Sunday at the Chan

I am going to break one of my own blogging rules here, and talk about my church. Generally I don't - with the exception of my earliest posts - because, well, my blog is for me to post stuff I find interesting, not to talk about my 'profession' as it were. Not that I consider it a profession; I prefer words like 'vocation' or 'calling', but, you know.

So my church, UTown, tried out the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts this weekend. It was a hoot. Things got off to a bit of a shaky start: running late, a couple of kids went missing (not really); but after the initial hurdle we were going off like a bucket of prawns in the sun.

Highlight 1: seeing John Fluevog in a mumu (sp?) as a shepherd in our 'Adult Christmas Pageant'. He definitely gets the award for the 'funkiest shepherd in Bethlehem'. Speaking of our Christmas Pageant, basically my Worship Pastor and Kids Pastor twisted my arm and convinced me (at very short notice) to run the play using adult actors, after it became clear that the kids weren't going to be ready in time.

Highlight 2: sweetest James Brown-ish version of 'We three Kings' I ever did hear. In fact, the 'Heavenly Host Band' (the name adopted by our worship band this week), was so sweet, it was sweeter than u2's sweetest thing, and that's sweet. Our three Kings were pretty sweet too: one of the kings even had a crown complete with flashing LED lights. They were definitely well accessorised, in their blue satin bath robes and plastic jewelry.

Highlight 3: being in a worship space that didn't stink like rotting wood, mouldy carpet, and 30 years of neglect, (and having a cinema screen to project stuff onto!)

Bummer 1: having to move all our sound gear to the Chan and back again.

Bummer 2: the fact that the worship space was a cinema and therefore acoustically dead. It was ear drum bursting loud at the front, and very quiet at the back. The space sucked up the sound (including our voices) like a... rather dry sponge suddenly made wet, or something. We are used to being jammed in together like sardines, and not only can we smell each other intimately, we can hear each other sing. I missed that.

Bummer 3: the cost, but I won't go into that.

Oh yes, my in-laws (including my sister-in-law, and her hubbie) are in town, which has added to the craziness quota for sure. But things are good. They're still grieving the loss of their daughter/sister to Canada, and so that has caused a bit of angst, but that's the way it goes when two become one, we "leave our father and mother..."

Spiritual insight of the week: just finished reading "Christ the Lord" by Anne Rice (see previous post), and it was a beautiful and ennobling experience to read it. I felt touched by the glory and the mystery of God as I closed the book, and contemplated the final sentence: " 'Father,' I said. 'I am your Child.' " Jesus was sensitively and with obvious love, presented as a real human child, struggling with his growing awareness that he is also different; that he is also divine. A compelling, historical, and expertly researched book that avoids sentimentality, but presents a vivid picture of the world Jesus would have grown up in. Nonetheless, the whole thing reads like a prayer.