Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places/ Third Place Stories
I was a thirty something married woman with two toddlers, one of whom was medically and physically compromised. We had just moved to a new town that was very unfamiliar and my (single) mom had just found out that she had Stage 4 metastatic cancer. My husband worked two jobs so that I could stay at home with the children and we could pay the mortgage and my daughter’s medical bills that were piling up. He worked just about every day of the week, and were both exhausted, and while I was constantly busy, I was feeling pretty alone.
We had just begun going to our new parish, when one Sunday a new priest who was my age announced that he was going to begin a Lenten Bible Study. The group would meet every Monday night in the basement of the rectory, beginning the first week of Lent. While I had never done anything at church, other than attend mass, I was really drawn to this invitation and was excited to visit the religious bookstore in our town to purchase my first bible!
As the first session approached, I began to have second thoughts about attending. My head was filled with all of the reasons why I shouldn’t go. I told my husband who was all set to babysit, that I wouldn’t be going after all. He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind and said, “Go! This is a good way for you to meet people in town and if you don’t like it, don’t go back.”
I reluctantly went that evening and every Monday night after that. On top of meeting wonderful new people who became lifelong friends, I learned more about my faith. I was falling more and more in love with Jesus as we read the Gospel of John. By Easter I was a new woman! I was transformed in love and from that moment on my whole life changed! Suddenly my life took on a whole new meaning – I became involved in my parish and soon after felt God calling me to professional ministry.
The Church has been my ‘third place’ ever since that Monday night in 1988!
-Jaye Russo