- Ecumenical Church in Abuja, Nigeria
That we are ‘more alike than different’ is right up there with the expression ‘travel broadens one.’ I believe both are true. I take special pleasure in the occasions when I find out about similarities between Oysterville and places far, far away. And with the benefit of worldwide web these days, I don’t even have to do all the traveling, myself.
This morning, for instance, I received a photograph of the National Ecumenical Church in Abuja, Nigeria taken by my Oysterville Red House cousin-in-law Jim. He is in that far-off land right now as a consultant with an organization that works with farmers in developing countries to improve agricultural practices and crop yields.
As I was receiving the photo of that exotic looking building, I was right here sitting in the house across the street from Oysterville’s very own ecumenical church. And not only that, my uncle Edwin Espy, who was raised in this house, spent his career traveling the world in the development of the ecumenical movement, eventually becoming General Secretary of the National Council of Churches here in the U.S. Both the Oysterville and Abuja churches, so unlike in looks and in far-flung locations, can trace their ecumenical focus directly to his work! I wish he were still around to get Jim’s cyberspace photograph!
The Oysterville Church figured in another ‘small world’ experience I had a number of years ago. We were standing in the abbey church at the top of Mont San Michel, France, listening to a young man tell about the surrounding area. He was speaking of the oyster industry in that part of Normandy and how, some years previously, the native oysters had been depleted and the current industry was based on oysters transplanted from Japan.
It was a weird sort of inverse déjà vu experience. How many times had I stood in the Oysterville Church halfway across the world and told visitors about the oyster industry in Willapa Bay and how our native oysters had been over-harvested and the current oyster stock originally came from Japan?
Indeed, we are more alike than we are different.
Loved your thoughts about differences and similarities! Wondering where in the world is another “Village Treasure” similar to yourself….