Friedens United Church of Christ Troy IL

"I had a poor experience visiting their Festival of Trees 2023. We drove an hour to see the display, and walked into the very dark room where the trees were. I mentioned that I was hoping to take pictures, and one of the ladies offered to turn on the lights. There weren't many other people in the room at the time, and I thought it was nice of them to do that. For the first five minutes we were followed around by a couple of the ladies that kept distracting me by constantly talking. I appreciated them turning on the lights so I was trying to listen politely. After they finally walked away, I kept hearing other church members making passive aggressive comments about how it looked better with the lights out. I had been taking pictures uninterrupted for about three minutes when one of the guys walked over to me and said, "Did you get all your pictures?" I was about halfway around the room, so it should have been obvious that I was hoping to take more. As I tried to continue around the rest of the display after that, I heard more comments, and got the sense that other people that had come in after us had been complained to that we were forcing them to keep the lights on, because I was getting unhappy looks. A couple of minutes later when I was about 3/4 of the way through the display, they just turned out the lights. I understand it is their display, and they didn't need to turn the lights on in the first place. But what would about five more minutes have cost everyone? I didn't appreciate being made to feel that I was ruining everyone's day. Someone could have came to me and let me know they were going to turn the lights out, or just let me have a couple more minutes to finish. I told them at the beginning that I was going to tag them in pictures on social media, and they might have liked the photos. Instead I left in frustration, feeling quite unwelcome. The lady that had turned on the lights followed us out to the parking lot. She said they are going to have the display every year. I hope their members enjoy it, because I'm not that visitors will."

"Very nice volunteers helped me during their rummage sale."

"It's a safe, welcoming church."

"If you are looking for a great place to worship consider your search over. The Pastoral family is awesome, the parishioners are welcoming and everyone practices responsible social distancing. I will certainly be returning to this community of faith. Music is great and the sermon gives you something to think about all week!"

"Luncheon for FoR. F. R. I. E. N. D. S. VERY GOOD FOOD AN ENTEREMENT"