Times... They just might be changing...

I spent my entire weekend in church. Friday night I was at a wedding rehearsal to meter the lighting for the wedding I was to shoot the next day. Saturday I arrived an hour and a half before the wedding to prepare and shoot the details. As I prepared, I watched as everyone else also prepared. The wedding planner was gathering last minute items, waiting on the caterer and lighting candles. The musician arrived and was tuning her guitar. The sound guy was setting up her mic and the cake was coming in the door. The minutes passed quickly and before I knew it, the right song was playing and I knew it was time. The candles lit, the music perfect, the pastor entered and the attendants followed. The couple’s song began and they entered the church together. Hand in hand they walked down the aisle and met the pastor at the front of the church, in front of the communion table. This wasn’t my first job as a wedding photographer, but it was my first experience in the UCC Church setting.

The pastor gave the standard announcement and the couple joined hands and prayed. There were a couple of readings and a short homily. The pastor invited the wedding guests to stand and offer their support to the couple and then the couple passed their wedding rings around the church so that every individual could bless the rings in their own way. As the photographer, all of this is kind of a blur. I am not sure if I have the order of events correct and I am not even sure if there may have been another song in there somewhere. As the photographer, you get lost in the moment of the frame and lose some of the experience....

Sunday we slept in but I made my way toward the church at 12:30 for Confirmation Class. No... I am not being confirmed at 35 years old. I was actually asked to be a confirmation mentor. A thought that still gives me pause.... Me. A confirmation MENTOR?? A MENTOR FOR A TEENAGER? I was pregnant at 17, married at 18 and divorced at 20. Ten years ago I discovered my inner Lesbian and last year ran off an married a woman! Am I really fit to be anyone's mentor? Apparently at my church they think I am. I sat in the class and listened. I listened as the kids, some wiser than they should be at fourteen talked about how they haven't been welcomed at other churches because of the religious beliefs of their parents among other things. I looked around and listened to these middle and high school students talk about what they thought prayer was, what they thought worship was and what part of worship was important to them. We talked about communion and what it means to some of us and why we think it's important to each of us as individuals. We gave our reasons and my own personal reason brought me back to the wedding on Saturday...

With the couple smiling from ear to ear, I changed my lens and the pastor prepared for communion. The communion prayer was said and everyone was welcomed to the communion table. I heard the pastor say, “No matter where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” Or at least I thought I heard that, I really can’t be sure, I know I've heard it before – but at the moment when communion began – I moved to the back of the church and had one of only a handful of still moments to myself. No lens to obstruct my vision, no person making a request for a family photo, just me in the back of a church, looking at the enormous cross behind the pulpit, watching as two women were being married. Where two women were serving their friends and family communion. Where the female pastor blessed the rings and welcomed ALL to the table. Where the wedding guests came from all walks of life and all came together to celebrate the love of two people, even if those two people were of the same gender. I looked at the church, my church. I looked at the pastor, my pastor and I looked to the front of the church where my daughter and my own spouse sat and realized how unbelievably blessed I am to have found such an amazing community to be a part of.