Dealing with that UMW group sure sounds annoying. My suggestion would be to dump the burden of providing food onto the biggest complainer. That's how we've done it at the UTA Wesley.
maybe next time (if there is a next time!) you could compromise and add only a few of the 'gourmet' ingredients? but then, i suppose, they won't be happy regardless.
i'd like to think that the women appreciate your willingness to feed them, but they just have a funny way of showing it.
Just give up Rev Mom! 
and remember that T S Eliot understood cats and church members well when he wrote about the "Rum Tum tugger"
"For he will do as he do do
and there's no doing anything about it"
I started to rant here about this, but I decided not to harsh your mellow over here, so I took it to my place.
This kind of crap in the church drives me crazy.
I'd love your recipe.
i hurt for you and with you.
and i'd like to say something deep and wide that would be healing, but all that comes to me right now is that being good enough is good enough. don't try to be perfect for these people. that won't work...for you or for them.
several years ago someone gave me a needlepoint of one word, "WONDERFUL".
woops, somehow i published in mid-comment. anyway someone gave me this needlepoint that read "WONDERFUL". and recently i decided to give it away. i decided that if anyone wants to make one for me that says "GOOD ENOUGH" i'll keep it, but wonderful was way too hard to deal with.
now i'm trying to just give the gifts that are mine to give without worrying about whether they're perfect or not. thanks for sharing this touching tale. and if you want to come to my house, i'd love some of your chicken salad, but hold the mayo since i'm allergic to eggs.
I clicked over from reverendmother and don't know what UMW is--but if I got this kind of nonsense from somebody I'd cooked for, my response would be to smile happily and remove the food from the table.
This is why I don't prepare food of any kind for anyone at church. The best advice anyone ever gave me was that clergywomen should stay out of the kitchen.
I'm sorry they were so stinky.
And I like mine with grapes and cashews.
i'll tell you what, our dishwasher has been on the fritz on and off over the last three weeks; we just implemented our new menu with a slight increase in prices. comment was made about how "gee, they can raise their prices but then serve us on paper plates?"
*blink, blink*
uhmmm, buying paper products for the weekend of a busy restaurant is not nearly as economical as using a dishwasher to clean our porcelain dishes, tyvm. thanks for noticing the new menu...next time in, you'll be charged a 10% nuisance fee.
just kidding.
i can take it in a cafe, but to have to hear it in a church setting? i am sighing right along with you.
i also wanted to thank you for taking the time for a beautiful comment to my wounded heart - i appreciate it more than you know. i am emerging from the darkness, but every step forward has been met with a bit of quicksand and while tiresome, i know i have Company. i'll get through it.
love to you, revmommy.
penni
I see that the UMW and the PW are of one and the same spirit. And in this case, that is not a good thing. I agree with Reverend Mother's follow-up post on her site - this is the church's #1 enemy, tearing one another down in "love."
We had a kind, talented, progressive couple who were members of our church for a short time. They were so active and so giving. Then they got tired of all the critical remarks from the "old guard" and decided to leave the church. They talked with me about their decision and explained all of their reasons. Of course, according to the "old guard," I am the reason they left. Since I am the pastor, I had to hold this couple's confidence and not respond, but oh, how hard it was!
I'm not a big chicken salad eater myself, but I would gratefully accept and enjoy anything that another cooked for me in love. (Gourmet or plain!)
We're neither UM or P, but even in the UCC, we have the equivalent. One of our Guild members was exceedingly rude to the younger women who volunteered to run our Fair last fall. I was expecting them to run away. But they both said, "Wow! She's grumpy, isn't she?" and let it roll right off their backs. I was amazed and praised God!
Perhaps next time you should feed them something with a more Biblical basis - like locusts and wild honey.
MMMMMMM, chicken salad sounds better all the time.
Methodists ain't happy unless we're singing or complaining - or complaining about the singing.
XT
After all, Locust and Honey is on of my fav blogs..... =o)
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