public witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, a public sanctuary where anyone can pray, and a public space where the Word of God is proclaimed and the sacraments freely offered. But what Stephanie does, in my judgment, is more countercultural than all that is labeled spirituality. These days, when people want spirituality they go to the hip village of Woodstock, just up the road, the counterculture capital of New York, where you can get any kind of spirituality you want, from Astral to Zen. None of her friends and few of her family join her in her efforts and attendance, but that’s fine, she doesn’t judge anyone. Her parents had joined the church and raised her there.
#Daniel meeter free#
She spends much of her free time keeping an old church going in this post-Christian culture of Upstate New York. When Stephanie said, “Why do you think I do all this?” I noted her word “do.” I mean nothing negative when I think of her as “religious but not spiritual,” to use the illuminating and liberating terminology of our editor on these pages last summer. Finding the requisite funds will be a problem, and we’re going to have to apply for grants. The congregation numbers no more than a dozen most Sundays (which is plenty for a synagogue), and is served by a lay preacher.
The church has an exquisite colonial sanctuary built of local stone.
#Daniel meeter how to#
We were discussing how to raise money to repair the windows of the Katsbaan Reformed Church, a tiny, ancient congregation in rural Ulster County, New York, that I supervise for our classis. We were meeting on church business, and the whole time she was also managing her mechanics and taking calls from her drivers, one of whom was towing a school bus.
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