Why Stay #4: The Congregation Cried

Once in a great while, sermons at my church delve into the clergy misconduct we experienced and its aftermath. This past Sunday, our minister gave one of those sermons. It's an odd thing, but the farther away the misconduct gets, the more we seem to talk about it.

I expect that's for two reasons. First, it's safer now and second, it's still alive. We've had truth, but we've never had reconciliation.

I checked in with the minister afterwards, and she said it was "sad, sad -- watching members who had lived through these times cry." Actually I wasn't one of them (it came right afterwards for me, in a committee meeting, of all things) and hadn't even realized this was happening. But I was deeply touched to learn it. It's so much better not to cry alone.