Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church
| “ | "Wesley Mem"* is a church for all of God’s children, regardless of age, race, gender, socio-economic situation, or sexual orientation. | ” |
| WMUMC's slogan | ||
Chris started attending Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Charlottesville in March 2008 after being kicked out of his former church, the Grace Baptist Church. He was baptised into the church on 11 May 2008.[1] Chris received a one-month ban from the church in 2013, and he eventually ceased his involvement with the church altogether sometime in the late 2010s.
"Wesley Mem" is closely associated with the University of Virginia and is regarded as one of the more liberal churches in Charlottesville. Ironically, despite his strong homophobia at the time, Chris attended a homo-accepting church, likely because a more conservative church would not have tolerated him as a congregant for very long. Having been besieged with nudes of Chris, they previously had a disclaimer on their homepage stating: "We are not responsible for any content or links that may appear on the personal web pages of any member of this congregation." It was removed in August 2020.
Bob attended with Chris, with Barbara usually staying home.[2]
People
- Reverend Ed Winkler, current pastor
- Reverend Elizabeth Foss, former pastor
- Marty Peterman, who told Chris to not send anything over the internet he wouldn't want his grandmother to see[3]
- Reverend Rocky Shoemaker, former pastoral counselor; Elizabeth introduced Rocky to Chris in September 2008 because she knew that Chris doesn't listen to men.[3] Rocky retired from the church in summer 2018.[4]
Since Elizabeth and Rocky are authority figures that Chris respects, he lists them as references on his résumé and has continually seeked help from them against trolls.[5]
Events
On 15 March 2009, Robert Simmons V visited the church and talked to Chris and Bob.
On 9 August 2010, Chris told Jackie that "[Bob] is not currently in alliance with Elizabeth [WMUMC's pastor at the time] and Rocky over some emotional differences from his point of view".[6] Chris's odd choice of words make it hard to understand what exactly he meant, but it would appear as if Bob had some sort of spat with Rocky and Elizabeth.
On July 2011 Ed Winkler became a pastor at the church.[7] He would later on ban Chris from the church for an entire month, and would also forbid Chris from speaking there. Winkler's treatment of Chris was one of the factors that led the latter to withdraw from the church for an unknown period of time.[8] On 12 September 2011, Bob's funeral took place at the church.
On 22 April 2012, Chris visited the church and wrote about it on Twitter the next day. According to his report, he was generally ignored by his fellow parishioners and was not feeling loved by them. He likewise complained about Ed Winkler. Chris also wrote that "I knew I was gone for too long, but my internal clock kept me awake at night... and prohibited me from being a day person."[9] This suggests that prior to this visit Chris was absent from the church for a considerable period of time due to his irregular sleep schedule. On 10 June 2012, Chris ran a lemonade stand for a cancer charity.
