Time for a new church?

Well it all came to a head this Sunday.

Mrs could bear to come to church only to sit out and watch her work destroyed, neither was she going to put her child in the care of those who were destroying it.

I had to go - i was on warden duty. I had debated with myself for most of a sleepless night as to whetehr I should go in at all. I felt taht if I were to come into a confrontain with certain individuals I might thump them. Or strangle them. Or both. Neither being ideal behaviour in a deputy warden of the church towards members of the congregation while on duty. So I was going to stay at home. But that would have meant ringing up one of the other deputy wardens very early in the morning and asking them to stand in. Not fair. And I felt the Lord prompt me to go in.

It was galling. I did have to provide keys to the main offender so that he could continue with his act of destruction. I had to watch while his nepotistically involved family strutted about relishing their victory. I noticed taht some of the things they were doing were things that the assitant minister had promised my wife they would not do.

I could take it no longer, and called the assistant minister out of the servoce to ask what was going on. She tried to assure me taht all was OK, that my wife was loved, they did want her to come back and be part of the team but...[the truth slips out]... just not in control. There we had it. Proof that my wife had in effect been sacked, but nobody had told her, nobody had explained why, nobody had tried to find a better way forward.

My following behaviour was indeed unbecoming of a deputy warden on duty, shouting at the assistant minister repeatedly in the church foyer "Everything they are doing is sh**tting on her head". I had lost it. It was time to leave the building rather than make more of a scene. I grabbed my coat, asked the assitant minister to tell the senior warden that someone needed to take over my duty, and walked out, thrusting away her attempted hug.

At home I said to my wife - "Everything you have been saying, confirmed, in every detail".

That afternoon we wrote our letter to the church resigning our memebrship and my various posts and sent it in with our kids - who will stay at the church - on their way to the evening service.

It is done.

Of course anxious Vicar came knocking at the door half an hour later. Trying to pursuade us not to go. He loves me and all the stuff I do in the church. Fine, but I am not alone, I am part of a couple, and he has not loved her or the stuff she does in the church.

Eventually, to get him out of the house, I agreed to a meeting in January once tempers have cooled. BUt I really can't see that he will have any success in finding a deal taht will satisfy my wife that she is loved, and her work valued, when the evidence is otherwise.

So now we have a strange sense of relief. It's done!

BUt it's annoying taht we still have this meeting in January, and can't really tell people until after that.