Author: Tracey

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Church #30, Third Reformed Church Albany

Date: 4/7/13

Church name/type: Third Reformed Church, Albany, RCA

Pastor: The sermon was given by a Preaching Elder named Pete Pagerey. He was visiting from First Church in Albany. Not sure who the usual pastor is.

Style of worship: Formal worship structure, mildly casual

Overall Impression: Um, old vibe? Otherwise not much impression at all.

Thoughts: I didn’t get much of a strong vibe from this church. I mean it wasn’t that great, wasn’t that bad. The parking lot is at the back of the church and a fence stops you from walking around to the front door. The back door leads to a hall and rooms attached to the church, but it wasn’t too hard finding the worship space from there. The parishioners seem to have chit-chat time both before and after service in an adjoining room. I didn’t feel like trying the before-service variety, so I just collected my thoughts and waited for things to start. I like the program pamphlet at this place. It gave hymn numbers for each song and even the short responses. If I were a regular member I’m sure I’d have the responses by heart. The fact that they were included makes me feel more welcome as a guest.

The regular pastor was off, so we listened to an Elder (a pastor, I think) borrowed from another church. He did an interesting children’s time about bird calls. We need to learn about different bird’s calls, but god knows our voices without having to look them up in some way. Moving on, the sermon was about Thomas the apostle and his famous reaction to Jesus’ return while Thomas was absent. Thomas so often gets a bad rap. But maybe he shouldn’t. We heard that Thomas was lacking in faith and this was because of ’emotional’ hesitance. Thomas was upset because he couldn’t believe that Jesus would a) leave and then b) come back. So Jesus was nice enough to reappear just for him.

Honestly the message about Thomas lost me somewhere. I think the point was supposed to be -let’s not pick on poor Thomas. I dig that, but the reason was unclear. Are we supposed to see Jesus as someone who indulges us when we don’t believe ’emotionally’? If so, why doesn’t he appear to all of us? What gives Thomas the right to the preferential treatment? Or is Jesus only corporeal for limited time, like he’s running out of…I don’t know, ectoplasm or something? The message confused me enough that I started daydreaming again about the stained glass windows. They are so green and so plain. Why? Don’t stained glass windows usually have pictures? Are we supposed to imagine our own? I don’t mind!

The last thing I will add is the demographic in this church tended older. Those I chatted with after service were probably more than a decade my senior. They assured me their church was diverse, but mostly they looked old and European. The young family was also the black family, so that’s not alot. On the other hand the church was not well filled. One family constitutes a significant chunk if the number is low enough. I guess it’s a bit disappointing either way.

Their website: Needs fixing! There is a link for ‘worship’ that leads to an error message. If I want service times and don’t see them on the main page, I would click the word worship. Having to dig around on a partly broken website for when to show up is not a good first impression.

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JC Superstar

So I like the album Jesus Christ Superstar alot. At this point it’s the only Easter tradition I repeat every year. I was listening to it all holy week, culminating in divvying up the parts and singing the entire thing through with an atheist friend who also loves the musical. It’s basically a passion play disguised as a rock opera. Or a rock opera disguised as a passion play. Musically I find the thing pretty outstanding. Spiritually speaking its a good way to connect me to the story of Easter.

You get to feel the rawness of the emotions coming from Jesus as he struggles with his impending destiny, the anger of Pontius Pilate as he deals with this nuisance of a ‘king’ who won’t even defend himself in the face of death, and the openness of Mary Magdalene as she encounters a man who is complicated far beyond the usual men she has dealings with.
I could muse at length upon her story. The bible doesn’t say much about her; popular cultural belief is that she is a reformed prostitute. JC Superstar hints at the latter and that is how I tend to think of her. I wonder about her untold background. How did she come to her profession? Was it a choice or out of necessity? Does she long for a way out or is she using her self-employment as a shred of independence which most women would have no access to? Obviously she is important to Jesus, perhaps closer than the other apostles. Considering Jesus in more human terms, it’s possible he was in love with her. She seems to wonder so herself. But they do a good job making Jesus an enigma. Does he love her or is he on another plane she cannot quite touch?

JC Superstar does an incredible job fleshing out the story of Jesus and Judas. Written off in the gospels as merely a thief, Superstar paints Judas as a worrier, concerned that Jesus is going to doom them all. He sees the way the priests take notice of Jesus-rabble-rouser and he fears for all their lives. He seems to believe turning Jesus in will result in a slap on the wrist for him. He is shocked that they plan to have him killed. The Judas of JC Superstar is convinced he’s doing the best thing available to him. It’s interesting how this means Judas could actually be the closest one to Jesus. I seem to remember this being the plot of the gnostic gospel of Judas- that Judas is really Jesus’ closest friend. In the gnostic version of the story Judas is the only one who understands that Jesus needs to die so he can rise again. This makes Judas a more heroic figure. In JC Superstar he is more tragic, not understanding the terrible consequences turning Jesus in would have. You really feel for Judas, wondering if it all could’ve happened some other way that wouldn’t have destroyed him.

