Church-filled weekend
I've been at church almost as much as I've been at home this weekend! This is unusual; most of the time I'm at church for Liturgy and nothing else (which is to say, an hour and a half once a week). I don't often even stay for coffee hour, mostly because the parish hall is pretty small and I don't do well with crowds. But I was there for several hours yesterday, and then this morning and this evening.
Yesterday, I went to a day-long session based around the speaker Father James Bernstein, who's just written a book called Surprised by Christ: My Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity. It was a fascinating day, filled not just with his talk about his own personal experiences, but with discussion sessions about specific parts of the Gospel, the symbolism within the way an Orthodox church is designed and what's in it, a Q&A session, and much more. Fascinating stuff--and his book is really interesting, too.
Then, this morning, I went to Liturgy, of course, and this evening we had a campfire/singalong/barbecue. Not a whole lot of people came--but then again, this week was Vacation Bible School, and most people start the new regular school year on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I think a lot of folks were just overwhelmed and/or exhausted. But it was a lot of fun!! Who knew Father John could be so silly when he wants to? (xwordslingerx: He wore a cowboy hat! No, I'm not kidding. And read silly poetry. It was hilarious.)
So I'm finally home. Tomorrow, I'm going up to Issaquah (about 45 minutes' drive) to spend a few hours at my friends' house. They've just bought a condo, so I'm excited to see it, and they've asked me (!) to bring Doctor Who. How can I possibly say no to that?
Bedtime for Lissa now... but it's been a fun weekend!
Yesterday, I went to a day-long session based around the speaker Father James Bernstein, who's just written a book called Surprised by Christ: My Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity. It was a fascinating day, filled not just with his talk about his own personal experiences, but with discussion sessions about specific parts of the Gospel, the symbolism within the way an Orthodox church is designed and what's in it, a Q&A session, and much more. Fascinating stuff--and his book is really interesting, too.
Then, this morning, I went to Liturgy, of course, and this evening we had a campfire/singalong/barbecue. Not a whole lot of people came--but then again, this week was Vacation Bible School, and most people start the new regular school year on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I think a lot of folks were just overwhelmed and/or exhausted. But it was a lot of fun!! Who knew Father John could be so silly when he wants to? (xwordslingerx: He wore a cowboy hat! No, I'm not kidding. And read silly poetry. It was hilarious.)
So I'm finally home. Tomorrow, I'm going up to Issaquah (about 45 minutes' drive) to spend a few hours at my friends' house. They've just bought a condo, so I'm excited to see it, and they've asked me (!) to bring Doctor Who. How can I possibly say no to that?
Bedtime for Lissa now... but it's been a fun weekend!