On 3 January 2014, Chris gave the church a glowing yet passive-aggressive review on Facebook. Perhaps coincidentally (and perhaps not), 3 January was the date of a pizza-making party for middle and high-school students. On 3 March 2014 a note from Chris was posted on WMUMC's website, thanking the church for donating to Chris and his mom after their house burnt down on 10 January 2014.[10]
On 20 August 2017, Chris wore his unicorn cosplay from BronyCon to church. Partway through the service, he was given a note by the pastoral counselor, asking him to remove it because it "reminded the congregation of Nazis".[11]
Incidents
On 30 March 2013, a note had made its way to the CWCki Forums shedding light on Chris' current status within Wesley Methodist:
| **Please Print (in multiples) and Share This Message with EVERYBODY at Church**
I, Christian Weston Chandler, will not be attending church for a long time. I feel that ever since Reverend Elizabeth Foss left our church, it has greatly gone downhill for me. Ed Winkler Banned me from the church for a month. He has Banned me from Speaking my peace during the Sharing of Joys and Concerns, and from that, I have felt unnecessarily Silenced. I also feel my meetings with Rocky no longer have much effect on me or my life. My life continues to be at a disappointing standstill of sadness, loneliness and great stress. Only the people way older than me ever do so much as greet me, and I have very little to share in common with any of them. Nobody even close to my age, or even in their twenties, gives me much to do, or include me in their conversations. Aside from that, I am hated by a number of people for reasons beyond my full understanding, because I always tried to be a good and nice person for a long time. And in public, I am constantly overlooked, ignored or ostracized by Everybody. Even speaking out gets me absolutely no attention. I continue to be paranoid of most everyone, because of them likely being among the Internet Trolls that still continue to haunt and taunt me. I am still long desperate for a woman to be my Sweetheart. I am tired of being single, dang it. I continue to serve my family the best I can, and I continue to feel sad, depressed and lonely. My heart feels numb, and I am forced to keep a great emotional distance from Everybody outside my house and home. I am an autistic mental and emotional mess, and there is very little I can do to help myself, beyond my knowledge. And God sees fit for some (hate-filled) reason to continue to curse me as a jinx. And, so, the church is not helping me much in my life, mentally, or emotionally, at all. So I will not be coming back for a long time. Sent from my iPhone Stay Safe, Christian W. Chandler |
In yet another effort to blame anyone or anything but himself for his woes, Chris has now resorted to slamming GodJesus Himself for playing Kick the Autistic. The letter also reveals that Chris has earned himself a temporary ban from the church, probably because the minister was tired of hearing Chris ramble about da trolls during the homily. In a rare moment of insight, Chris also notes that Rocky Shoemaker has been ineffective as a counsellor.
It should also be noted that Chris had asked Rocky to distribute copies of this exact letter to the congregation, effectively demanding she distribute not only "proof" of her own counselling inadequacy but also a letter insulting God to an entire Methodist congregation.
In the comics
The Sonichu comics feature a church called Samuel Memorial United Christian Church, located outside of CWCville.[12] The name of the fictional Church is most likely based on the name of Chris's real church. Samuel Memorial is perhaps best known as the place where Angelica hatched, grew and lives, and despite its name, appears to be a Catholic church.[12] It also appears to be her favorite place for Mass debating, and not about theology if that's what you're thinking.[13] She was also yiffed there by Reginald Sneasel.[14]
After the Chaotic Combo met each other and Sonichu, Angelica took them all (and Rosechu as well) to Samuel Memorial, where from there on they would attend service every Sunday. Sonichu and Rosechu would later on marry there.[15] Church staff includes/have included the Reverend Grace Rosewell and pastor Fritz Richmond.[15][12]
Interestingly, the church where Chris's imaginary wedding to Ivy took place is not Samuel Memorial United Christian Church, but CWCville Baptist Church.[16] This fictional church is likely to be named after Chris's previous IRL church.
Sources
- ↑ Regina e-mails#Regina tries to make sense of all that
- ↑ Church Visit#00:06:27 - A Wild Chris-Chan Appears
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chris emails 2008#September
- ↑ https://kiwifarms.net/threads/random-chris-updates.23605/post-4849911
- ↑ Chris emails 2008#September, Jackie E-mails 5#Chris's brilliant ideas, Jackie E-mails 7 (August 4), Jackie E-mails 8, Jackie E-mails 22 (November 16)
- ↑ Jackie E-mails 8
- ↑ Ed Winkler's profile at LinkedIn
- ↑ Epistle to the Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church
- ↑ April 2012 Facebook posts#April 23
- ↑ Thanks to All from the Chandlers
- ↑ The Unite the Right rally, which was organized by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, had taken place in Charlottesville only a week prior, so the church's reaction wasn't exactly uncalled for.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 CWCipedia on Angelica Rosechu
- ↑ See the fourth drawing in Chris's Rule 34 gallery.
- ↑ Sonichu 9,p. 32
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 CWCipedia on Sonichu
- ↑ Wedding Comic, p. 2