But my favorite interactions by far are those between Jesus and Pilate. Pilate is intensely angry, perhaps because the Jewish leaders put him in such an impossible spot by demanding that he punish someone whose crime is iffy at best. Perhaps Jesus’ sense of calm determination is too much for Pilate to fathom and pushes his frustration to the limit. Pilate has some of the slickest, suavest, and evilest lines in the musical. He is charmingly terrible, almost as if he’s toying with Jesus, until he snaps and shouts out “Die if you want to, you misguided martyr!” Pilate’s part is always the best to sing; first because it is musically awesome, and second because it allows one to act very nasty and not actually cause harm. It gives me something of an excuse to feed impulses I might have to be mean. But hey, I’m doing it for Holy Week so God has to be cool with it!

I think pretending to be Pilate also brings us back to our humanity- that same humanity that Jesus took onto himself. That same humanity couldn’t handle Jesus’ ideas and had him put to death. Sometimes I think Jesus died because of our sins, simply in that our impulses to kill and have power were the reasons he died. That’s in all of us. Jesus died to show us it’s time to take that away. We can stop being terrible to each other and we can help each other more than necessary. I think that’s a decent way of looking at it.

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Church #29, St George’s Antiochian Orthodox

Date: 3/17/13

Church name/type: St George church, Antiochian Orthodox (liturgy in English)

Pastor: Father Gregory-Francis Des Marais

Style of worship: The liturgy was a unique mix of formal and casual, which I will describe more below.

Overall Impression: Really interesting

Thoughts:
So this is only my second Eastern Orthodox church, and I am still unsure of myself regarding the denomination. I was nervous to stand at the wrong time or insult their traditions somehow. But this place weirdly did NOT meet my expectations for formality. Any Eastern Orthodox Church has a number of formal elements in their service (which is called Divine Liturgy)- however this one seemed to have an added later of casual in the mix. People wore jeans. They trickled in late to very late without anyone acting like it was odd. In many churches, the parent of a noisy child will feel the need to practically run out the door with their kid to assure comparative silence in the church itself. Someone had an unhappy kid and she was simply walked out slowly. So the casual vibe was nice.

The church is very small and box shaped. I was among the first to arrive, but because Matins precedes Liturgy by about an hour, there was some chanting in progress. Because of this constant goings-on, Orthodox Christians don’t have that chatty time where people welcome you seeing you are new. I think that’s ok if one can know to expect it. I didn’t have a prayer book or guide to follow along, but the entire thing was in English with the exception of “Kyrie Eleison” which is two words, so you know…go English!

The homily was about the church season and this Sunday. For most Western Christians, Lent started several weeks ago. For Orthodox Christians it has just started and its called Great Lent. One week previous to Sunday was the call for fasting of meat. This Sunday starts the fasting of cheese and dairy. This Sunday is called CheeseFare Sunday. So now until Easter (Orthodox Easter is May 4th) many in the Orthodox Church will eat only veggies. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, a fast is not considered a mandate, with sin as penalty for skipping it. Part of the sermon reflected on Matthew’s account of the words of Jesus on the topic of fasting. Jesus said when we fast we ought to not look sad, because that’s something Pharisees do to make themselves look holy. Fasting should be none of anyone else’s business; it’s between us and God. We were also reminded that fasting has to have actual meaning to us beyond just declining certain foods, or else it becomes an empty gesture. St Basil called an empty fast the “devil’s fast”. Furthermore, as I pointed out just one post ago, we should not let the money savings from fasting go to waste. Take whatever money you saved by avoiding meat and dairy and donate it to a food bank. I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear this point made in the homily. I hope it gets made a bunch more times in a bunch more churches.

So, near the end of the liturgy was communion. Being unsure, I didn’t go up for this. Somebody did bring me a piece of bread though. I ate it because I figured it would be rude not to. Also I figured they’d know best if I was allowed to have it or not. I’ve since learned that the bread I ate most likely wasn’t the body but plain bread that is to be shared in friendship with anybody, so I would be perfectly allowed to eat it.

