Book Review: Keeping Faith at Home

By Rev. Beth Ellen Cooper

Source: Houston Chronicle

 

It has been some time since I’ve posted, on anything at all. I’m very blessed by my congregation, and I am nearing the end of a five-month sabbatical from church life. Part of that break, has also been a break from general church life, and a time for me to spend more mindful time with my own partner, and my young daughters. But during this break, I was given a copy of Seamless Faith.
 

There’s a lot of good stuff happening in the lives and worlds of the women that I have come to know through the Young Clergy Woman Project. Any one of us should rejoice that there is such depth of feeling, thinking, planning, and creativity at work in this ecumenical cohort (which is open enough to welcome the likes of a Unitarian Universalist such as myself). This particular project, though, struck me particularly, because it echoes my own questions as a mother of two young children, and a woman of a generation that no longer, necessarily, carries all of the requisite traditions and ceremonies that, say, someone of my grandmother’s day, might have. But, still. Against all the modern cultural odds, I choose to live my life as a person of faith. How do I pass that on to my children, in this age of corporate influence, competitive birthday parties, and, an expanding multicultural reality?

Enter Traci Smith.

In her book, Traci provides very accessible, down-to-earth suggestions for how a given family might incorporate their faith lives into their daily lives, expanding the one-hour-a-week of church into a shared way of life, that could create meaningful and lasting bonds. Traci goes beyond the obvious high holy days, expanding the suggestions (which seem welcoming and open to whatever revisions suit your particular family and faith best). She lovingly extrapolates her own daily moments as a mom of two young sons, offering possibilities for finding time for marking the very ordinary moments that come day-to-day. She thoughtfully expands her own experience outward, toward an imagined future of older children, marking rites of passage, like drivers’ licences. And she faithfully explores the Christian liturgical year, offering grounded, and still open ways to mark red-letter days, from Pentecost and Epiphany, to the brilliant gift of service on one’s own birthday.

As a parent, and a minister, I particularly appreciated Traci’s inclusion of a significant section on working through difficult times. It is sometimes easy to overlook the struggles of childhood-harsh words, lost friendships, dead goldfish. Traci’s section on difficult times reminds us that these are moments where, if we let ourselves, parents have a chance to impart some small thread of faith. Pets that are lost can be remembered and celebrated. Families can find a collective deep breath in the midst of chaotic current events. Meaning, and the memories of joy, can be found amongst the loss of beloved family members, or friends. I admire Traci, herself a mother of young children, for not shying away from the inevitable pain that life will bring, no matter how much we wish we could keep the small ones from it.

Perhaps what I admire most about this book, in an age of iPads, apps, reality TV, and the constant urge for quick-fixes, is that Traci devotes an entire section of her book to spiritual practices that can be cultivated, as a family. She doesn’t demand meditation, or mealtime blessings, or the nearly-impossible Lectio Divina with four-year-olds, but offers a range of suggestions and malleable possibilities from both ancient and contemporary practice. These feel like an invitation, almost a dare, in the best possible way, to share not just ideology and dogma, but real, experiential depth with your own family, however that family is comprised (Traci makes no obvious assumptions about that).

In our busy lives, it may be more important, not less, that we devote more than just that hour a week to our sense of what’s vital, important, and bigger than ourselves in the world. In Seamless Faith, I found an invitation to help my family slow down a bit, to really see one another, and the Divine, and to remember the ways in which we cherish one another, and are cherished, by the Love that surrounds us; the Love that we try to echo in creating our families in the first place.

Rev. Ellen Cooper-Davis is a Unitarian Universalist minister in The Woodlands, a suburb of Houston. She blogs regularly at Keep the Faith. The views expressed in this post are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of Interfaith Houston.