Reply to If you were a regular church-goer before the pandemic, how do you feel about returning to church?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here -- Thanks for your willingness to engage in this discussion.  My reluctance to return to church services isn't COVID-related, either in the sense of fears of a renewed pandemic or anxiety about interacting with large groups of people indoors.  In the past couple of months I've traveled by plane, attended two large events with indoor components, participated in smaller meetings indoors, etc. (I've been vaccinated as have been all my family members.)  So, I don't anticipate any discomfort about attending church; I just don't feel that large services with their rituals and sermons will hold the same meaning for me as they once did.  When the pandemic began, I thought I'd miss those long-comforting rituals, but that hasn't been so.  Instead, I've found that prayer, stillness, and meditation have fed my soul.  As an earlier poster mentioned, a smaller contemplative service might be what I'm looking for now, but, the performance aspects of church (processional, music, sermon) are not compelling to me at this time.  For a couple of months now I've been doing an outdoors house church service with friends, which has been lovely and centering.  I'm hoping to continue with that.      [/quote]

You sound somewhat "Spiritual but not religious" which was brought out by the pandemic.

[b]As an atheist, the performance aspects of church are all that I like, so I missed Christmas and Easter and look forward to them next year.[/b]
[/quote]

That's hilarious.  Actually, when I started going to church regularly as an adult -- and parent -- about 20 years ago, I adored that stuff -- really just ate it up.  It's like I went from being a "none" (not a nun :)) to being "religious" in the most traditional sense to being "spiritual" with a strong affinity for service to others.  I don't think that's where our old church is really focused at this time, so I'm probably looking for a new church, possibly even Unitarian.      [/quote]

Unitarians welcome all kinds of people, and don't ask you to believe in God or to follow religious dogma. but you're looking for a group of people who think or believe just like you do, Unitarian probably won't work.[/quote]

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