If you ever feel like
you have been thrown into the Disney movie, The Hunch back of Notre Dame,
chances are you have stumbled into the All Saints Anglican Cathedral. It
seriously resembles it, just shrunk down quite a bit. For an Edmonton church its
quite large, very elongated and has amazing stain glass panels which are accompanied
by 30 foot long quilted banners (must have taken an army of grandmas for those)
and many, many rows of long benches.
Today
was a “special day” apparently as it was the “fest of St. Michael and all the Angles”
cool :P We also got to learn what the name “Michael” actually means. It’s a question.
It is “who is god?” which I find kind of interesting because now I know the
meaning f my dad’s first and middle names. The service had a lot of notably old
fashioned aspects to it with the procession of the choir up and down the aisles,
(awesome voices) and there being a large variety of vested speakers and leaders
( hold on let me roll out the list…..) so this Sunday we had a Bishop, Dean,
Vicar, Canon Missioner, Reverend Canon, Deacon etc. ( the list goes on, I am
not sure if every single one of them was there, but there was A LOT. )
Despite all this I didn’t
perceive this church to be all that stuffy or conservative at all. Right from
the beginning I noticed that the church applauded after the blessing of a new
table and moving it, and then once again after someone rocked an organ solo at
the end of the service. I know some people who heads would blow up if they heard
people applause in a church. Over to my right had side I was shocked to see a
podium made from a giant gold eagle (Neo-Nazi what??????) it looked like something I saw Hitler give a
speech at in an old piece of film when i was studying WWII. I was quick to ask
about it and I was told that apparently the eagle is strongly associated with
St.John and that is why it’s there. Things you learn.
Speaking of “quick” I
found an odd use of that word today. We were reading the Nicene Creed and you
know the long where it says “and he shall come again with glory to judge the
living and the dead.” Throw out the word “living” and replace it with “quick”
that is what I saw. I discovered that “quick” can be translated from middle English
to mean “living”.
The speaker I most
enjoyed was Vicar who had a very good sermon with much passion and made an interesting
cross reference to Celtic mythology (such metal head) lol. He is also the first
speaker in a church that I have seen that can walk in and do his sermon with
socks, sandals, his vestments, long hair and multiple ear piercings and
everyone walks out loving him. *Hi Five!
The population of this place was larger than
anything I have yet seen 4 dozen people at this place, not counting at least
another dozen plus in the choir and leaders. A lot of seniors all, look in surprisingly
good health, and a handful of random people (including me), and only like 3
kids maybe?
I decided to receive Holy
Communion today, solely based on the fact that it felt right to me. It’s not my
first communion, but lest just say I decided not to take it at the last 5
churches (or they didn’t happen to offer it) and let’s just say it’s been a
while. What surprised me with this ceremony was 2 things. #1. The wine was real,
#2. and the guy that offered it to me looked like a very buff Mr.Clean with 3
very large gauge curved barbell piercings hanging on his left ear. As much as I would
be afraid to pick a fight with this guy, from noticing him earlier, I can see
that he has a very warm loving side and that gods light is within him.
Over all really
enjoyed this church and will totally put it on my list of ones to come back to.
Real wine? Chill atmosphere? Makes me wish I was still a church goer.
ReplyDelete"the guy that offered it to me looked like a very buff Mr.Clean..."// That would be Archie Dean, an old friend of mine when I was at the Cathedral. Very friendly man.
ReplyDeleteI love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the great work.
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