My experience growing up the the UMC in southern Illinois was a positive one. We had a wonderful community. People I knew there fifty years ago, I still count as friends. But as I grew older and saw the alternatives in the UMC as either social-Gospel liberalism or a kind of saccharine evangelicalism, I had to move on, too. My father remained in the UMC until his recent death. His funeral was traditional and uplifting and the people of his church were very kind and supportive. There are still a lot of good people there. Nearly thirty years ago I converted to the Orthodox Church, and have had nearly no contacts with Methodism or other Protestantism since then, so now it seems kind of alien to me. I have changed, but Protestantism has changed some too. Gone is a more traditional order of worship, which I liked, and the old hymns have been replaced by more contemporary music. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but they just aren’t my cup of tea.
Your photo is of a Good Shepherd window. That is very common in older Methodist churches. My grandparents attended what had been a German Methodist Church in Ellis Grove, IL. They had a nice one there.
Oh my, my mind draws a blank about my father's funeral. He remarried a Catholic widow but didn't go to mass. I only remember a couple things about his burial, guess I was in kind of shock.
Yes, I miss the more traditional liturgy, and there was a wonderful choir. Now I don't know what it is, more of a social outreach. A good friend has faithfully attended every Sunday after she lost her husband to leukemia many years ago.
Two of my closest friends (one a Presbyterian) one a Methodist. Shortly before the latter died, she worked in a big funeral home and was very good with people. Anyway, I asked her what about her faith we had as children? She was into reincarnation and don't know what else. her father was a Freemason as was my Presbyterian friend's.
I wouldn't have thought I could ever become religious, but I take it very seriously.