Why this blog....

Four or so years ago I found myself running the Christmas Pageant at our small, rural Episcopal Church, located in Northwest Connecticut, Trinity Lime Rock. The fact that I was running the pageant was largely happenstance: I had been photographing it for a couple of years for the parish website, and when the previous pageant director moved along, I was the logical person to attempt to pick up the pieces and continue the pageant tradition. At least I knew all the kids by name; likely I was the only person in the church who did.

The most obvious thing I noticed is that we had about 25 kids in the pageant, and maybe a fifth that many regular attendees in the Sunday School. But, praise God, I did not get saddled with the Sunday School in addition to the pageant, so for the most part I put that uncomfortable fact out of my mind. Lousy Sunday School attendance was NOT my problem; it was somebody else's.

When the next summer came around, I noticed that even these "faithful five" gradually disappeared. A couple showed up for church the first Sunday after Sunday School had stopped for the summer, but they didn't make that mistake again.

That winter I ran the pageant again. Once more, about 25 kids in the pageant, versus five in the Sunday School. Again, come summer, even those kids vanished.

At the same time, we were deliberating in the parish about what use we should be making of our "Trinity Field". This was a flat, well-drained former hayfield and former (like in the 1890s) bicycle racetrack, located right behind the church. The church had sagely acquired it a decade before, and aside from providing overflow parking for Lime Rock Park, across the street from the church, had made little use of it.

When late spring 2005 rolled around, one of the kids (who had been Virgin Mary in the Pageant the past Christmas, and who was one of the few regular Sunday School attendees) told me during parish coffee hour that she really loved soccer, and she wished we could play it at church. Courtney, thank you for that insight.

Within a few hours of that remark a thought occurred to me. Yes, I know that thoughts are supposed to occur instantaneously, but this one did not. It took a little while.

Here it was: we could have the Sunday School play soccer during the summer instead of scattering. After all, we had a field, and we had at least one motivated kid, and even though my soccer experience dated back more than 50 years at least I had some -- so all we really needed was a soccer ball -- and the permission of the Rector to do such an unorthodox thing as have Summer Sunday School Soccer.

I'll post this and continue the chronology in the next post.