Church #35 St. John's Anglican Church

Well I know that some churches have baptism fonts, but this one literately had it right at the front door.

The floor actually sloped down towards the front of the church, similar to a theater. There were roughly 50 people at this service, mostly seniors.

I noticed that there were a verity of books in the pews in-front of me, ( no surprise there) but this was the first time that I saw editions of the "International Children's Bible" in the pew. The pews also had plaques on them. Some were "in memory" other were "donated by" etc. There was a large choir of about 30 people that paraded down the isle past me. What surprised me was that this group was actually of all mixed ages, from the very young to the very old, all singing together. This I find to be uncommon in comparison to other churches.

At the end of their performance The church leader said "The Soms say we can Clap!" So the whole church had a bit of a chuckle, and gave the choir a round of applause. I have noticed that often in church that there's a prayer said for people of "high authority" in our lives. Presidents, Prime Ministers, Military leaders etc. But this was the first time I have even heard someone comment on it outside of prayer. Quote "God is the one has has authority to speak to super powers." In this world with powerful cooperate villains like Monsanto,  I can only pray that this is true.

http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/

Today's lesson was about Jonah and  and the Fish. Now I know a lot of people that dispute the Bible will be the first to pull this story up. Cause in their view no one would live in the belly of a fish ( or whale)  for 3 days and 3 nights. Regardless, here it is.

Jonah Flees From the Lord

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

³ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
⁴ Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. ⁶ The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
⁷ Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
⁹ He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
¹⁰ This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
¹¹ The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
¹² “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
¹³ Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. ¹⁴ Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” ¹⁵ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
¹⁷ Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

On my poster behind my computer, the 15th line of text says "Jonah ran from god" . And all I can think of is really??? really???? Bro are you Cray? If there has been any clear interpretation I have understood  from reading the old testament so far, is that you would have to be a totally idiot to run from God. It just doesn't work. If you have any doughs, just ask the guy that likely stunk like a fish for days after he got out. 

 While reflecting on this story the pastor had some interesting comments. He said that "Jonah can't believe". He also said that this story shows "The state of the soul that dose not want to live in god."

This brings me back to my old work place. Better known as FABRICLAND. 

Yes I worked at one of these.I am still trying to forget about it.

I had an old co-worker who I miss dearly. She was the direct result of someone who was raised by parents that living in the spirit of 1969.  Beatles hippies to the max. 

She, like many people in their 20's, was starting to take time to reflect on understanding her spiritual self. We were standing around one day next to the till, and before we knew it, we were having a conversation about believing in god. I remember her commenting something to the effect of , that if god did come out of the sky and speak to everyone, all the atheists still wouldn't believe it. They would probably just assume what they were seeing was not real. And  that they then the would all likely hurry their doctor/pharmacy and convince them to prescribe them  psychiatric drugs to cure their delusions.

And as for as much of you my agree or disagree with that statement, that is what came to my mind when the pastor said "Jonah can't believe". 

For as much as you might think me off my rocker, I don't think I am that far off at all actually. Here's why;

The pastor also makes a point to explain a very interesting word translation. If you look in line 5  you see the word sleep. But in Hebrew they have two different words for sleep. One world refers to
the healthy 8 hours most of us should ideally be getting each night. Then there is the other word.

The word used here, is the other word for sleep. A word that describes a state of drugged, drunken or being concussed and asleep.This is an induced sleep. This is sometimes known as "numbing out". When the ship captain awoke him and asked him to pray to his god to save the ship "not one word of prayer" came from him, as described by the pastor.

"Prayer becomes impossible or meaningless when we are in a love-deficit. "
"When we move away from gods purpose we experience a love deficit."  

He also made a remark on the fact that he knows exactly how to numb out but was not willing to share that  information. 

He comments that "Jonah seems to think that if he dyes that other peoples problems will be solved."Also that "When we speak about assisted suicide we must be slow and careful." 

Something I found very interesting was  this comment. He said that the world becomes harsh when we are "not fallowing gods love out of ignorance or rebellion." I personally have a verity of thoughts on why the world might be harsh one people, but we will leave that alone. But I would like to take a moment to break down these two ideas. Personally I am not sure which one would be harder to deal with. 

First there is rebellion. A rebellious spirit can be good thing, if not a great characteristic. A rebellious person is extremely hard to break even under the worst conditions. I believe this spirit is one of the key attributes of many of the greatest people in the Bible. Where the problem comes in, is when this force of rebellion is moving away from gods love instead of towards it. Changing this is like forcing a fraught train going full speed into a U turn. Not impossible, but extremely difficult. 

