The Brussels Post, 1976-07-28, Page 211111TAILISHEO
1172
Brussels POst.
BRUSSELS
ONTARIO
Amen
by Karl Schuessler
Don't Drop-
Your Wife Off!
Take a lesson. Don't drop your wife off at
church and then drive away. YoLere far better
off to park and gc inside.
Now preachers have been telling us that for
years. With the assumption, of course; you
need the Good Word as much as 'she does.
But this wasn't Sunday. This was Saturday.
No collection plate passing there. But that
didn't mean I wasn't going to part with some
money.
Because you can never count on what your
wife's going to do at one of those church
auctions. About the only thing you can depend
on is you're going to count out your money.
I suspected this, but not all that much.
Because what's left in an old and sold church?
But scratched chairs, pews, outdated Sunday
Schoolleaflets and worn-through hymn books?
And we've got plenty of these hanging around
in our place.
When I left her off at the church, there was
not a soul in sight at those country crosSroug
only this red brick church that made up
practically everything of the village called
Moncrieff.
How can a woman go wrong Among the
relics and left-avers of a chitreh past prime?
When not enough money or members can
make a go. of it?
I should have known. My wife seemed extra
Willing to wait the two hours before the sale
began. Why she even packed a lunch and
brought along her sewing. What better way to
wait in the basement and put \a few stitches in
her quilt top she was making? The good
United Church ladies had probably put many a
needle to quilts there in the basement.
But she did more than eat and sew in thOse
two hours. She had time to roam among the
pews. Sit On them. Try them out. To run her
hands over the turned posts on the pine pulpit
and decide they don't make those kind any
more. To feel the smooth finish en the
communion table and notice the trefoils
etched in the wood and. the words 'spelled out
"In remembrance of me."
She had time enough to fall promptly in love
with every piece of furniture in the place.
I figure those two hours of wait cost me at
least $115.. each.
'She told me it Could have been worse. She
was all gung-ho on the pulpit. She tettered
back and forth with another b id der way up to
$160.00.
For a pulpit? To pit in our house? This
woman's got a fever. Arid I wasn't there to
cool her down. I'm sure glad the other fellow's
fever was worse.
And just to show how bad the fever was, the
auctioneer told the crowd a story. Not, of
course, until he sold the pulpit for $165. He
said at the last church auction sale, the pulpit
sold for a dollar. Actually it was $1,50, but the
lucky new owner insisted he only bid a dollar. ,
He said the auction clerk recorded it Wrong.
So the auctioneer pulled fifty cents out of his
pocket,tci make for pulpit peace,
If we missed out on that pulpit, we scored
With one communiontable and one clergy
chair. My wife insists it's a clergy chair, But
actually it'S, a short pew - rootri enough for
two, A loVe seat, if you will,
And another love seat isdust what we riddd,
Same with a pe.W. We oWn four ldVe seats
already. And three pews But these are
Baptist
Unitedfellowship.
pews: rp sure they could use a little
Besides, clergy pews are fie'diat. This one
took its piade for years right next to the pulpit
on the Altai. fiont. It housed the laps and seats
Of many a preacher
That Makes this one Very Special and SO
does the pride,
ADC Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $6.00 a year. Others
$8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each.
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association
On Tolerance
Much anti-Semitism through the centuries has
been a Christian perversion, and Christians cannot
now sweep this under history's carpet, for it has
been carefully documented by both Christian and
c',y,ish scholars. But 'today the main .thrust of
[ristianity resists and opposes anti-Semitism.
There is still some anti-Semitic sentiment within
Christendom, but the most Significant stance today
of Christians toward Jews is one of respect and
concern that Jews be accorded justice.
. The Second Vatican Council brought important
changes in Roman Catholic official attitudes toward
the Jews. And when the World Council of Churches
(an association of most of the non-Roman Catholic
Churches) was constituted at Amsterdam in1948 this
resolution was adopted: "We call upOn all the
churches we represent to denouce anti-Semitism, no
matter what its origin, as absolutely irreconcilable
with the profession and practice of the Christian
faith. Anti-Semitism is sin against God and man."
There is, of course, much that divides Judaism and
Christianity. It would be sentimental- foolishness to
deny that. And today there is much misunderstand-
ing, and an alarming amount of sheer perversity, in
both camps over some of the Implications of Zionist
'Concern for the integrity of the State of Israel. This
tends to sour relations between some Jews and some
'Christiaps. But we must never forget that there is
much, grounded in the biblical understandings of
human life and destiny and of moral reality, that
unites Jews and Christians - and it is sentimental
sinfulness not to recognize that.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran
theologian who was hanged by the Gestapo at the
end of the Second World War because of his
opposition to Naziism, said this when Hitler was
beginning his persecution of the 'Jews: "If the
synagogues burn today, the churches will be on fire
tomorrow." Bonhoeffer's concern was not for
religious institutitons -as such, but for what they
represent and preserve and express. Surely
Christians should stand shoulder-to-shoulder 'with
their Jewish brothers and sisters whenever the fires
of anti-Semitism begin to burn.
(The United Church)
Abandoned truck dn
evi
dry
a RR
pc 8(1 6
ig AP sAv s's
110100) yoi.o2
A ne cfiRE
moffis ovis Rneo
Tit(
of Pr
will h
4 at t
nasiu
the
systel
The
the
mark(
Comr
subm
merit;
inter(
The
series
out th
ecotr
gover
The
refort
dents
of pr4
basis I
be ri
residd
land.
levyin
di Add
Dial I
Sh
(d
There
garner,
ball fa
from pi
Ognstl