Overview:
The Athol Congregational Church's Sunday service emphasized the importance of acceptance and understanding towards all groups of people, including the LGBTQ+ community. Rev. Candi Ashenden spoke of the need to break down the "impenetrable walls" of judgments, anger, fears, assumptions, politics, and stereotypes that cause misunderstanding.
ATHOL – The message of Sunday’s service at Athol Congregational Church was that of acceptance – acceptance not only of the LGBTQ+ community, but of any group of people who may be misunderstood.
Rev. Candi Ashenden said misunderstanding among people is the result of “the kinds of impenetrable walls that we all build each time we hold onto our judgments, our anger, our fears, our assumptions, our politics and our stereotypes.”
Five members of the congregation spoke of the frustrations felt by several groups of people who may often be misunderstood.
Audrey Elwood, a junior at Mahar Regional High School, represented young adults; Dave Brobeck, working people; Jenna Sujdak, Christians and members of the LGBTQ+ community; Rebecca Bialecki, people living with disabilities; and Therese Carter, grandparents.
“Sometimes people assume my generation wants everything extreme,” said Elwood. “Extreme opinions. Extreme certainty. Extreme reactions. But honestly, a lot of us are just tired.”
Tired, she said, of manufactured outrage on social media and being “told we have to pick a side before we’re even allowed to ask questions. What draws me to Jesus isn’t ideology; it’s compassion. Jesus noticed people, fed people, touched people nobody else wanted to touch. That kind of faith still matters.”
“I’ve learned something working with the land,” Brobeck said. “Anything pushed too far stops growing healthy. Too much rain drowns the roots. Too much sun burns the crop. Too much wind tears things apart. Balance matters. These days everybody seems to be pulling hard toward one extreme or another. The church ought to be one of the few places left where people can breathe. Jesus never said, ‘Blessed are the loudest.’ He said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ That still sounds like wisdom to me.”
Sujdak told the congregation, “There were years I assumed I had to choose between being fully myself and being welcomed in church. A lot of people know that feeling – not just LGBTQ+ people. I carry deep gratitude for communities that choose welcome over fear. But I also know that healing doesn’t happen through shaming people into agreement. I can feel the difference between debate and compassion. I can feel the difference between tolerance and genuine care.”
Differences between people, she said, shouldn’t be allowed to “erase our shared humanity.”
Bialecki, who chose not to seek reelection to the Selectboard this year due to health issues said, “I live with a condition that most people can’t see. Living with a disability has taught me something about belonging. People often assume inclusion is about being invited in, but sometimes inclusion is about being understood once you’re already there. Every one of us, sooner or later, will need someone else’s kindness. And perhaps that is one of the deepest truths of all: We belong to one another.”
“I grew up in a time when people mostly stayed quiet about difficult things,” Carter began.” You didn’t talk much about politics. You didn’t talk much about feelings, either. And you certainly didn’t talk openly about sexuality or identity. Some of that quietness protected peace. Some of it protected fear. I believe we are losing something as a culture when every disagreement becomes a battle and every conversation becomes a test of loyalty. At my age, I no longer need to win arguments. I would rather help heal the world my grandchildren are inheriting.”
Following the speakers, Ashenden spoke of the need for people to walk what she called “the narrow way.”
“I wonder if, in our time, that narrow way, that narrow road, may actually be the middle road,” she said. “Not the middle road of apathy. Not the middle road of ‘anything goes.’ Not the middle road of moral silence, but the difficult spiritual path of refusing extremism in every form.
“As people of faith, our calling is not to mirror the hostility of the culture around us; our calling is to model another way. A holier way,” she added. “The church should be one of the last remaining places where people learn how to disagree without hatred, how to listen without fear, how to stand firmly without condemning, and how to welcome without surrendering kindness or conscience.”