Thanks for your thoughts, Dotsie. I needed somewhere neutral to have a whinge about this.

I think I have an different attitude to church than some of my friends...I have seen my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles stick with and work through all sorts of changes in our church...their "stickability" or faithfulness, if you like, is something I admire and hope to emulate.

I could leave our local congregation and go to one of the feelgood churches down the road, [anyone ever heard of Hillsong? It's a mammoth contemporary church in our suburb] like the rest of my peer group. But I don't believe it is the right action for me to take, and I think it would be letting our minister down.

I need a mature church and a mature faith that copes with the ups and downs of life, and the hard issues, without hypocrisy. Like marriage, I think it is important to stay and work things through. It is hard work, though.