Something that I feel may be equally as difficult  is not fallowing gods love out of ignorance. For some in this world, that might mean not knowing the world of god. But I think it has a lot more to do with not knowing what the heck you are supposed to be doing with your life. Welcome to the life of a person in your 20's. As mediocre as this may sound, it can really get to a person. Especially when you are willing to fallow gods path, if only you knew what that path was. I remember City Center Church where they had a speaker telling the story about how he became so distressed one night that he got drunk, and started yelling and praying in the middle of the the halls of his apartment building. It sucks when you feel like you are going nowhere. Lack of direction can drive a person nuts. 

 On further notes. There was also talk of porn. Yes I said porn. The pastor expressed his thoughts of the recent statics that he had read on the rate of porn consumption by Christian men. He pointed out that god knows all and that  we are being silly for trying to live in denial of it. This kind of lifestyle can create a "split soul" and "the antidote is Gods Love".

Favorite quote of the day;
"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!? NO! It ends up on my Office!!!!"

 But beyond everything that was spoken about today, there was something small that truly caught my attention, or more so, a child. If I had to make a guess I would say she was about 8 years old and moving around in the pew across from me occupying herself with a verity of items. My impression is that this girl seamed to have some kind of development disability. She moved around and played with things, completely in her own world. She seamed unable to stay still for anything more then a few seconds. Then we all went up to kneel around the octagonal fence set up on the main stage at the front of the church to receive communion. And low and behold I found myself right next to her. What took me back what how she stayed perfectly still the entire time while communion items were being distributed.  She closed her eyes and folded her hands and took a moment to focus on God. Then the most beautiful smile washed over her face. It was a look that showed  that she understood fully, the magnitude of gods love for her. That she was loved just the way she was. 

The building definitely has some cool features. Check out that dark section net to the stage on the left side.

There is, what I believe to be, a set of organ pipes in there! a lot of churches only have them for show but I am very convinced these were all real and functioning.I found it interesting how the back, vertical, wooden panels in the wall flapped open-and-closed as the organist played.

 But one things that dove me nuts the entire time what how much the Pastor resembled Garth from WAYNE'S WORLD.

 And remember, a good friend is always prepared if someone need to spew! 

The Lord be with you wherever you go! 

 

Church #34. Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church

 In this project I have seen a lot.

I have seen thriving churches. I have seen dieing churches. But today I saw something completely different. Today I witnessed the afterlife of a church. What can happen after the doors on the house of the Lord close for the last time. But like many things in this world, the end of one, is simply the beginning of another.

It was a bit of a clumsy start, entering this church. I went to the front door and attempted to open it, only to discover it was locked. I noticed some people heading towards the side door of the newly built expansion on the left side of the building. So i gathered my dignity and headed for the side door.

My first impression of the new entrance hall, besides the lovely verity of green foliage, was the clear commitment to accessibility that this church has made. I don't think i have seen anywhere else with so many wheel chair ramps! When you actually enter the main body of the church you can tell that this place is old, really old. A lot of the architecture harks back to the Victorian/Western settlement days. However I have to say that almost everything was perfectly preserved or restored.  

I also found this latter that confirmed my suspicions.

I also noticed these "children's packages" at the entrance. Smart idea.

They had a large choir of  approx 25 people all seniors or Jr.seniors. In my opinion they are a very well trained group of  singers and can really hold the audiences attention.

The church was lead by a female minister who had very organic looking robes that instantly reminded me of  a sewing pattern I have. You know you are a sewer when...

pretty close eh?

Similar to the last Lutheran church I have gone to, there was once again, casually dressed alter-girls helping with a verity of small tasks associated with the service.

There were approx 12 children that came up for children's time. And instead of having a story book, they got introduced to some new items that had been gifted to their church.

Augustina Church closed down in December. The items being shown today, involve a selection of different sliver serving wear that would be used in communion. This gift represents the now blended congregations of 2 churches.

There was a prayer  asking that we all be forgiven from our sins. the pastor turns to the congregation, makes the singe of the cross, and declares us all forgiven of our sins.

And part of me is like "seriously? That's it?" But then I started to remember that it can really just be that simple. Heck, Jesus healed a women that he didn't even know was there! She came up behind him in the crowd and bleary got a finger on the tip of his robes. It was only when he felt his power leave him that he turned around to see who was there. Even the smallest amount of faith can be powerful. Not to say that we don't have to repent. We got a lecture on that today. 

