#Church usher serve god how to#

So, I met Bill my first Sunday at Grace and began mornings with Bill all the Sundays thereafter until he could no longer do so. And it was he who brought the kids to church and he who would take over his wife’s usher duties and continue in that capacity long after she and the kids stopped coming. He cooked for them, put them to bed, woke them, and took them to school.īill also married into his wife’s church – Grace Episcopal. She loved him because it was Bill, her stepfather, who really raised and cared for her and her brother. She loved him not just because he loved her and her brother so much – but because he never faltered in his love for her mother who struggled through decades of alcohol addiction. My friend Debbie was technically his stepdaughter, but she loved him and doted on him all his life too. And he became a “real’ member of the community by marrying a hometown “girl” upon whom he doted until her death. And Bill and his partner drove the piles that anchored many of the piers and marinas in the area. Beginning after the Civil Warm, the island had become a boating center with commercial yacht and boat yards.

While not, strictly speaking, a clam digger, but he was an integral part of the island and its history. And those who were not the mussel-suckers. This is evidenced by the fact that they have names for those who were born and raised on the island the clam-diggers. City Island is all about belonging – about who knows who and who is welcome and who is not. And according to the local folks not all of that population actually belongs there. While New York City has over 8.6 million people, City Island’s population is under five thousand. And City Island was all about small talk.Ī tiny island in the middle of the Long Island Sound which measures just a mile long and at, its widest point, four city blocks wide, City Island is more reminiscent of a New England fishing village rather than a part of NYC and the Bronx where it is situated.

#Church usher serve god how to#

And it wasn’t because he didn’t love the church, he just didn’t do know how to make coffee hour chat - which was odd because he was such a beloved part of the City Island community. In fact, after tidying up the pews at the end of service, he immediately left church to walk home. But while Bill wished folks a mean good morning, he almost never said anything else. Sometimes we think of ushers as being particular kind of person – an extrovert-a person with a gift for gab. He welcomed each and every person with a big smile and when he wished you a good morning-you knew he meant it and he would care if you weren’t having one. He certainly was more than just the guy who handed you the program. And the ushers were probably also the ones who first welcomed us and who let us know that there is, indeed, a place for us here at Epiphany.Ī couple of weeks ago, I got a note from an old friend and parishioner, Debbie, which got me thinking ushers because her father, William, was an usher at Grace Church City Island for over thirty years. Our ushers were probably the first faces we saw when we first came to Epiphany. But, in my experience they are much more important than we realize. We sometimes think of ushers just as the folks who hand us our bulletins. As you walked in this morning, you probably walked by members of Epiphany who serve as ushers.