Afterwards I was invited by the priest to get some coffee in the adjoining hall. I settled for juice. One man talked to me and asked my name but no one else really did. Many people in this church spoke a second (probably their first) language so maybe they were hesitant to converse with me in English. I waited around for the priest and wound up talking to him for like an hour about Orthodoxy. He was really able to give me some great info on differences between the East and West- that is the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. He has a Catholic background as I do, and this kinda made it that much easier to describe things to me.

For example, the leader of the Orthodox Church is called the Patriarch of Constantinople. He is the lead patriarch among a bunch of patriarchs. This differs from the lead bishop of the Western churches who goes by the title Pope, because the Pope is seen as being on a level above other bishops.

Another thing we talked about was the circumstances leading up to the East/West schism- this of course being the first splitting of the early church into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. There were a few reasons for the split and one of them was the Filioque. It translates to and the Son. So, the early Christian churches had conferences called councils every now and then to decide doctrine or fix canon or agree to call someone a heretic or whatever. There was a big inclusive one at Nicea at which the bishops wrote out The Creed. Many refer to it as The Nicean Creed. It is a statement of believe that starts out:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth…

Then there’s this one spot about the Holy Spirit:

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son…

This last little bit, and the Son, was not added until later. It was added by a relatively exclusive council- far fewer bishops were in attendance and I think possibly none from the East were there. This led the Eastern churches to suspect Filioque was snuck in for nefarious purposes, (back in the day, heresy was a nefarious purpose) and they made a big deal out of it. Eventually the church became divided into a Western half led by a Pope and an Eastern half led by a Patriarch. The official split date is 1054, but it was actually dragged out over centuries. I have trouble imagining a bunch of dudes getting all riled up about whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son or not. Then again, in some ways this was a theological excuse for a political move. Anyway I’m getting more knowledgeable about church history and that’s exciting.

Question: Whats up with the icon of Mary drawn surrounded by a red pepper? Or maybe it’s a red picnic blanket? This icon was at both Orthodox churches on my list so far.

Link: Someone stopped at my post on St Sophia’s to post this link. I thought you might enjoy it.
12 Things About Orthodoxy

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Lent = deprivation and boredom?

I gotta be honest here, Lent is my least favorite season. The music is boring, moods are gloomy, and every Friday you have to think a little harder about dinner. I ask myself what is up with Lent? It is forty days long (minus the Sundays) and being raised Catholic it’s traditional to ask each other, “what are you giving up?” Once as a child I gave up gum. I can’t remember why I settled on gum in particular. Forty days is a pretty long time and I asked my mom if it might be ok just to have one piece if gum. She said, “no you gave that up for Lent.” I try to keep my promises, so I waited. Another thing we did as a family was avoid meat on Lenten Fridays. Since no one in my family knew how to eat veggie, we always had fish sticks. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a fish stick, but it’s basically a mozzarella stick filled with tasteless fish in the place of tasty cheese. They are disgusting and awful.

That was my primary experience of Lent as a child. Now that I’m an adult I have a slightly better idea of what Lent is for, but only slightly. The number forty corresponds to the forty days Jesus fasted and was tempted in the wilderness by Satan before he started preaching. Don’t ask me why this ends in Jesus dying and rising at Easter, jumping the three year gap. I guess the early church wanted to roll all the sadness into one season? By the end of Lent we aren’t fasting in the desert anymore, we are mourning Jesus. This mirrors the disciples who mourn their leader, not understanding He’s coming right back.

So a forty day sad-fest leads to a brief even sadder-fest then we get to celebrate- for one day. Lent seems hardly worth it. Maybe it’s because I sometimes have depression or maybe forty days feels too long for anything, but either way I can’t seem to see much use for Lent. I’ve heard the things it’s supposed to be about. We give up things in life and eat simpler meals to bring us closer to God. How exactly does this happen? I don’t know because I’ve never understood deprivation helping us get to God. Deprivation just makes me feel deprived. Fasting makes me feel hungry. Neither of these things helps me focus on God in any special way. But fasting is common in lots of religious traditions, so it must work for some people, right?

If Lent was created by the early church I can sort of understand the suffering to obtain purity mentality. The early church was big into martyrdom and torment; they thought it made one more holy. It was kinda their way of dealing with the persecution they faced. As a riff off that I get it. But there are lots of Christians today who don’t have to deal with that level of suffering, nor do we generally consider it good to suffer. So I suggest we repurpose the Lenten deprivation to make it more useful. Pick a fast (refrain from something), make it short, and then do it. Ask yourself the following questions:
1) what did I not have?
2) could I give this up again?
3) taking the money and time I have saved, what can I do to devote it towards helping others?
4) how did it feel going without the thing I gave up and what can I do to help those for whom this type of deprivation is not optional?