The reading from the scriptures today talked about the time when Jesus was gathering his disciples. How he had these 12 men just drop everything in their lives to fallow him. Thee homes, jobs, life styles and possessions. The pastor asked us to reflect what it would take in our lives to convince us to just drop everything and fallow. One can't help but marvel at the unmeasurable amount of faith and will it would take to do that.

She spoke about repentance. Repentance dose not mean feeling sorry about what you did, but rather it is the choice to change direction. She also emphasized that we need to have trust in God that he has our lives in his hand and we should not fear.

The lesson today was in relation to David who was having some problems with slander in his kingdom. people were speaking badly of him. And it was getting to him. We all suffer having rumors spread about us, via, work, home, school, or Facebook/ social media. David  declares "God is my rock" and hold strong and not let aimless rumors destroy your life.

This was one of the first sermons that I have ever been to that had a clear and relevant message for teenagers. Such as the hand full that were sitting at the front of the church. This was actually something that matters to them, and dose not come directly from the agenda of their parents. In this day and age rumors KILL. When something gets out it dose not stay secluded to one group of people, and it dose not die down after a relatively short period. Now when things get out they can spread across the planet and seen but tens of thousands of people in a matter of days, and has resulted in young people in taking their lives in record numbers. Just to give you some idea of this, I suggest this video.

This young lady was declared to be "The Worlds Ugliest Woman" on the internet. And she discovers this one day by accident on you-tube. This is an interview with her.

Another piece of scripture that was covered was when Jesus was on trial before King Herod.  And how he refused to speak in defense of himself as the accusations were made. The pastor stated "Our souls wait in silence for god." "let us commit ourselves to daily prayers of silence." "let the peace of god rule in our hearts".

A leader from Augustina church came up and made a speech. Also assisted with giving out the communion pieces. You could tell he was very emotional, an noticeably red in the face. I am kind of amazed that he didn't break down and start crying. If not in realization that his church is forever in the past. But maybe in the hope, that has come with a warm welcome into a new sanctury. 

And like in most churches, you always have that one interesting character that you cant help but notice.  A fellow likely in his 40's with a  full slicked over 1950's haircut, leather biker jacket, and wearing a steel cross attached to a black leather string. I could not help but notice as he passed me in the walk to accept communion.

Gods people come in all forms. Something to think about.

Church #33 St. Michael's Ukranian Orthodox Church of Thrien.

It is amazing what you discover when you actually read the name plate on the front of the summer camp church you attended 5 summers in a row. I guess it is more then just "The Church" now. Who would  have thought it actually had a name?

I may be breaking my rules a bit, but the way i see it rules were made to be broken. This weekend i went out of the city and back to my home town. Partially for the goal of documenting the making of the ice cross and then attending of the church service. So sit back and enjoy 259  easy steps on how to build an ice cross for the Theophany or better known as the celebration of Christs Baptism. Lets begin.

Clear the ice.

Bring your brother,

Test your depth.

Mark your ice.

Second rule of Ice cross: Shoots of liquor on the tailgate of a pick-up truck.

Start cutting!

Break a block.

Remove first successful block! 

First rule of ice cross: Don't Hit Water!

Or you get this mess.....

Transport

Assemble.

Accessorize.

Third rule of Ice Cross: FOOD!!!!

 Fun Ice Cross Facts!
Over in parts of Europe it is common to people to take that whole in the ice where they cut the blocks, lower  a V shaped pair of stairs into it, and people will pretty much "polar walk" these stairs as part of an act of purification.

In some warmer parts if the world, the priest will also throw a cross out into the water and  then often a large group of men will dive in. The first one to retrieve the cross gets a special blessing. Also bragging rights.

This was day one, now on to day 2.

Side note: The first year this church built an Ice cross was 1965. This actually pre-dates the opening of the summer camp that it sits on. 

As a kid i would have never thought that  this church ran like an actual church. Though low and behold, here I am. I am thankful at this moment that i spent the time i did at this summer camp.One of the reasons being is that I learned all the traditions and expectations associated with this kind of church. Compared to most, they are a complex bunch. So i walked in crossed myself the appropriate amount of times with the right amount of fingers, in the right order, kissed the cross, kissed the icon, and sat-down. I also noticed when i was walking in that there was a piece of paper and pen up on a pedestal with three sections. "Living", "Sick", "Deceased"
As you can image I filled my name under the "Living" section.This list was used latter to quickly name off all the people in the church to have them included in a specific prayer.

