Muriel is from Gaelic folk in the Scottish Highlands—a place of strong accents, coastal waters, peat bogs, whiskey, and reels. Her childhood unfolded in the differing parsonages where her father preached. What remained constant was her conservative faith community.
“I was brought up with stark either-or concepts,” Muriel reflects. “You’re either in or you’re out… you’re a Christian, or you’re going to hell. But over time, I became interested in other ways of thinking about Christianity and was not always so convinced with what was being said in the conservative church.”
When she and her husband moved to Sebastopol, they weren’t looking for anything in particular, they weren’t even searching. “We kept passing Community Church. So, one day we just decided to go.” What they discovered was a community more liberal than what they were accustomed to, but one that offered exactly what they needed.
Over the next 40 years, Community Church became a weekly anchor for Muriel’s life that still holds strong today. She credits the ritual of Sunday worship, the educational faith formation hours, the women’s groups, and the deep fellowship she finds there with keeping her life on track and even helping her age more gracefully.
“Most of all, I appreciate that the values of the gospel are continued to be spoken of as the main points of our life,” Muriel shares. “If I’m going to follow those footsteps, I want to hear about them, because it’s not easy to be a real Christian. I mean, sacrificial love, give me a break. That’s hard, really hard. I need the encouragement and the depth of the ministry to help me do it.”
Today, Muriel finds herself embracing a more inclusive understanding of faith. “Just the other day,” she said, “it was almost like I heard God saying to me, ‘Yes, Muriel, it takes all kinds. And that’s the way it’s been set up.’”
After decades of church attendance, her faith remains fresh and growing. “Even at 80 years, I got something new just this past Easter,” she shares, describing how Christ’s words to “forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing” suddenly took on new meaning, transforming her attitude toward others in all areas of life.
Once constrained by rigid spiritual boundaries, Muriel now describes herself poetically as being “from Holy grace”– a woman whose faith embraces complexity, whose heart remains open to new understandings, and whose spiritual home at Community Church continues to nourish her growing faith.
Your generosity to Community Church makes it possible for us to surround community members like Muriel with meaningful worship, faith formation, and fellowship. Thank you for being a part of this ministry we all share.
Written by: Linda Basso