Month: February 2013

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Church #26, Church of Saint Vincent De Paul

Date:2/10/13

Church name/type: Saint Vincent De Paul (Roman Catholic)

Format type: Catholic mass, the usual formula

Overall Impression: Seems ok

Thoughts:
So it’s not the first time I’ve visited Vincent De Paul. I used to go occasionally when it was down the street in my college days. I liked the church and the priest (who is still there), so I was stumped as to why I never made this my home church. This week I remembered; Vincent De Paul is mainly families with kids. As such it exudes a friendly vibe, but it’s extremely kid-focused. They even mentioned Catholic Youth Conference, which is a thing I didn’t even know existed! Its great that a church has such involved youth, but it did make me feel like I have nothing to say to other adults unless I have some kids to talk about. Seems like this sort of thing appeals to a lot of folks since the church was packed.

I will duly make note of the things that contribute to the draw of Vincent De Paul.
1) The church has moveable seats which may be rearranged or removed if the room needs to be repurposed.
2) No kneelers!
3) The space is clean, bright and warm, and looks new (which probably means it’s painted and cleaned regularly).
4) The musical instrumentation varies with each song. I heard: guitar, trumpet, drums, organ, flute, and harmonica.
5) There are greeters at the entry doors AND ushers to seat more people as mass progresses. This one is actually a double whammy because it also points to the fact that those coming in late are welcomed inside.
6) There is a sign language translator at this church. Not only are the unchanging parts of mass translated, but the homily (sermon) as well.
7) Father Chris DeGiovine. I met him first through Saint Rose. He holds a position there called “Dean of Spiritual Life”, and hangs out in the interfaith center. I find him engaging and friendly, and I know that many others do too. Since he works for the campus, he’s probably not going anywhere- also a big draw for Catholics. Priests get moved around so often with no warning.

That sums up the best parts. I have just a couple negatives to mention. Father Chris’s sermons are great but I often feel like they stop short just when they are about to get good. I crave something in depth and they usually hover just above the level I’m hoping for. I guess thats not much of a complaint. Second thing is, when did they replace round hosts with kibble? Because that’s totally what it looked like when I went for communion. It was cracker-ish and tasted boring, but was dense and shaped like a square puffy pillow. Again I guess that’s a lame complaint at best, but it was definitely a surprise.

Compare? I’d take this place over the Cathedral any day, but overall I’m finding the lack of personal interaction in Catholic Churches the biggest turnoff. Sure I spoke with Father Chris and my one friend I already knew. But no one else spoke to me. Based on the friendly vibe there’s a possibility that this had to do with size and its corresponding new-face-recognition problem. But Roman Catholics are showing themselves rather reserved in most of my experiences, so I’ve come to expect the low interaction.

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Church #25, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Date: 2/3/13

Church name/type: Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Roman Catholic)

Format summary: standard Catholic mass with 360 degree style greeting

Overall Impression: the building is really the exciting part

Thoughts:
So, back to my heritage again! A Catholic Church. It’s actually quite striking the things they’ve changed in the few years I have been absent. For example “the Lord be with you” is now followed by “and with your spirit” instead of “and also with you”. Ignoring this type of thing the mass is pretty much as I remember it.

Since the appearance of this place is its most striking feature, I will spend some time describing it. Once inside one is impressed by its size which is actually somewhat deceptive. The ceiling is very high, but the room isn’t gigantic going front to back. One can sit at the back and feel like it ought to be the middle. The other deceptive bit going on is the front doesn’t quite feel like the front. The altar is a bit removed from the seats and the readings are done from a little “tower” (not sure what else to call it) which is ascended by a short staircase. These two factors give the feeling of being removed from the priest and the action. I suppose this is intentional, albeit old-school, given the rigidity of hierarchy in the Roman Catholic Church.

On this particular Sunday, I noticed it felt rather warm for such a chilly day. The warmth comes up through grates in the floor then rises to the ceiling…to warm the Saints’ toes I guess. How much does it cost I wondered to keep this building heated? My eyes were drawn everywhere by stone fixtures and stained glass. It’s really incredible to see a structure with this kind of carved stone in it today. The stone manifests itself as knots and ribbons on the ceiling, and as three dimensional, near-life-size representations of the stations of the cross around the room. As I understand it, the art of stone cutting is basically dead, so I especially enjoy having both the Cathedral and the Capitol building in Albany. The rectangle bricks making the walls are soft pink colors; joined but still distinct. Every window seems to be stained glass. This means there are two rows over every wall; a lower row and a higher row. The front and rear have fantastic large windows as well, all depicting saints and scenes biblical. The structure is such that pillars rise from the floor at regular intervals to meet the ceiling above. These pillars are grooved and lined to mesh with the linearity of the other architectural elements and the orderly layout of the building. I could spend many many Sundays ignoring mass while I stared at the beauty of the building, following lines with my eyes and fondling the smoothness of stone beyond the reach of my fingers’ touch. This, I suppose, is why the ancient church built cathedrals. To be inside something like this was meant to elevate from the ordinary and bring one to a realm of the supernatural.