For any of you that don't know this church is notably tiny. Despite all i can not say it was the smallest. It likely falls neck and neck with Danish church i went to. Let's just say i know from my camp years, that this is not a good place for people with space bubbles. How we packed over 100 kids in here some days i will never know.

After kissing the icons there was also an option to walk over to the corner and lean your head onto a bible that was on a 5' stand, and have the Father put his hand/robe over your head, and also bend his head over and pray for you. There was a line-up so i decided to pass.

I think this church was also unique in the fact that there was literately no artificial light.The Only sources of illumination was the morning sun pouring in the right side windows and the extensive array of candles lit. I know sometimes at night they light the chandelier

The camp Father here now,is not the same one I remember. But After meeting the new Father of the camp church, I feel he is more then the right man for the job. Also the man to be credited with the new and very popular sport  of "Religion dodge-ball". You have my respect sir.

This Church had a surprisingly balanced family mix, but then again that is more common on major religious holidays. Around 40 people i counted. Most were sitting in the body of the church but there were other sitting in this back section called a, Narthex. I needed to look that up. Here is a diagram I found.

Its this section way at the back of the church.The door is still open and you can still see and here the sermon but this is pretty much the equivalent of  nose bleed seats. This section is traditionally reserved for people that are coming to the church but are not part of the "orthodox " faith or if for some reason that person has been in some way in trouble the church.

You know maybe ignorance is bliss, but sad to say i don't feel half as positive about this place as when i was a kid,. Now being at third done my mission, this whole idea of the Narthex really repulses me. If we believe that we are all gods children, we are loved equally, created equal,  and the second highest law is to do onto other as we would have done onto ourselves. I just can't see this being right. NO ONE deserves the nose bleed seats at church! I don't define myself as orthodox but never the less I gave no second thought to my choice to sit in the main body of the church.

However i was happy to see one of my favorite decorations. Three loves of kolach bread stacked together with a candle thru them.  Partiality because it symbolizes a celebration, and partiality because we get to eat it afterwards.

Our service contained all of the common key attributes of most orthodox services,  a choir of seniors, a lot of standing and sitting, crossing ones self  a multitude of times, and of coarse Father blessing the room with incense. Which normally involves swinging back and forth a smoldering incense holder on a chain that looks something like this.

Father also went and carried a bible around the room holding it high and allowing people to kiss it all while saying " Christ is Born" in English and Ukrainian. There is a lot on chanting done in this church. As is typical of the orthodox faith. Always in Ukrainian and then in English. However i did notice substantially less English in this service then the one i remember as a camper. It is always hard to pray when you cant understand what you are praying about due to language barrier.

Another interesting thing i noticed is that during the sermon father turned to the congregation and said "Forgive be brothers and sister for i have sinned before you"  and then the congregation replied back "we forgive you".

As you saw there is a back section  to the church where only the priest an maybe the alter boy are allowed. It always felt like there was something more back there that we were not allowed to see. But even at the age of 11 I knew, rules were made to be broken, so I  snuck back there ( Sorry Uncle Buck! ) to see what was so dam special.  What i found behind everything was a beautiful painting of Christ laying in his burial tomb, covered in a linen  and surrounded by angles. A truly beautiful piece.

The reading today as Luke 18:35-43.

³⁵ As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. ³⁶ When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. ³⁷ They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
³⁸ He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
³⁹ Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
⁴⁰ Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, ⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.
⁴² Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” ⁴³ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

The explanation given after by the Father spoke of how "People that are speaking Christ  are often told to be quite." And how Christians need to stand up for them selves! I spoke to father after the service to get some clarification on this. Cause mattering on how a person might interpret this, it could mean anything. Including getting up on a soap box and yelling to the sky while all the drunk college kids pass by. Me and Father mutually agreed that is a very poor tactic. What he was referring to is that Christians need to not be ashamed about the fact that they are Christians. Because sometimes its hard. Story time. 

So one night i went out to see my buddies band play at a local venue, and i know some of you will recognize this place. 

Yep, good old Wunderbar Hofbrauhaus. Tiny, dirty. hole-in-the-wall venue with beer you have never even heard of, the best bands and people piled out the door to see them (cause there is no dam room in there!!!!)

Anyhow I'm at this show and the room is packed and the lead singer in the band is going on some brief angry rant and  he blurts out something to the effect of.  "Is there anyone in this room who actually still believes in GOD!!!????" and from what i could see, me and  and two guys sitting by the window raised our hands half way embarrised. The singer kind of slunk back, not thinking anyone would actually raise their hand, and went onto the next song. Faith ain't easy some days.