Instead of experiencing suffering for suffering’s sake, this type of fast could instead be a way for us all to be reminded that we should be working towards alleviating suffering in the world. My plan is to pick a fast and try this. I’ll let you know if it leads anywhere interesting.

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Church #28, St Peter’s Episcopal in Albany

Date: 3/10/13

Church name/type: St Peter’s Church, Episcopal Church USA

Pastor: Reverend Paul Hartt

Style of worship: Formal traditional style utilizing forms from a prayer book and hymn book

Overall Impression: surprising!

Thoughts:
The first few noticeables at this church didn’t seem promising. It was rather dark and the organ was playing grumpy sounding music. My opinion went up as the service went forward, so I think I can explain these first two items easily enough: 1) the space seems mainly lit by sunlight 2) it’s lent, and the music is often slow and dreary during lent.

Anyways, I noticed some other things as the service went on. The floor is an interesting mosaic of tiles along the main and side aisles. The front of the church is this kinda multifaceted dome. The children’s time was at the very beginning of the service and I heard a story I don’t remember hearing before. It was about Joshua and the twelve stones. Just before they get to enter the promised land, the Israelites have to cross the Jordan which is parted for them like the Red Sea was. Once they are crossed, Joshua has them gather twelve stones (I guess from the river bed) and set them up nearby. Then Joshua says, “When your kids ask why we are keeping twelve rocks around, tell them they help us remember how God saved us from bondage in Egypt and led us to the promised land.” So that was really cool. I also liked the verses used for the sermon: the story of the prodigal son. The pastor talked about how we might identify with any of five characters in this story- yes five. His descriptions were so detailed I actually found myself daydreaming about them. And yes, that’s a compliment. There are so many ways this story relates to life. Especially if you think beyond the story into the befores and afters.

A son leaving home and living dangerously only to return; there are lots of ways this could play out. We can think about what his journey was like and where he went. Were there people he hurt along the way? Maybe it is up to him to reach out to those people and make amends.

The other son in the story is shocked and angered at the fuss dad makes over wayward son. Have we ever been close to someone who is seemingly rewarded for one tiny good following a string of evils? How can we learn to accept this and be gracious to our brother?

The dad is willing to accept his son back into his life even though he spent through half their money. Can we do the same for another who we love?

There are also servants in this guy’s household who witness the event from the edges. How does it touch us to see this from the outside? Can we learn from what us going on here? Are we able to join in the father’s excitement or are we going to become upset as the other son did?

There is a fifth character element in the unknown of what the son did on his journey while he was off living selfishly. Perhaps he hurt many people. I can think of examples of this from ex-girlfriends to pals he stuck with the bill at the tavern. If we are this fifth person how do we respond? Can we find it in ourselves to forgive him who wronged us? Can we find ways to move on with our lives?

After the service was all done I wandered to the back of the church to say hello to this pastor. So, remember how I’m always saying that the best welcome statement is not one of, “I hope you come back!” (pressure) but instead, “I’m glad you came!” ? Well when I shook his hand he said, “I’m so glad you came today!” In my brain I said “AWESOME!” to this perfect greeting and I smiled. I asked about snacks because I couldn’t remember if we were told ‘fellowship’ or ‘coffee’ was occurring after service and I didn’t want to sound weird. I guess ‘snacks’ sounds a little weird too. But no matter, because immediately after he directed me to the door to the gathering space and woman named Carly came up to me and offered to walk me there. She was nice and chatty and dressed snappy. She reminds me of my awesome chatty aunts. We talked easily about a bunch of things and she introduced me to a number of other church members. We were among the last to leave. I even got to give out my website cards.

Overall this turned out to be a pretty nice Sunday. I like this place- that is I like the people and the atmosphere. Carly basically invited me back to any holiday or Sunday imaginable, so maybe I’ll return for a week at some point.

The choir: Again with the strong choral presence! The choir was great and they comprised a decent chunk of the congregation. Is this a thing with downtown or pipe organs or what?

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Musings on Empathy

This morning I am having some good talks with Dan and wanted to share a bit of it. We were discussing empathy and it’s role in Christianity. Empathy means understanding the feelings of another. One school of thought says that Christianity is the author of empathy. Dan and I call bullstuff on this idea. Empathy is the reason humans form societies, which makes it older than Christianity by a lot. If none of us had any regard for the feelings of others we would be solitary creatures and would not want to associate with others. It would be too hard putting up with another person if you didn’t care anything about them.

Christianity definitely places some emphasis on empathy. Jesus came and said things; many different things that are interpreted many ways, but a lot of his key points seem empathy driven. He said to give more to others than what’s necessary. He said the poor should be considered and not ignored. He helped heal the sick and he helped heal those suffering mentally from guilt and sadness. Empathy for those even unlike you- as I see it, this was his big takeaway point.

