Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501100001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
With the comforting knowledge that the Rev. Marianne Pittman, Good Shepherd's pastor, had had a similar experience recently, and the skills of Mark Hunter, the church pianist, the problem was solved after services.
The Sojourner meanwhile was blessed by meeting with the small and informal fellowship that shares its building with a day-care center. This is not the temporary arrangement of a new congregation waiting for a "real" church, but a deliberate marriage of a worship center and a needed secular building. After five years, church members call it a success.
Good Shepherd owns the building on Heather Drive in the Hethwood neighborhood. The day-care center functions as its tenant. The building was erected as an experiment by volunteers from many Churches of the Brethren who normally help rehabilitate disaster areas. During the week, 125 children learn and play in the spacious and sunny interior. When the congregation of about 50 active members needs some of the space, a crew rearranges furniture.
A bulletin board in the narthex even symbolizes the accommodation. When church is in session, it contains tracts, books and mission information. When the school is in session, children and staff see on the reverse side news of secular community events.
When Pittman, 64, and her husband, Bob, came to Blacksburg nearly nine years ago, she intended only an interim pastorate at the campus-based congregation. A university pastor in Illinois for 20 years, she was trying out a later-life experience as leader of her own church. Soon, the congregation called her as its permanent minister. Today, as she plans for retirement in 1995, the Pittmans have decided to make their home "somewhere in Western Virginia" where the mountains are not far.
In a nontraditional building with a nontraditional pastor, the Good Shepherd folk may be experiencing a style of religion that will increasingly prevail in the 21st century. Talking about the church after the service, Pittman noted that members come and go with a frequency unfamiliar to many in more settled places. Most are not Brethren by background but value the denominational ideal of peace. At Good Shepherd, a ritual of welcome and farewell is used often to send members out into the world for service.
Last night, on Christmas Eve, the pastor was scheduled to consecrate - Brethren baptize only those old enough to take their own vows - the infant son of a family who has been in the church only a few weeks. The baby was the youngest worshiper last Sunday, though about 15 other youngsters were elsewhere in the building while the 10:30 a.m. worship was in progress. Pittman said having a children's church at the same time as that for adults is an experiment that may or may not be adopted permanently.
The congregation was down to about 25 last Sunday because of Virginia Tech's Christmas break. With no choir, Pittman gave worshipers a chance to sing several familiar carols from the 1992 Church of the Brethren hymnal, which contains a variety of music from diverse cultures, ranging from a German version of "Silent Night" to a Huron Indian carol and a 1781 hymn of Scottish background based on the message of peace from Isaiah.
Pittman, wearing a blue suit and red blouse, preached for 25 minutes on peace as a symbol for the fourth Sunday in Advent. Her pulpit, with its large blue banner bearing the inscription "Peace is not a season but a way of life," and the central Communion table with its creche and Advent wreath, all were quickly hidden from view by a wood screen as soon as the service was over. That was done, she said, so the day-care staff can set up on Sunday afternoon for its Monday morning activities. Worshipers' light but comfortable chairs were quickly stacked away.
Life is comfortably informal at Good Shepherd. The pastor asks for prayer requests, includes them in her intercessions, and comments on the symbolism of the offering. Her message from Isaiah reflected Brethren theology of the need to work for peace. It does not just happen, the pastor asserted, but comes from such individual action as writing to political leaders about continued spending for arms or refusing to buy toy guns for children.
As in Isaiah's message, a person who lives the ideal of peace in family and community is a shoot from the stump of a tired and nearly dead old world, Pittman said. For people like Allan and Wylan Shultz, transplanted New Yorkers who came to Good Shepherd three years ago, the parish is a community that tries to promote peace. For Pittman, who like many of her flock soon will be moving on, the spirit of Christmas peace will remain.
Sunday Sojourner appears monthly in the New River Current. Its purpose is not to promote a particular point of view but to inform readers of a variety of worship styles.
by CNB