Or not.

An interesting, but odd little piece in a Chicago-area paper about an ecumenical service with an underwhelming turnout

It  was deja vu all over again for the Forest Park Ministerium at the Ecumenical Healing Service held at St. Bernardine Catholic Church on July 23. Including the choir and the clergy, only 20 people showed up.

The same thing happened at the Community Thanksgiving Eve service last November. In both cases, bad weather could be blamed, at least in part. The Thanksgiving service happened in the middle of a blizzard, while the temperature when the healing service began was in the mid-nineties.

Near the end of the column the author makes, I think, an astute observation: 30 or 40 years ago, ecumenical services were big deals, unprecedented and radical. Not so any more. It’s a different world.

But also, in regard to this particular service…it’s not as if there was an obvious need. Ecumenical services related to specific crisis would still draw, I’d think. But…come to pray for/about healing on a Saturday afternoon in July? Sometimes church people make themselves such nice bubbles to live in.