All Saints Episcopal Church

I didn't expect for this to happen, but I found a church. Found in the sense of "fell in love with and kept coming back to." Whodathunk?! But All Saints is awesome. I feel like I understand my Episcopal friend Brede better now.

So I've been to All Saints the last three Sundays. Yes--three! That's more services I've attended consecutively since middle school. Hooray! The real reason I came that first day was to sing in the choir. My Mom gets the All Saints newsletter and the blurb in the back said "Summer Choir Continues! All tuneful voices are welcome to sing any or all of the Sundays through September 5." Seeing as I might be working with a choir in South Africa and have never sang with one before, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine two of my summer goals--go to new churches and learn how choirs operate! And I was totally right.

The first day, about three and a half weeks ago, I found the choir room and tentatively sat with the altos. Seeing as I had never sung a note in an organized manner in my life, I figured, hey, I probably can't sing too high and I'm a girl, so I'm probably an alto. I sat next to one of the nicest women ever, who soon suggested that we fill in to the front. So there I was, first choir rehearsal ever, and I'm in the front row! Plus this woman, Susan, started asking questions about me, what I do, my singing experience (um... none), etc. Somehow luck had it that Susan was very experienced and knew about everyone in the All Saints Community. By the end of the service she was introducing me to anyone I might have wanted to meet, including the South African priest and the lovely woman who warmed up the choir, Zanaida.

I won't bore you with the details of choir practice, but it was fun, we rehearsed upstairs with the organ, then put on choir robes! and sung our service. Walking and singing was a little tough, but I'm getting a handle on it.

choir robes!

What fun. At the end of that first service, I had met a lot of people and gotten a hang of it. Plus Zanaida and I were going to have a voice lesson! Hooray! That lesson was really awesome and during it I learned that... lo and behold... I'm a soprano! Oops. Live and learn. 

So for the second service, I sang soprano. Glory be to God. At that second service (August 1), Susan Russell preached. She was great; she talked about spring cleaning for the church and mentioned her and her wife's approach to cleaning their garage. The third service (August 8), was preached by Zelda Kennedy, a very powerful black woman speaker who relied pretty heavily on scripture, which was less my cup of tea than Susan Russell's general morals etc., but still interesting. I enjoy the services, though my mom has a point in that there is a LOT of standing and sitting during the service. (doesn't bother me that much, cuz we have to stand to sing anyway) I take Communion during the service, because, well everybody does! Everyone gets to eat the wafer and taste the wine! No "you must have been baptized yet" business. I like that inclusiveness (Catholics - 0, Episcopalians-1). At the last service I even got to lead the sopranos to communion! Woo. 

The view from where I take communion...

Excellent. It must be noted that All Saints is SUPER liberal. And maybe that's why I like it. Every Sunday they have an "Action Table" where congregants can write letters to their senators and representatives about things like the recent Arizona law, or the death penalty, or gay marriage! In that realm, the church even has a group for gay congregants. (= super liberal) 

So overall, a pretty awesome church. I'll be there again this Sunday, tragically for the last time until next summer, but I've had a ball so far and I've learned a lot about singing and how great Christian/Episcopal churches can be. Great success.

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

A little over a week ago I attended another church, this one in New York City! A one-day vacation from the religious services of Los Angeles, Ben, Kebra, and I headed out one Saturday morning from New Haven. After just barely finding parking, we walked to the cathedral. This cathedral was much more a real cathedral than last week, the Cathedral of Our Lady of our Lady of Angels. And while last week was the real Catholic cathedral, St. John was Episcopal! ...let's just say those religious designations would not have been anyone's first guess after seeing either building--inside or out.

Another "house of prayer for all people," the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was imposing but in a very different way--more Catholic than a catholic cathedral (what a contrast to the last entry!), it was dark, with buttresses and stained glass windows. But unlike most Catholic churches, St. John had an AIDS memorial, an FDNY memorial, a sweet art exhibition, and some rather surprisingly modern stained glass.

 (and there are Ben and Kebra in this picture of the sanctuary!)

Ben got me to this cathedral with a promise of an AIDS memorial, and I was not disappointed. Within the humongous sanctuary, on the right and past the tribute to American Literature, was a rainbow flag and a book of names of people lost to AIDS. I felt acutely aware of being in New York City--the initial epicenter of the epidemic and where Professor Chauncey lost many friends. Some religions are great, especially the kind that don't call AIDS the "gay disease" and shun hiv positive people.

So nice. Also nice, the awesome wood spike FDNY memorial:

This church had a long long empty stone-floored area leading up to the pews and the various altars. There were entirely separate altars around the stone middle-area. One especially neat place had a guestbook at the entrance, leading into a black tent set up behind the altar area, shielded by huge ornamental stone gargoyles. It was an awesome art exhibit! They had filmed the dinner table of various cultures for a while and set up a holograph-type thing to project, in a sped-up way, those meals. Here is a picture I took at the table we were sitting at, to give you an idea:

It was totally awesome! How cool! And then it turned into a slightly creepy table full of arms!

Kinda creepy, when you think about it. The other coolnesses of the church consisted of some awesome statues, like of Shakespeare, Ghandi, Lincoln,etc.

Neat, right? Note the four people all squished together on the left. The right I think was George Washington, though Hamilton was there somewhere too I think.

Last neat part: The stained glass windows! Ben kept coming up and showing me how they would have a basketball player in stained glass or a hockey player! What fun! Other modern stuff as well, like field hockey and tennis and things not even related to sports!

Sadly, I attended this church before the lovely new iPhone update that allows iPhone zooming! Get ready for even better pictures taken by smart phone!

Apologies for being a bit brief, but as there was no actual service, there were fewer epiphanies, other than that cathedrals don't need to be Catholic! They can be Episcopalian too. Yay New York City.