My first memory of church was as a child, of laying down in a pew to draw on a piece of paper. This kept me occupied and quiet while my parents were involved with the service. Next, after the services concluded was the fun. The social hour, an enjoyment of food, talking, and laughter. I often felt this was almost as important as the service, the friendly social interaction of the people.
A learning of the church service, involved Holy Communion. The minister blessed the bread and wine. Then the people lined up to partake. An important part of this process was each person’s perception. The bread and wine, in being blessed had become the body and blood of Christ. Or, the bread and wine, being blessed, had become symbolic of the body and blood of Christ. Or, an individual was partaking of bread and wine as a part of their participating in communion with the congregation.
The learning, was the individual freedom of thinking. The thinking of the freedom of choice. The freedom of each person in the thinking of being their own.
The church was called The Protestant Episcopal Church in The United States of America. It was formed around 1787. With the revolution over, we separated from England politically and religiously. The purpose of the interpretation of the Holy Communion was to create, freedom of thought.
We were no longer ruled, told what to think and do politically and religiously. We were free. The beginning of the freedom of each person to think and become their own, the beginning of the freedom of self.
My learning to think began at home and from attending church. A learning of the responsibility of self, to learn. A not always easy process, of deciding for myself what is correct. This became especially true as I became older and involved in my thought process of thinking and writing.
For example, when I wrote, What is the value of truth? I couldn't answer the question. At the time, this meant another problem, in addition to the problems I was already experiencing. I needed to think. I decided to withdraw from society.
Seven years later I wrote, the value, use, and seeking of truth has a relationship with freedom. I had the answer and direction I needed. I returned to society. At church, I mainly sat and watched.
When previously attending church, Holy Communion was the first Sunday of the month. That was gone. Replacing it was the Eucharist every Sunday. The freedom of thinking was gone too. Now it was correct thinking, being told.
This change in thinking was between freedom and control. I wrote of it in: The Symbol.
The change limited my involvement with Christianity. I became more involved with the learning of Judaism. My ideas of a person becoming their own and the freedom of self developed. That each person has the freedom to think and decide, to choose their responsibility in becoming their own.
If I want myself and my life to be what is good and true, of being my own, then I have to live my life within the limits of what is good and true, the ideas and responsibility of self.
© Ernest G Jackson 2024 All Rights Reserved | 549 Words.
Copyright © Ernest G. Jackson 2025 All Rights reserved - All Rights Reserved.
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