- (tinieblas) wrote in repose, @ 2019-07-12 18:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | *log, mercy hunt, shiloh foster |
[Service: Mercy & Shiloh]
Who: Shiloh Father Browning and Mercy
What: Service and after
Where: The Protestant church
When: Sunday
Warnings/Rating: Jesus?
It was easier for priests, dressing for service in a new town. There weren't hard and fast rules for pastors, and Shiloh had come from a congregation where Geneva robes had long since given way to ties and suit jackets. But Repose's good Christians seemed to think themselves in a war waged constantly against the nearby Catholic church, and Shiloh found himself standing in front of the mirror in the parsonage and considering a cassock or clerical shirt. In the end, he figured he best start the way he intended to continue, and he began the worship service in a suit. The suit jacket was peeled away during his sermon, an impassioned talk about Hebrews 11:1- 4, asking: What is faith? The sermon wasn't particularly long, and the pastor stepped down from the pulpit, rolled up his sleeves, and spoke close and personably about all the ways faith lived in the small things, the cross hanging from a chain against his chest not visible. And it seemed he was deeply genuine as he spoke about placing faith in others, and that being as significant as faith placed in God. Afterwards, he stood outside the church and shook hands and spoke to the congregation one-on-one. He was easy, relaxed, and that didn't have a thing to do with the cross worn beneath his shirt. Shiloh was good at smiling wide, at being charming when he needed to be, and this was a performance. A performance, but one he didn't mind. The hands of the town's younger faithful were soft and unlined, and the mothers and fathers seemed desperate to be tended to. He already knew Repose was strange, but this seemed more like desperation than like the whimsical-seeming rumors that filtered their way into the lakehouse of his youth. This seemed like people willing to grasp at anything. Desperation had a way of obscuring inconsistencies, and Shiloh knew the town would accept Pastor Browning without question. |