Month: August 2013

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Church #37, Metropolitan New Testament Missionary Baptist

Date: 8/18/13

Church name/type: Metropolitan New Testament Missionary Baptist, part of the National Baptist Convention, USA Inc

Pastor:Reverend Dr Damone Johnson

Style of worship: praise music first, message, altar call (any coverts today?), closing

Overall Impression:I’m having a hard time with the impression synopsis this time, and don’t know if a short tidbit will do it justice. Please skip ahead to the thoughts section.

Thoughts:
So to start with, this church is technically out of order. When I programmed my list I just typed the word “Second” into my maps program and it must have auto filled the word “Avenue” instead of “Street”. So I went to church on Sunday knowing that technically it is way too early for this church. Why did I do this? Well part of my project is to see things I haven’t before. This church is the first Baptist variety for another page and a half. Also since I’m trying to be open to this thing I call spirituality, I decided to just treat it like the spirit moved me this way. Maybe God wants me at this church right now. I thought- hey maybe I’ll find something awesome there. Well, here is what I found.

Parking was slightly confusing. The entrance seems to be at the back around a side street. I managed it and went inside. So, based on the website pictures, I had a feeling this church might be predominantly African American. Yup I was right. It’s hard to describe what it was like walking into this church. I’m pretty bad with numbers, but I guess there were about 200 people inside. I think I was the lightest face there. I’ve never felt so aware of what I looked like. I kind of knew I’d feel different, but it’s incredible how striking the feeling is, especially with the added fact that I showed up alone with little idea what to expect. I was pretty sure I stood out like a sore thumb. Is this what the 1% black population at my high school felt like every single day? For the first time in the life of my project I couldn’t decide if I was annoyed or relieved that so few people greeted me. It’s changing my ideas about greeting newcomers as once again, I gain new experiences. It may be less of a good thing to be greeted profusely if one is already afraid of standing out as different.

Ultimately I think I wanted someone to talk to me from the church lay leadership or pastoral staff, but I didn’t catch any of them and they didn’t catch me. Once again I found a church with no coffee hour. And I kinda lost track of which one the pastor was after service, so I never got to talk to him. It’s not the first time this has happened, but usually I’m able to figure it out from the context of them greeting everybody at the door on their way out. There are churches whose pastors (and deacons) dress more obviously pastor-like. All it takes is a name tag, or cloth drape, or little white collar to make the pastor stand out. That would be helpful, because I’m totally unwilling to go up to someone and wrongly guess they are a pastor. It’s just not gonna happen. Last week I greeted the deacon, thinking he was pastor and felt weird enough. Maybe I’ve been sitting too far away.

Anyhow, the service itself was familiar enough. The music was great, performed by a youth-ish choir called (from the bulletin) Metro Stars and the Drake Chorus. The message was roughly in the middle going through some verses in I John. I liked the fact that he mentioned the Gnostics and went a bit in depth in terms of context; the fact that John would have been a young disciple when Jesus was around, now writing a letter in older age to one of the churches. Pastor also mentioned that John was among the three disciples Jesus was closest to; Peter, John and James. And he spoke about the nature of Jesus, stating he was not 50% God and 50% man but rather 100% God and 100% man. He said, “If you try to understand it, you’ll lose your mind.” The Catholic Church would call that a mystery. The fact that it doesn’t make logical sense is part of the point. I’m still working on how I feel about the use of logic in religion. There’s a fair amount of religious stuff that works metaphorically. That conversation is probably for another post.

In the end, since I couldn’t figure out who was church leadership, and no one approached me, I just left. It was a little disappointing a guess. And I’m not sure why God wanted me at this church on Sunday, or if there was nothing more to the mistake.

About what I wrote:I’m really not very happy with this post. I guess that reflects my experience with the church. It seemed like an ok place, but I’m still feeling dissatisfied. It is also why I waited so long to add this up on the website. But it’s got to go up at some point so I guess now is that point.

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Church #36, St Mary’s in Albany

Date: 8/11/13

Church name/type: Historic St Mary’s in Albany, Roman Catholic

Pastor: There were two priests listed in the bulletin and I actually don’t know which one preached; John Provost, or James Lefebvre

Style of worship: formal and concise

Overall Impression: predictable

Thoughts:
So another week, another Catholic church. It was alright. It was a nice day out. The couple people I shook hands with during passing of the peace were cordial enough. The deacon was friendly after mass was finished. No coffee hour here. It’s strange to me how often that is the norm. I was raised in a college Catholic church that was also a Newman center. It was casual and often filled with college students. We always had a coffee hour afterwards. I liked loved mingling after mass. These places without it have no idea what what are missing.

I’ll talk about the building again since it had some character. The church calls itself “Historic” St Mary’s. I guess I am supposed to think of history while inside. It does look old, but up-kept. You learn in schools about the Sistine Chapel and you’re like ‘yeah yeah painted ceilings’, but painted ceilings DO actually look cool. The walls here are painted too. The Virgin Mary and some cherubs hover overhead in bright pastels; saints are farther down the walls. All this is set against a background color somewhere between pink and lavender. The floor is carpeted in a shade of green like emerald, or dark turquoise. The ceiling and floor together give the church an early morning pastoral look- as if we awaited the dawn on a country hillside, colors not quite right without the sun, but beautiful.

Besides a pretty building there wasn’t a whole lot remarkable about this place. I guess the laminated Mass card was helpful. It had most of the repetitious parts of mass so churchgoers could follow along if unfamiliar. It’s pretty much the same every week for Catholics, so your regular churchgoer has that stuff memorized.

Latin of the day:
They thought they could sneak this by me but I’m waaay too quick. Instead of normal English ‘Lamb of God’ refrain they said it in Latin. Thank you years and years of choir! I was able to chant along:
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

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Pope remarks- gay lobby

So I’m late to this, but I wanted to get a few of my thoughts down on *paper* (cyberpaper?). In an interview the Pope gave on a plane, he was asked a question regarding a so-called gay lobby at the Vatican. So first thing I wondered is, what the heck is a gay lobby? This is a term being used by the Italian media to signify a supposed set of gay priests who may have influence in the Catholic Church as an entity. Apparently it stems from something vague the Pope said in June about gay influences in the church. I’m not gonna try and get at what he said then, because I’m more interested in what he’s just said. Here is the direct quote (translated from Italian):

When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept The Lord and have good will, who am I to judge them? They shouldn’t be marginalized. The tendency is not the problem. They are our brothers.

That is what he said and I left context in place as best I could. You would not believe how hard it was to find this quote. Most sources have shortened it to a soundbite: who am I to judge?
I am including a video of his remarks so you can see it for yourself. He mentions alot of things, and all in Italian with translation at the bottom of the screen.

video

As for what I think? It’s nice the Pope is making it clear he isn’t out to remove celibate gay priests. He is again symbolically reaching out in friendship and welcoming gay church membership. We can split hairs over the act itself later (which the church still considers a sin). At least it’s a start. And it’s a far cry from saying gay=pedophile or from Former Pope Benedict saying homosexuals have no business being priests. I’d also point out that sex outside marriage is also still a sin, as is divorce NOT via annulment. There are plenty of places where nobody is bothering shunning the people that commit these sins.