So what about the service itself? Well, it didn’t do much for me. There was no one greeting people at the door so I helped myself to a bulletin. It’s good that I did because this church has no missals, songbook, or books of any kind in the pews. Even with a pamphlet of the mass format, I noticed the actual words don’t follow it exactly, which was a bit distracting. At the end of mass we had the option to have a throat blessing to protect against illness. I’ve gotten this once before. The priest uses a pair of crossed candles and puts them on the sides of your neck with some words. This time the priest used a giant two pronged candle. It was kinda cool. I could have talked to the priest this time but I couldn’t think of anything to say. There didn’t seem to be any fellowship hall and everyone else left. So I just left.

The big question: How do these people fellowship?

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Acceptance and why I like Star Trek

I’m going to post about an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation AND before you stop reading remember that everything on this blog is vaguely religious if not overtly religious. Also I guess spoiler alert? But you should really have watched them all by now.

So, the episode in question is called Hollow Pursuits and I recommend you show it to your welcoming committee. The plot goes like this: Mr Barclay is a member of the Enterprise crew, but close to very few people. He is awkward, nervous, and makes a lot of mistakes. Several members of the crew begin to call him Broccoli behind his back. This person on the outside seems like a klutz, a hazard, an idiot- does the captain fire him? Does he call him in for a strict reprimand? No. Because in the future those who are different, those who don’t fit, those who may even have social awkwardness to the point of mental illness are accepted and treated normally by society. At the captain’s prompting, the other members of Barclay’s team start to give him some slack. They open up and start to try and understand him. This actually doesn’t seem like it’s that easy for them, but they get there.

Barclay feels so isolated that he has created a fantasy world in which to feel safe. He’s not engaging others partly because he doesn’t know how and partly because they are not engaging him. If you notice, one of the first things his supervisor Geordi does is let up his expectations. It’s really the first step in Barclay beginning to trust him. Rather than treating Barclay as a commodity, Geordi begins treating him like a friend. And Geordi doesn’t just make nice with a polite smile and questions about Barclay’s weekend. Geordi actually takes the time to try to find out what makes Barclay tick. Any church welcoming committee would be well advised to think about this one a bit. It is easy for us as people to limit our contact with one another to polite smiles and questions about work or school. The challenge is that if we really are to know each other, we have to go beyond that. We cannot simply expect showing up at church, smiling, then leaving to be enough. If the group of people meant to put newcomers at ease has no more than a surface connection with old members…that is bad. There need to be plenty of opportunities for current church membership to bond. The pastor should take the lead making visible connections with members old and new. The welcoming committee should be directed to do the same. Welcoming is not something that happens overnight and relationships have to grow. Having visited a lot if churches just once I’m starting to notice this rapport among members can create a noticeable vibe.

Back to our Star Trek episode- Barclay opens himself up a crack and shares with Geordi that its actually really hard for him to be with other people. None of them seem to understand him and that makes him feel lonely and isolated. Geordi begins to see that Barclay has some real issues. Again it’s noticeable that instead of dismissing him as a weirdo and trying to distance himself, Geordi tries to help. He really wants Barclay to be more involved, to feel like a member of the team and to address some of the issues that stop him from participating within his comfort zone. Geordi understands that it is part of his job to bring Barclay into the group in a real way and he encourages others to treat him with respect.

So, now that Barclay has a little encouragement he’s all better right? No. Actually when the pressure is put on Barclay (an extra hard task is given) he retreats to his fantasy world again. Geordi has to find him and pull him out. But since Geordi has decided to take the role of friend, he questions and further encourages Barclay rather than giving up on him or reassigning the task. It occurs to Geordi more fully here that Barclay may need the help of a counselor, so he requests Barclay meet with the ship’s counselor. He doesn’t foist Barclay off and abandon him though. He makes it clear Barclay is still an important member of the team. Geordi puts it as follows: after Barclay claims the unreal friends he’s created are easier to deal with than his reality, Geordi replies by saying, “I need you out here.” It is a personal appeal on Geodi’s part which encourages Barclay to continue working and ultimately save the day. As it turns out, Barclay is a bit of a genius once he can relax and work through his ideas. Because the captain, Geordi, and the rest of his team were willing to give Barclay a chance (Geordi actually gave him several) he found a way to shine. They discover the real value he offers once they look past his oddities. I think this is a great lesson for groups of all kinds, but especially church groups. Jesus would have been considered a bit wacky in his time, but those who got close to him grew to love him even for his oddities. My Star Trek example Mr Barclay is a man with what I’d guess is a social anxiety or personality disorder. He could be called mentally ill. How many people in Jesus’ world would have said the same thing of Him?

I think this also speaks in some ways to the amount of play the words “mentally ill” have gotten recently because of our societal discourse on guns. It’s not a great idea to create a box labeled “The Mentally Ill” and assume everyone inside is violent and dangerous. I wouldn’t place Mr Barclay and Jesus in such a box. I guess what I’m saying is that we need to be careful of over-categorizing; especially if it leads to dismissing people we haven’t yet gotten to know. We need to be open to those we meet in our church and out of it because there may be someone amazing waiting, who just needs a chance from us.