John Holme's Spiritual Journey

I am a Christian.  You can throw me out if you want.  I know Unitarian-Universalists are supposed to be atheists or something, but that’s not true.  I‘ve heard quite a bit of talk about God since I’ve been around this church.

One of my grandfathers was a Methodist minister.  When my mother was a girl, the church required their family to move to a new parish every two years, which was very hard on my Mom.  Finally, her grandfather rescued her & sent her to private school, but she never renewed a formal connection with the church.

After my grandfather’s death, our family moved to Pleasantville, NY about 30 miles north of New York City, where my grandfather had his last church and where my grandmother still lived.  My sister and I started to go to my grandfather’s former Methodist church because a lot of our friends went there. I joined the junior choir and stayed in the church through high school.

When I was in law school, I attended the Presbyterian church in town because I liked the sermons which the young pastor gave. 

Diane & I have been married 55 years.  We were married in a United Church of Christ church in Reading, PA three days after I finished the bar exam and we moved to Rochester, NY. I love Diane very much. We have two children: Chris, whom many of you have met, along with his wife Manaslu, and Jennifer, who lives in Cincinnati with her three children.  Chris has a son, Franklin, who is married and living in Boston.   I believe that God has blessed me with such a wonderful wife and family.

In Rochester we joined a big Presbyterian church.  I served on boards and committees in that church.  In 1974 we moved to Toledo and joined a UCC church.  We moved to Vermont in 1982 joined the UCC church in Springfield because people were friendly, they had good preaching and a good choir.  I served on the board of the Vermont Conference of the UCC and on many church committees.  I was a member of the choir for about 23 years until it folded due to lack of funding.

About six or seven years ago I left the Springfield church.  Membership had declined drastically and most of my friends had left the church.  I no longer felt at home there.  I went looking for a new church home and ultimately met the folks in this church.   I was introduced to the church in the  summer of 2015 by Steven and Nancy Davis at a party for people from this church at their house.  I was very warmly received and I‘ve been coming to church here ever since.  I joined the church a few weeks ago because I’d been asked to serve on the board and I needed to be a member in order to vote.

When I was in my early 30s an elderly woman told me she thought I was a seeker.  I still am a seeker.   I think many of the people who go to church here are seekers like me.  When Kevin Carson formed a discussion group about the miracles of Jesus, a lot of people showed up.  Two weeks ago Buffy read us a sermon by Dr. Ford on Buddhism.  We have had sermons from Howard Davis in which he told us about The Autobiography of a Yogi.    If a Muslim came to speak here, I’m sure many people would attend.

 I heard a lot about Unitarian-Universalism from Kevin, but I haven’t retained much of it.  I still can’t tell you the difference between a Universalist and a Unitarian.

  My spiritual journey continues.  The week before Christmas I participated in two one hour Bible study sessions in one day.   Diane has been working with a group of folks from four UCC churches in the area.  She showed me a video of a Christmas Eve sermon that had been recorded by the pastor of the Bellows Falls church.  It was so powerful that I decided to join Diane and the pastor in the next two Bible study sessions on Zoom. I plan to continue to meet with them once a week.

The one thing I believe as a Christian is that we should love one another as we love ourselves.  The rest is doubt, including doubts about the virgin birth of Christ and the resurrection.

My sister in law, an active member of the Brewster UU church on Cape Cod, has a sign in her living room that says “Proceed as the Way Opens”.  That’s where I am now.  God willing, I will continue to proceed with you.  In the words of Dickens’ character Tiny Tim, “God bless us every one.”