respublica

Going back to church?

This is an interesting study done by the Pew Research Center on whether Americans who typically attend religious services at least once a month have gone back to in person worship or are continuing watching online. There are a lot of numbers in this article, but in essence, they found that 1 in 5 people who were regular church goers, are still doing virtual rather than going back to in person worship.

I believe this is true even though the Sunday numbers at our church have increased as months pass. However, many are still doing church through the internet or streaming onto their televisions. The creation of virtual services was a godsend during the times when we were pretty much locked down. Schools used virtual learning and Churches were able to do this as well. I rather liked this technology, but nothing regarding worship can substitute for the real thing.

I do believe that it is a blessing for people who cannot get out due to health reasons or something else. Virtual technology came along at the absolute best time.  click to enlarge

In the belly of the whale while preaching

I came across this photo today, purported to be a 17th Century Polish serpent pulpit.

Being married to someone who for years climbed into many varieties of pulpits, this really caught my attention and had me looking into this further. This one is in Dobroszów, a village in in south-western Poland. From 1750.

But it turns out this may actually be a whale and whale pulpits were quite come in eastern Europe during the 1700's. One explanation I found was this:

"A preacher coming out of its mouth looks like a Biblical prophet. But that is not all! The thing is that in the Middle Ages preachers liked to use typological interpretations of the Old and New Testament stories; basically the idea was that the events of the Old Testament were seen to prefigure ones found in the Gospels. In this case, Jonah staying in the belly of the fish for three days was anticipating Christ staying for three days in his tomb after his death. And so, the scene of Jonah being swallowed by the fish was juxtaposed with the Entombment of Christ, while the depictions of Jonah emerging from the whale accompanied the images of Resurrection".

This link explains and also has photos of eastern Europe churches with these whale pulpits still standing. I find this fascinating.

A sad church closing

We knew this was coming but had hopes there was a chance it could be avoided. St. John's Lutheran Church in Maryville decided their last service will be this coming Sunday, January 2. Dale preached there in October (actually Halloween) for its 175th anniversary and listened to many members grieving over this possibility. Membership had been going down for some time, there had been no full time pastor as well.

What makes this particularly sad is this is the mother church for almost all the local Lutheran churches in the area, most of whom are doing well. It is a beautiful church, a historic white, clapboard exterior with a gorgeous sanctuary. It was begun in 1846 while Holy Cross in Collinsville was begun in 1848, one of first to come after St. John's. What's difficult to take in is why they could not make a go of it, Maryville is growing by leaps and bounds, but without a full time pastor, things get tricky.

The amazingly high pulpit has long been a hallmark at this church and something many visiting pastors had qualms about climbing into it.

Our friend and Holy Cross member, Louis Meier attended that Sunday. He grew up in that church. Actually quite a few people from Holy Cross were there that day.

Dale's Sunday School Video

Last week Dale went out to a farm field near Glen Carbon to do a selfie video for this week's Holy Cross Sunday School lesson. I wrote about this effort and our work to get it actually uploaded to where it was supposed to go. We did it. Ha. With help from our church's vicar.

If you are interested in what he did, here it is.

Dale's first selfie video

Dale is off this morning to make a short video for our church's Sunday School. Each week since the Coronavirus shut things down, Holy Cross Sunday School has had members and staff making videos pertaining to certain Biblical lessons. Many are fun, others serious, some with music. They are then posted each Sunday on Facebook. Dale was asked to make one and the scripture he received was from the book of Ruth.

Now one thing is for certain. Dale has never made a video, selfie or otherwise so I volunteered to do the video while he taught his Ruth lesson. We spent some time after church yesterday talking to our vicar who has sort of been the middle man between the film maker and the guy who edits and uploads it. Our concern was how to get the file to them. Emailing a video takes a lot of space and won't work. The vicar showed me on my phone how to use Google Drive to send it to them.

Dale wanted a refresher on this today before he left and it got so muddled I told him just bring it back and we'll get it sent from here. He had been putting off doing this until yesterday when all of a sudden he got very excited about it so I have to wonder just what he has in mind. Instead of doing it inside like most people, he chose to go out to a farm field near Glen Carbon. The last thing I mentioned when he was leaving was "maybe do this in landscape view rather than portrait. And of course, he said he was going with portrait.

So we shall see by the end of the morning.

Look!

Walk up to a Nativity Scene and you'll see all the figures looking at the baby Jesus. Stand a little closer and you'll see the baby Jesus looking at you. As He still does. With love.

Last Easter was a different time

The beauty of the lilies we have taken for granted each Easter, are no where to be seen today. At least in person. Here is Holy Cross during past Easters and by the grace of God, will be next year.

Good Friday in Collinsville

For the first time in at least a month, Dale and I went over to our house in Collinsville. He was to preach at Holy Cross Good Friday evening and we used the daytime hours to get some much needed yard work and in home work done. It was interesting to watch the new process for getting Friday night fish at the American Legion across the street from our house. With the quarantine going on, people could not go into the building or gather in groups in the park. It was all call in and outside, drive-up-pickup. 

The parking lot was filled with orange cones which directed cars to move in a circular fashion beginning on the Legion exit drive and manuvering across the lot to where men pointed the way to the pickup lane. It never became as crowded as the days when you could go inside. People came and went quickly while the Legion people assigned to run out the bags of food did their job efficiently. At least as far as we could tell from our porch. 

We did not get fish, but had our traditional Good Friday meal which is a big salad with various lettuces, chopped tomato, chopped hard boiled eggs, radishes, cheese pieces and avocado. I make an olive oil and lemon juice dressing with minced garlic and salt and pepper. Some crunchy bread to go with it. We've done this for years and it's a tradition which I believe began during Dale's days as a parish pastor who would preach that evening. A light meal would mean he'd be able to stay awake and be sharp mentally.

 

And as it happened, he did preach last night at Holy Cross.

But before that he looked like this:

Looking at this picture, I'm embarrassed by the messy kitchen, but when you show up to this house with all kinds of things you'll need, everything gets plunked on the island or counters. Camping out is what we call our times here.

Good Friday

For many of us, Good Friday has a more effecting meaning. Not only have we been sequestered for weeks, but the future is uncertain. The cross is becoming a lifeline and that is a good thing in all this. What we can be sure of on this day and the days following is that there is hope, a certain hope. And so we pray with faith that the Jesus who went to the cross, died and rose again is with us still.

We pray as He did before he was arrested, "Come with me and Pray."

 

Jesus at our door

It's Maundy Thursday and time to consider Jesus.

Surely I am with you always, even until the end of the age.