Church #44 St. Paul's United Church

Not the first time that I have been to this church. I was here for the prayer service for John Calvin's situation , which sad to say, is not going so well. See the link.
John Calvin Gets notice of Deportation. 

There were 60 people mostly seniors.
This service, was a service of song. It was the 6th annual "How can we keep from Singing!?" event.  There were multiple visiting choirs, with all kinds of performances, everything from traditional worship music to skat singing, to African rhythms. One of my favorite quotes of the day has to be ;"All good things start with a cowbell!"

There was a speaker that came up and gave us some information about a group she leads, called the "Braille Tones" which is a local choir for people with disabilities. 

We also had another fellow come up and tell about his experiences in Africa. He recalls a day when him and his African group members went on a all-day church trip, to be involved with a fund-raising effort, done as an auction. He said that they auctioned off some of the most unusual things he had ever seen. Everything form a glass of cold water, all the way up to a live turkey! He said "Where they found a live turkey in West Africa? I will never know!"

I remember that music is a good way to get thing off your chest. Quote of the day; "So if someone steals your wallet, go home and belt out some Etta James!"

Fact of the day; If you take the word "paradise" and break it down into root words. It translates to "open garden".

But even from the first time I was here, I was intreaged by some of the panels in the window, including a mystery panel.

So as you can imagine you have all of your regulars.
Most of these guys are Apostles, some are Patron Satins.The objects displayed around them give you clues and indications to the stories of their lives.

A panel devoted to a memory of a person that passed away.

But like a lot of stain glass panels, they often have fine details that make you take a second look. And in this panel there is a tiny Orthodox style church in the far back setting.

I asked the pastor why this was and she simply said that "people dont always stay in the places they start out in". But I guess they wanted to recognize some of this persons spiritual past in this piece of art, which I think is cool.

This piece got my attention. I knew who these two women were, and the story behind them. Well before I even read it in my bible. Ruth and her mother in law, Naomi. And how I knew about all this was from an article that I read. Meet one of my favorite online resources for wedding planning! Off-Beat-Bride. com! has everything and anything a person could need who wants to do  their wedding against the norm, or just make it fun!  This is the story of two women that got marred in a christian church, with a christian focus and didn't have to sacrifice love for faith. The scripture that they centered their vows around was this bible passage;

"Ruth said to Naomi, 'Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you" 

Here is more of their story. 
Allie & Megan's traditional Christian wedding goes queer

Another good image of Jesus rocking the boat and freaking out the disciples. He sames to be good at that :P

And then the mystery panel.I didn't get a close enough picture but if you can see, there is a scroll with gold writing and gold flakes that have fallen onto the floor? Anyone has an idea what this symbolizes? Give me a shout out!

The United Church is famous for being excepting and kind to all including LGBT community members. Another interesting aspect of inclusion I found was multi-language prayers in the back of one of their books.

Sometimes as privileged white North Americans, we need to stop and think of the others around us, and maybe use our power to help the rest of the world feel included more often. Just saying.

Go in Peace. And happy trails!