Secular World

This is Easter weekend. Easter is a Christian holiday. The pastor I worked for in 1992 once told me that we were moving from a Christian world to a secular world. I did not believe he was right at that time. Since 1992, when I look back on the way things used to be and how they are now, I realize that he was correct.

When I was growing up, I didn’t notice that everything shut down between 1 and 3 pm on Good Friday because I lived in the rural area. Our church was small and if there was a Good Friday service it was held in the evening. When I moved to Duluth, and lived here in the “city”, I saw that indeed, everything did shut down between 1 and 3. The idea was that you went to church during that time. Almost every church had a church service during that time. Every store and every bank closed. Employers closed or let their employees leave during that time with the premise that the employees would be attending church. I worked for 7 years at a downtown bank, and all seven of those years, the whole bank closed for those three hours. It always amazed me, as a teller, how customers couldn’t seem to remember this, because they didn’t to do their business before 1 pm, instead, when we returned at 3 pm, the customers would be lined three deep in the teller lines. That part I always dreaded, because I knew how hectic it would be at 3:00! Especially the years that I worked in the drive through, it was located in a parking garage on Michigan Street, and we would come back to work to find the whole garage full of cars in line for the two drive through lanes, they got there even before we opened, just waiting for us to re-open.

We attended First Lutheran Church during the first couple of years I worked at the bank. I sang in their choir. First Lutheran had a tradition, and I believe they still do, of performing the cantata “Seven Last Words”, between 1 and 3. So, my tradition for Good Friday was to rush off to the church and sing and rush back to know I would have a very hectic rest of the work day. It was worth it though, singing that cantata really made you focus on the meaning of Good Friday. I haven’t sung it in a long time now, or even heard it. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that First Lutheran doesn’t do the afternoon performance anymore. Some Good Friday I would like to attend their evening performance, but didn’t make it there last evening. Our church does a quiet self-guided meditation on “The Way of the Cross”, from 1 – 6 pm. This is nice, because those of us who are employed can stop there on the way home from work. That’s what I did. It was my Good Friday “service”.

Before my tenure of 7 years at the bank ended, a Good Friday change happened. One or two stores started to remain open at 1 pm, then the next year, more followed suit. Before we knew it, everything was open, there was no more break at work places for you to attend church. Some churches stopped having services. Nothing stopped. One day we noticed that there was no more Good Friday observance between the 3 hours that observed Christ dying on the cross.

Our children, and our children’s and grandchildren’s generation do not even remember that the world stopped for 3 hours each Good Friday. They only hear us tell them about it.

I know now that what the pastor told me in 1992 had come to pass. I know that my Jewish, B’hai, and non-Christian friends find this is a good thing. I am not judging if it is or isn’t a “good thing”, as I know more now in 2006, something I didn't know when I was growing up - not everyone is Christian. I also know that as a Christian, I need to find my own way of observing Good Friday.

The world has changed since I was a child. We are in a secular world.