Ambassadors Visit Resurrection, Horsham
Redeemer’s Ambassadors visited our 46th SEPA congregation this morning with a visit to a small church sitting in a big field in this Philadelphia suburb. Here is Resurrection, Horsham’s web site url, which is a rather odd url—not one anyone could guess!
The sanctuary is quite small but well-appointed with cushioned pews and modern stained glass windows. There were something shy of 40 present for worship on this summer day.
Pastor Ellen Meissgeier was vacationing with Rev. Sarah (Sara?) Beaumont leading the service. The name was not listed in the bulletin, but we asked her name on the way out. Their organist is Jeff McDonnell.
The service used the newest ELCA hymnal. Unaccustomed to hymnals, we noticed how heavy these are! The service used many hymn selections. Redeemer also uses a lot of hymns — at least eight each week. However, we use many different hymnals on a typical Sunday.
The organist likes to modulate a half-pitch for the last three verses on many of the hymns.
Pastor Beaumont’s sermon was about the walls we put up to separate ourselves from others. She talked about the “they” — anyone different or set apart for some reason. And there we sat — the “they” of SEPA — excommunicated because we dared to stand up for our church.
A lay person assisted with readings and communion, which is a weekly event at Resurrection.
We noticed no children present in worship, which we are finding to be quite common in our visits. Redeemer was busy with children representing a full age-range —infants through high school. The children who were in high school when this conflict began are now graduated from college. The elementary-aged children are in middle school or entering high school. This conflict is probably the hardest on them, as they will remember being locked out of their church all of their lives.
We were invited to coffee but we did not stay.