Of course another aspect that gets pulled in is that of consequences. Many Christians seem to believe we cannot be good without consequences for doing bad. I’ve been wondering if the Christian concept of hell, divine retributions, and punishments are necessary if we have empathy. I know atheists who are capable of being nice to others. That doesn’t come from them being worried about hell, so where else could it come from besides an empathy that is within them? I have heard the argument that there isn’t a need for god/the divine punishment concept because of humans being capable of figuring out on their own what is right. This is grounded in human beings having empathy. But not all people have a working version of empathy. Those without it are either called sociopaths or psychopaths. I’ve been wondering if the rigidity of rules vs. punishment sometimes seen in Christianity is a good thing for those who lack empathy. What other reason could they have for behaving well? Or would the same lack of concern for others translate to a lack of concern with God?

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Church #27, Westminster Presbyterian Church

Date: 2/24/13

Church name/type: Westminster Presbyterian Church/Presbyterian Church, USA

Pastor: Associate Pastor Frances Wattman Rosenau

Style of worship:casual formal, similar to other Protestant formats

Overall Impression: good

Thoughts: Nothing too unusual; this place seems fairly middle of the road. I was able to find the place easily enough and on driving into the parking lot, an attendant notified me of an empty spot. A pretty good start!

Inside the church is nice looking- a very tall space with tall, very blue stained glass windows. Rather than depicting a single scene, each window is a stack of four scenes in squares and one half circle scene at the top. The altar area is paneled with carved wood reminiscent of some of the carvings I saw in the Cathedral (Immac. Concep.) two churches ago. The fellowship area is nice-looking too. It was almost like the welcome area of a good hotel; bright, comfortable, pleasant. This church seems well-kept.

I noticed maybe a quarter of the attendance was the choir and they seem well-practiced. There is some talent here I think. The music had several parts and sounded difficult, yet I heard no sour notes. I am impressed. During greeting time people did a bit of moving to shake hands but not overmuch. I stayed put to see who would come to me. I got three handshakes although I was surrounded by more than three people. I noticed they greeted each other warmly enough. And all you really have to say is “peace” and walk away. So, I feel like there was a bit of missed opportunity there.

The sermon was on John’s account of Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple. The story is one I like because of its complexity. You have Jesus as the son of God getting all physical and flipping tables over, sending coins and doves scattering everywhere. He is pissed. What was that like? Is he righteous, carrying himself like royalty? Is he brute force acting in rage? Is he a whirlwind, moving so fast no one can think fast enough to stop him? And there’s the dichotomy of loving others while ruining at least a few people’s days. I mean dove sellers gotta make a living, right? Our sermon spoke to the picture of a Jesus with lots of zeal. One particular set of churches called Mars Hill Church is about making Jesus more “manly” and getting away from an image they feel is too gentle and “feminine”. But why do they not use this passage? Maybe it’s because Jesus is still not encompassing their idea of masculinity here. He says clearly what he thinks and takes clear action. He doesn’t simply curse and rampage, he shakes up the status quo to make people rethink things. The pastor left us with the question of our own lives and when it is necessary to “overturn tables”. I like the point and I think it’s interesting that we are left to grapple with what that might mean. I suppose this could be seen as a negative or positive. On the one hand it is highly encouraging of individual thought and interpretation, which I like. On the other hand, you have a pulpit just begging to be used. It might be ok to give some detail as to what would constitute the overturning of tables in a “divine zeal”. The former point gives nice insight into the variety of faith flavors going on in this church; if preaching becomes too specific it could risk losing the audience. Last thought here is that I’m soo glad I don’t have to be a pastor.

After service I got a few more hellos and greetings. I sat in for part of a series of circle discussions on a book the pastor is reading. That was not too bad. It again reinforced the diversity of belief this church seems to house. We talked a little about this and that- Gnostics and Nicean counsels and Evangelicals. We tried to get a definition for The Word vs. the word. That proved remarkably close to impossible. I wanted much more (as always) but time was up and I had to go.

Overall the people seem nice. I think the average age is a bit older than me but not creaky-old. And this may also explain the energy and greetings tending slightly towards the more reserved.

Website?: I found three versions of the church website.
1) Mobile version on my phone is very terse but pertinent. On top are location, service time, and parking. Convenient!
2) Web version of the same has lots of good info and appears up-to-date.
3) For some reason my maps program links a third website which is mostly nonfunctional links. I presume it’s an old site. Interestingly, the service time and location listed on the bad site are still accurate and fairly easy to find.

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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.