I am pondering attending church on Sunday. It’s been about um 3 months since I last attended. Prior to that, it had been years.
I have had issues over the years rejecting and embracing and rejecting organized religion. My religious background is complicated; my religion is not, as discussed in Religion and Faith.
I have been blessed to grow up in an interfaith family (and I do not mean Lutheran/Presbyterian), but that also means I am not compelled to follow just one path.
I rediscovered my faith when I was in law school. I found a parish I loved and I attended for a couple of years.
When I first moved here, I stopped attending church. I had a boyfriend, and those things happen. Then I attended my local parish nearly every week by myself for a long time. Later, one of my best friends would come with me. We were surrounded by homogeneous families in country club clothes. I always felt awkward wearing high-heeled strappy sandals to mass. It was just not a good fit.
I started parish shopping, but I never found a place I loved as much as my parish from law school and eventually I stopped looking.
Today, I am feeling a pull to find a new parish. Long ago, I left my rich, suburban neighborhood for a more urban neighborhood. My two closest parishes are my old burby parish and a predominantly Hispanic parish. Neither one feels like me or my neighborhood. I am tempted to hit the campus-area church, adorably named “St. Austin’s”, which describes itself as “dynamic, urban.” That sounds about right.