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January 05, 2004
Chu'ch
The past few months, I've been attending more Christian services than I have in quite a while. It's been something of a strange dance. It reminds me of a trip to Phoenix several years ago.
I was calling on one of the IT divisions of American Express. Afterwards, I found myself ambling about a large mall. I found myself in a jewelry store, of all places. So brotherman calls me over from browsing, and I say out loud, "Ok salesman, shoot me your best shot." I had absolutely no intention of buying a thing, but I wanted to see if I could be seduced. That's the story of how my wife got a ring with five diamonds for that year's anniversary.
I'm not casting about for a church home, but I am being open. I'm saying, "OK preacher, shoot me your best shot." I'm being highly analytical about it. I'm taking note of their devices and skills. It has taken me through a couple churches here in the South Bay in the past two years. But as I mentioned before, something magical is happening at St. John's Episcopal Church here in Los Angeles, and I can feel it.
The idea that inspired me to write today was that it suddenly occured to me that St. John's is about the only thing in my life today that follows me all the way back to the 1970s. Since moving back to California, I attended about twice or three times a year between 97 and 2002. This year, I'm sure to go once a month if not more.
Today we installed a new minister for community affairs, and suddenly the black clergy are front and center. There were a couple dozen visitors from Christ the Good Shepherd and one of my Old School favorites Church of the Advent. Every pew had a body all the way to the back of the nave, which is unusual for St. John's on this particular Sunday in the calendar. The service stretched till noon, and there was more laughter in church than I can ever remember.
But I'll tell you what did it for me. Hit me right in the heart. It was the bells. Well, it was the incense too, but it was the re-introduction of the chimes into the liturgy. If you're familiar with the Catholic Mass (Vatican II), you know that there are chimes rung by the alter boy right after '..do this for the rememberance of me.' and the blessing of the host and the bread. I haven't heard this in an Episcopal service here on the west coast in at least 20 years. Our new rector is bringing it way back and moving it way forward.
What I love about church services and churches themselves are the connection they provide to history. The tradition of ritual, standing, sitting, kneeling, reciting, embracing, singing, eating, meditating, praying, moving through the sanctuary, smelling the incense, crossing, bowing. It moves its way deep into you powerfully. Even as I relieve my boredom staring up into the rafters, there is continuity back to my own adolescence and that of generations before me.
Like my unnatural attraction to Pasadena, California and a certain kind of black woman, there is little I can do about something so deep in my bones. And I don't mind it at all.
So while all the analytics continue, there is a very simple slot in my person for St. John's Church, its relics and its ceremonies.
Posted by mbowen at January 5, 2004 10:18 PM
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Comments
Your comments box still won't remember my information. And your radio dials have no words next to them.
Have you been the the John Coltrane Church in sanny franny? I almost meant to go and never did. Yes, I know it is nowhere near you, but I'm just asking. Good church singing makes me reconsider my atheism.
Posted by: TLL at January 6, 2004 08:17 AM
I hate that. The best thing to do is to use IE's settings to do the auto-fill. It will work across MT blogs.
I've heard of the Coltrane Church but I never attended all the many times I was up in the Bay Area. Didn't they close it down or come close to closing it just a few years ago?
Posted by: Cobb at January 6, 2004 09:34 AM