Family Tree
HARRISVILLE — If Marilyn Brinker can't make it to church on a Sunday, she definitely feels like something's missing.
She attributes that feeling to the close-knit feeling at Harrisville United Methodist Church, promoted in part by an ornament exchange that happens at this time each year.
The Harrisville woman has been participating for at least 12 years, praying all year for a family whose name appears on the ornament she chooses from a tree at the church.
"We're such a loving church family," she said. "There's just something about our church where you feel so welcome."
A special dinner is held during the Christmas season where ornaments are exchanged, according to Bill Hastings, pastor of the church.
Each ornament has a family's name on it. Each recipient is asked to pray for that family all year long.
For Hastings, that means hanging the ornament in the kitchen window so he can pray when it catches his eye. Brinker said her family's ornament is magnetized so she can keep it on the refrigerator all year long. She also keeps some of the past years' ornaments around the house, on doorknobs or other places.
The physical ornament exchange helps to keep those church members close to her heart, she said.
Sunday school classes at the church sometimes adopt an ornament as well, she said.
Although Hastings has been there only three years, the tradition is almost 20 years old, according to other church members.
During Hastings' first year as pastor, it was one of the first questions he was asked during the Christmas season.
"They asked me, 'When are we doing this dinner?' and I wasn't familiar with it at all,"he said. "It's kind of ingrained in them."
Margaret Fryman of Harrisville said she remembers picking a name off the tree for as long as she can remember."I just hang it on the curtain at the window sill,"she said.Not many people ask why she has a Christmas ornament hanging there year round, she said.Asked if it brings her closer to her church family, Fryman said it did."It's just something you do," she said of the exchange. "You think of that person and say a little prayer."Many church members keep their chosen family's name a secret, which means families often don't know who is praying for them until the end of the year, according to Fryman. It's always interesting to find out which family had your name, she said.This year's dinner, held Nov. 29, was marked with the decorating of the church for the holidays and featured Christmas songs from an old-time barbershop chorus, according to Hastings.Many church members say that the dinner before the exchange is the highlight of the year at the church."That's just get-together time," Fryman said.
