Church

This evening a volunteer asked if I had been invited to a church tomorrow. The implication was that I would of course be going to church on Sunday, as she assumes I do every Sunday, but that it would be nicer to go with someone. When I hesitated, pretending to be deeply involved in my data entry, she mistook the reason for my hesitation and quickly notified me that her church was integrated. My colleague, who is here volunteering from Maryland didn’t understand her at first and thought she meant that the Catholics and Protestants went to the same Church (clearly she is no more a church goer than myself). The volunteer quickly and clearly explained that no, her church had both black and white members and everyone was welcome.

I almost started laughing and only held myself back because she was deadly serious. My colleague from Maryland is black and was so taken aback that the volunteer had to explain to her that not all churches here are integrated and that it is still quite a recent thing. Fortunately this conversation distracted everyone from the fact that I had not answered the original question so I am off the hook, for this Sunday anyway. Even better – the whole county is in church tomorrow morning so I get to sleep in!