And of cores with it being the day we celebrate Christs baptism, we spent some time mentioning John the Baptist. aka. Jesus's second cousin. aka Nature Boy. We were told today that John the Baptist was "raised in the wilderness by angles" in preparation to meet Christ. I am not sure how exactly he broke away from his mother (Elizabeth), but i guess god had a plan for him. I found this information kind of refreshing cause I know some very earth connected spiritualists.I found it hard to believe that these people to be considered pagans and blasphemous, considering the bible mentions a few times that i know of, where man is encouraged to go deep into nature to help improve ones spiritual consciousness. ex, John in the woods, Jesus in the dessert, etc.

So eventually we did get around to speaking of the reason why we spent numerous house cutting ice out of the lake yesterday. Celebration of the Baptism of Christ and the Blessing of the Waters. John knew Jesus was coming. He knew more then well, in fact he was pretty much was prepping people by telling them to get a head start on repenting and being baptized. What he didn't see coming was this great man coming before him and asking John to baptize him. That is  pretty much like being a a Catholic priest of a poor and small church in the middle of nowhere, and having  Pope Francis show up at your door and asking you specifically, to give him communion. In-fact John looks back at him and says "I have need of you to baptize me! and yet you come to me!?" But Christ replies “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” so John agrees and as he dunks him in the water.

Matthew 3:16-17
As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”

 Communion was offered, I know how they did it here was kind of interesting. It of coarse involved a cup of wine, which Father had covered with a fancy cloth and said a very complex blessing before beginning the ritual ( with a little assistance of a neon colored sticky note on top of the cup-cover). I was just about to walk up when my brother stopped me. I asked him why and he explained that in this church taking communion was a process that required a special fast the day before, prayers and a list of other things i don't remember. So i ended up without communion.

The way they do communion is that they  put the pieces of bread directly into the wine cup and then spoon feed it to you.  they also hold up a cloth between your mouth and the cup. Because in the orthodox faith if the communion piece falls to the floor, the priest is literately required to cut out that spot in the floor where it feel, bless the spot, and burn that little piece of the flooring. They apparently have a listed set of guidelines on how to do it mattering on what type of flooring it is. ex. hard wood, carpet, linoleum. etc.

After this was all done we were told to get our coats on because we were going outside! So along with a few people bearing some banners, icons and other worship items we all paraded outside to our Ice cross.
(there was also a quick run to get water because someone forgot to fill the golden vessel). And after that all the blessing started.

Pretty much the water gets blessed and then everything gets splattered with it! The books the cross, the icons, the people just everything!. For the ice cross Father had a bundle of evergreen branches prepared which he dunked in the water and then used to bless/splatter the ice-cross. After that it was  a smaller  brush type item used. He pretty much ran around in a circle spraying people with water outside on a -5 degree day in January. I think Father enjoys doing this blessing more then he will admit.

I also noticed that at one point he was holding a book entitled "The Book of Needs". I asked what this meant and he told me it was 1 of a series of 4 and it pretty much served as guide on how to do anything and everything that is more then just a regular Sunday service. He told me that when he was living out need that coast he had blessed winery's in the past and very much so enjoyed it. I also can recall a special ceremony done by a priest to bless my fathers farmland as part of the rituals at his funeral.

After this was all done people lined up with a verity of re-purposed bottles to take home a portion of the holly water. And for us that didn't for see this there was some extra jars on the side. We were also encouraged to drink some. Here is my lovely take home jar.

4th Rule of Ice Cross:
More food! Blessed with Holly Water!

Most specifically meatless food! Apparently it is required on this day. And also in the view of the church fish is still except-able at meatless meals. So we had shrimp!!! I was a happy girl.

I was able to ask father about his silver robes which he says he also wears during the Nativity and The Resurrection.

One thing i asked about was the incense. Because often there are notices at church not to wear perfume and i know this could be an issue. Father told me that he has not had too many issues with people being sensitive  to the smell. Apparently there is a wide verity of  different scents available, many are floral and he has had request by people not to buy incense made with certain flowers.

And my favorite quote of the day; "The Supper Substantial Trinity!" - Father Peter.


On a final note! The orthodox church has declared a new saint. Say hello to Saint Paisios!

Saint that wears a tuque. Best Saint ever!!!

Peace be with you.
I'm gonna go drink some holly water.... I wonder if it tastes like coco nut yet?