Apparently when we were not looking, we became the kind of couple who end up at the church three days in a row with the baby in tow.
Friday night, the young adults group had a potluck and we made jam. I made jam! This was a first for me! It's freezer jam, fairly straightforward stuff. I feel more confident for having done it. And then Saturday was the first, exploratory meeting of a possible church D&D group. (Considering I got asked not to return to Sunday School over a presentation on the evils of D&D once, I'm quite pleased to be going to a church that has a D&D group forming.)
Today we went to the Sunday service. This was actually the first time we saw the minister of the church - the first time we were attending, he was on a year-long sabbatical, and when we started back again this summer he was on a study break/vacation. Instead of a sermon, the reverend had an open question format - basically it was an AMA. My question was something I'd been wondering based on the experience of the UU church I've had so far - whether there's a place for ecstatic religion in the UU experience.
When he read the question, there was awkward, nervous laughter from the congregation. I was not particularly surprised by that. I was impressed by his answer, which had a large component of explaining ecstatic religion to the congregation as a whole. I don't expect the average Sunday service to be... you know, transformative. I have my spirituality at home and that's fine.
What I'm looking for is the community, the structure, the religion instead of the spirituality. I just don't know how I'll feel long-term about a church where my religious experience is looked at askance. I did like his answer, though, and I'm willing to see where and how this goes.
I can almost see the continuity between this and the household work I'm doing for Mara. This is a kind of hearthwork too - building friendships, relationships, support structures. Making sure we have the function in place now in case we need it later. Building is important no matter how we do it.