Dear Communitarians:
Yesterday was the first Endless SummerFest “All Together Under The Son” worship service since pandemic guidelines cancelled the event in 2020, and then again in 2021. In 2022 the festival returned, but a massive shortage of event personnel made logistics for the worship service impractical. This year the Ministerium of Greater La Grange started preparing earlier, and after agreeing to cover additional stage and security costs through contributions from some of our churches, we returned for the celebration.
Our first Endless SummerFest worship celebration in 2016 was organized by Steve Palmer, who considered the weekend festival to be his baby and envisioned a Sunday ecumenical gathering as part of the event lineup. Steve contacted members of the Ministerium of Greater La Grange to coordinate a service that would bring together congregations from throughout our community. The faith gatherings from 2016-2019 were marked by oppressive heat and sun-in-the-squinting-eyes of attendees whose number consistently underwhelmed expectations. We, the planners, blamed poor turnout on the weather—who wants to swelter in the August sun? So, this year we prayed for cool temperatures and moderate cloud cover; obviously, our prayers overcorrected.
I love multi-congregational gatherings. While in Peotone I organized an annual ecumenical worship service for Sundays during the Will County Fair, and to my knowledge, while the Presbyterian Church merged with their sister congregation in Manteno, the annual worship service continues. I also assisted in creating several ecumenical gatherings on Chicago’s South Side with participation from over fifteen congregations, although attendance was usually less than 40. It was at one of these worship planning meetings that Rev. Leon Rosenthal (ELCA) observed, “The problem with ecumenism is that it takes too much damn time for such lame turnout.” Thirty years later, I am beginning to understand his cynicism.
I now think of interfaith gatherings like public libraries: they’re expensive, they’re labor-intensive, they’re vigorously defended by a large portion of the community, and almost everyone wants a good one in their neighborhood, but only a few actually use them. Marketing, too, is a problem. Banners, flyers, announcements, community-buzz all you want, and people will compassionately nod and even defend your existence, but try as you might, the new exhibit or worshipallooza draws but a handful. Meanwhile, Evil Burrito had many times more enthusiastic fans in attendance. Our service participation matched a ‘Thomas Mann’s Influence on 20th Century Literature’ reading group. Also, as with libraries, there are ecumenical detractors; these are largely conservative groups that distrust diversity and think the free exchange of ideas is a near-satanic influence on the children. God forbid a good Independent Baptist find something to admire from a Baha’i prayer, or a novel about gender nonconformity for that matter.
So, we’ll try again next year. Praying for both cool and dry weather, we’ll sweat the details of the music and sermons, coordinate logistics with the park district, make sure bulletins and song sheets are copied (thank you Jen) and wait for the massive crowd that never quite appears. I wonder if the library has a good book on planning ecumenical events.
Working for the public good, I remain,
With love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor