First Sunday in the New Weird

Sunday was the first meeting of our newly configured ward. At the chapel doors, young men passed out information sheets for us to fill out--name, contact info, previous callings, etc.

Sacrament meeting opened normally, then the counselor announced that we would all come up to the pulpit pew by pew to introduce ourselves to our new ward family. It was a plodding process. A few introductions were funny, some revealing; others were mini-sermons. Several speakers mentioned their callings in the new ward, so I guess the new bishopric had been staffing up since the changes were announced.

I seized the opportunity to introduce myself using my last name. Since Mike attended our old ward first, I became Sister HisName regardless. I'd just as soon have other adults skip the whole Sister thing and call me by my first name.

It took more than an hour to get through the 25 families in attendance. Afterward, we were dismissed to Sunday School without any helpful meta-information about how the ward would run. Some people had new callings, but there were still significant vacancies and it wasn't clear what the rest of us were supposed to do. Perform our old callings until told otherwise?

They skirted the lack of a SS teacher by having the adults watch a video: The Lamb of God. Even with the high production values, there's something soul-leaching about watching the crucifixion. It's why I avoided Mel Gibson's version. The church version was still violent; at the worst moments, there were shots of Jesus' hand, writhing in off-screen agony. I don't buy that violence begets spirituality, so this was not pleasant to sit through.

On to the third installment of the day's discomfort: a RS lesson on Honorable, Happy, Successful Marriage. We were 0 for 3 over the weekend, so this lesson was a guaranteed suckfest.

Only two RS-connected people stayed in the ward; I planned to conduct and the remaining teacher planned to teach as scheduled. When we arrived, another woman who'd been a counselor in the branch RS presidency said she'd been asked to conduct/handle RS. Patsy and I gladly stood down, but that would have been nice to know!

So far, it's the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing--and not in a good way. I won't be there next Sunday, so I hope they'll have things better organized in a couple of weeks.