A Congregation United Through Christ

The following article is reprinted with permission of Chaparral student magazine, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL. It is taken from the Spring 2003 issue where religious leaders reflect on their calling.

The Reverend Erla Faye Boyle, Senior Pastor of the Community Congregational Church of Villa Park (United Church of Christ) slips down from the podium and begins her sermon. It illustrates the difference between Heaven and Hell.

Looking into the eyes of the congregation, she unfolds a Hasidic Parable in measured and clear words that fill the sanctuary. She is at once a grandmother and a minister and shares a moral that is inescapable as her gaze ­ we are doomed to live in Hell when we focus only on ourselves. "We can bring the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth when we act in caring ways." Returning to the dais, songs, and the benediction complete the service.

Unknowingly, I have chosen to attend on the Sunday that is their annual business meeting. As others move to the lectern, Rev. Boyle again leaves the pulpit, this time to take a seat among her community. I wonder if I can exit without being noticed as she slides into a pew in front of mine. This could be long and dry. Since no one moves to leave, I lean back and hope for the best.

Thirty-three pages long and filled with columns of numbers, the Annual Report is passed to each of us. The sheets of endless figures confirm my trepidation. Surprisingly, when the presenters speak, they lace meaningless numbers between stories and acknowledgments that warm my heart. A special award, for their "person of the year" follows remembrances of a grandmotheršs loving care.

Then it becomes clear to me, this is a family talking about what matters to them and planning how to budget its money. I begin to feel like a snoop. Uncomfortably, I continue to take note of Reverend Boyle as I prepare for this article and contemplate tomorrowšs interview with her.

From this close perspective, seated inches behind Rev. Boyle, I am able to study the silk stole she wears around the neck of her robe. A symbol of her ordination and the season, it is made of fine green silk and stitched with a tapestry of flowers and designs in muted shades of green, gold, and brown. Stylishly arranged, her hair with its tones of brown reflects the adornment of her vestment.

Seated in the midst of her community she appears pleased with the work the church has accomplished over the last year. They have come together as a group to work in fundraisers. In the process, they have connected with each other as partners with a shared vision.

Reverend Boyle had not started out to head her own church. Graduating from Elmhurst College in 1964 with a B.A. in Christian Education, she would become a Church Education Director. But even that goal would have to wait as she cared for her own children who arrived shortly after graduation.

Weaving her career between home and family, like so many women, Rev. Boylešs resume resembles a colorful patchwork quilt. Working retail, real estate, and even conducting water surveys for the government, she made ends meet during the lean years. Elmhurst Congregational Church was looking for a part-time Christian Education director in 1977 and this allowed Reverend Boyle to work in her chosen field while caring for family.

"I went to seminary on Christmas cookies," Rev. Boyle says about entering Bethany Seminary in 1980. "The ladies from the Elmhurst Congregational Church did a major fund raising event each Christmas and that paid my seminary tuition. I think of that with humility every time I see Christmas cookies. When I graduated, the cookie bakers felt they were graduating with me. It was a team effort of sorts."

But, in the early 80šs her marriage ended and that increased her financial burdens. The divorce is a tender topic and not one she speaks about easily.

"The choice to be a minister wasnšt a mountain top experience," she says sitting in her caringly decorated office. The walls, adorned with her needlework and gifts from others given in appreciation of meaningful moments, add to this homey atmosphere. A painting of a road that leads to an unknown destination is a favorite because she feels it speaks to the mysteries of life.

Surrounded by comfortable seating a coffee table holds a copy of A Testament of Hope: Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. Stacked with papers and angled in the corner of the room her desk completes this cozy space.

"I began at Bethany Seminary because I wanted to know more about the Bible and to be better equipped for the role of Christian Education Director at Elmhurst Congregational. I thought I would take a course or two. The more courses I took the more I felt this was the place I was supposed to be. Every time I thought I had to quit, each time for financial reasons, something always happened at zero hour to keep me there." Maybe it is a coincidence, maybe not," she says with a smile.

Her mother had stitched the importance of the church into the fabric of Reverend Boylešs life. "My mother was always the first one to offer a meal when it was needed by someone in our congregation," recalled Rev. Boyle. A childhood that included never missing a Sunday service, church was where she learned about community and caring for others. This helped to shape the person she became. Ministry was a natural choice.

Being a minister also gave her the opportunity to function in the variety of roles she enjoys. This career calls for her to be a CEO of a "small company," a counselor, an administrator, and an educator. What touches her most is ministering to people as they move through rites of passage. Births, weddings, and deaths are when the congregation members face the larger questions of their lives. Her voice softens a bit, as she talks about being with the dying: "It is incredible to take that walk with someone."

This is something she has obviously done many times over the past sixteen years, enough times to know she needs to recharge from time to time. Grandchildren who "take me to happy places" and solace that can be found at church camp or by spending time in nature are the first examples that come to her mind.

But then with sparkling eyes and a return of energy to her words she says, "I enjoy quilting. You really canšt think of anything else when you are trying to keep those little seams straight."

Those little stitches comfort her as she finds her way through the intricacies of her own spiritual journey, a trek that started in her childhood while attending a nondenominational church in Park Ridge. Its theological compatibility with the United Church of Christ along with its emphasis on "thinking for yourself" helped her make an easy transition to the UCC as an adult.

Discovering your own beliefs is highly valued in the United Church of Christ. Congregational, Christian, Evangelical, and Reformed Churches came together in 1957 to create the United Church of Christ. Forming one denomination from four meant searching for the common threads that join them.

The Denomination's web site says they "take seriously the calling of Christians to oneness in Christ and participate actively in the contemporary ecumenical movement." Their mission is to find unifying principles that unite all Christians.

Then Reverend Boyle said something I was unaware of in all my many years of attending various churches. "We are not a creed based church. We do not have a 'test of faith.' We have a 'statement of faith.' Most churches have at their core a creed that members recite and attest to as a shared set of truths. Belief that differs is not something that every church celebrates.

Turning to the Scriptures does not insure a unity of thought as Rev. Stephen C. Gray, a minister of the UCC Indiana-Kentucky Conference, points out in a recent article. "(The Bible) is not an ethical cookbook but a story of faith - a story that provides us with ethical principles that each generation must apply to the context in which it lives."

But, shared beliefs do hold churches together. How does this theological jousting translate at the local level? Reverend Boyle says, "I think God has to laugh and cry at what we do in the name of religion, probably cry. We have to let go of the things that separate us. We donšt live in that kind of world anymore; wešre in this together."

Reverend Boyle pauses to emphasize the importance of what she is about to say: "Our members believe in God. We are all trying to do the best we can to figure out what that means in living out our day. The church provides a place to come together to explore that, to be nurtured, and to be sent out to try to live that way. We allow each other to have our faith in our own way."

Choices that bind a church or a denomination are like little stitches in a garment. While they are not always visible, they are always important to its integrity. Reverend Boyle works with her congregation to make choices that reach out to each other, so that people, like the cookie bakers, can see that a simple act has a profound impact.