Saturday, December 02, 2006

Enough Religion Already

So here we were, sat in our little shop, minding our own business and enjoying a little freedom of Religion
when a lady walks in and up to the counter.

"Are you Jewish?" she asks

"Not I" was my reply, while I hurriedly hid my Menorah (one can never be too careful near Hanukkah)

On being told that I'm not, she asks who is Jewish in the shop.
I explained that as far as I know, there was no-one Jewish working in the shop, although Mitchell the Mutt has Hasidic tendancies and Rosie is prone to Pharrisaic opinions

She told me that she had been sent by the Methodist Church, who thought that this might be a Jewish bookshop and that she was working for inter-faith and reconcilliation for the Jewish Community.

It seems there are 73 Jews in our town - split into three groups - Orthodox - Reformed and another faction that I didn't follow! - Without us, there are now probably only 72 - pity. However, this fine lady is working to reconcile the groups.

She went away, quite cheerfully and invited us to Hanukkah anyway.

It got a little stranger later in the day.
I was relating this tale of religious tolerance and joy to Holly (Quaker - I do hope you are keeping up!),
when a head popped up from behind the Natural History section (always a worry)
"I'm from the Methodist Church and know the lady you are talking about" he stated
I did a quick double take to make sure I hadn't been too insulting about the Methodists in the last half hour - he seemed cheerful though, so it must be ok.

Apparently, the Jewish Lady in question, had gone to the Methodist Church, and told THEM that we were Jewish, and that she was on the way here to be reconciled with us.

So the question of the day for us, is Who DID tell her we were a Jewish bookshop?

1 comment:

Arcarhia said...

I confess it was me.