My History

On Sunday I was in a small group after church speaking about our histories and some of the legacies we might find if we dare look. We were looking not only at our parents, but also at our grandparents and deep into our history. What does that look like?  What can we imagine from what we know of the present and the past?

I thought about my mother and her deep roots of Protestantism. As I became more Anglo-Catholic, she challenged me on many issues, but the one she disliked the most was “Intercession through the Saints.” Once we were in a small Episcopal church in Washington and she had agreed to attend church with me. That was rare. We got to the part where we mentioned the Intercession of the Saints. She looked at me with shock and said, “Oh this is so wrong.” She needed no saints in her faith, as she went directly to her personal God. And yet it seems very Biblical to intercede for others and to ask to have someone intercede for you. I understand and like the idea that perhaps Saints of all sorts are praying on behalf of all of us.

I would imagine if you went back on both sides of my family–one predominantly German and Scotch-Irish and one German and English you will find well-defined beliefs and prejudices concerning others’ beliefs. You might also find temperance – my grandmother broke radios turning them on and off while listening to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ baseball games. No Iron City or Rolling Rock beer commercials for her. And yet the seeds of alcoholism were part of the family. Perhaps temperance was an antidote to that propensity.

Most of my family landed in Pittsburgh. It is a diverse city full of varied cultures and faiths. My family eventually moved a little to the southwest of Pittsburgh toward a more agrarian area.  Going deep into the past for me–the 1700’s and 1800’s–the Lawrence part of the family (my mother’s side) were in Augusta, Virginia. This was farm country and supplied a lot of the food for Virginia. Later this would become the place of some bloody battles in the Civil War with farms, people and animals destroyed. Virginia of course was a slave state, and that gives me pause. It is much harder to trace my father’s history as we do not know who his grandfather was. A secret grows in that soil. It is said he worked for the railroad, but he never married my grandfather’s mother, so the secret remains.

This is my history. I am encouraged by the future of our family’s history. It is becoming more diverse in faith and color. We are branching out from Protestantism to Anglo-Catholicism, Catholicism, Hinduism, more liberal versions of Christianity, and Agnosticism. Would my mother say “Oh this is so wrong.” Probably, but there would be more of us to show her the love that grows in diversity and acceptance.

Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly. (Micah 6:8)