Thoughts and Struggles

So, reader, you may or may not know that I was surrounded by a lot of religious teachings as I grew up. My actual denomination is Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. My parents are both Baptists, and that goes quite a ways back in the history of both sides. My husband is Catholic, but not practicing, and of course, his whole family is also Catholic. When we moved to Canton we landed ourselves right in the middle of Baptist country. I even played for a small Baptist church for a while. I found, however, that their services and celebrations are a completely different breed than what I was accustomed to. All of the best things I loved about my religious upbringing were rather lacking in the other churches I have tried. There are no large Missouri Synod churches in or around Canton, and I have struggled (for 12 years now) to find a church that I would like to attend regularly. There are some large ones that are Evangelical, but they seem cultish to my traditional ways and not what I am looking for in a church. I have attended some of the big and wonderful Catholic churches in the area, but struggle with the intrinsic differences between protestant and catholic teachings. So during a long drive home today I was thinking that I am tired of not having a church to belong to. But I cannot figure out where to go. I have now looked into Episcopalian churches in the area - I need something very traditional. There is an enormous congregation in Plymouth that has female rectors. Having grown up in the "women in the church are a bad thing" era, I do not know how I feel about this. I am sure Jim will give me that look when I tell him I am going to try this church out - the one that says 'you know I hate organized religion and really want to not have to do that whole church-y thing' and I will be off on my church finding mission alone, again. I often think of those guys that go to the religious conventions and wonder, for just a moment, what it would be like to have men in my family who are strongly religious. Then I realize I would have been dragging myself to a Catholic Church I didn't like for the last 12 years. So, hopefully, this weekend I will be out and about, "interviewing" the next church candidate for my growing family.