How was church today?

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I was so lucky two Sundays ago when I delivered the message at a local church that is probably the most beautiful church in the city. I sat behind the pulpit and listened to the expert musician play and sing hymns while I looked at the stained glass windows and one especially beautiful window that streamed in the light from outside. It was so good for the soul.
 
Missed church on Sunday so attended a youtube service from Knox Presbyterian today. A good sermon by Rev. Tremblay on becoming as children to enter God's intended place for us. I used to take my Dad to Knox near the end of his life so always good to worship here even if it is only virtual. Enjoyable music as well so glad I attended.
 
Children are more attuned to the abstract light of a friend within (imaginary?) a non entity that disappears for adult years as folk strive to be better than the Joneses. Then this sense returns later after a turnaround in the question: "What did I do that for?"

Most things are done for emotional reason without mind nor the aughts! The unbalanced drive to give us the experience of being off the razor' edge ... sharp about learning the surroundings? By times there is no concern what forever about the surroundings ... sense is in denial defining somnambulance ... sometimes known as the walking dead or psychosomatic!

Something to look into as dark and mysterious domain --- I learned this from a noted Jungian! He wondered about mindless folk in deep psychosis and denial of just about everything but their centered egos!

It is a state best wandered in and out of rather than being stuck on one pole ... skewed?
 
Maybe some people chose family activities instead because of the day it was. We heard nothing from our crew so made ourselves a picnic lunch and went for a walk beside the lake - a bit like Memory Lane.

Got back and oldest kid jumped on the brakes as she drove by. Came in for a short visit before spending time with two of her own young. Hubby noted later that it would have been nice to be included!

Second oldest came over with a bar of delicious dark chocolate. During the visit the next kid video chatted for a long time . Final kid checked in during the evening.
 
I noticed our views vary from week to week. My message for next Sunday might be one of the most important that I have ever given. It is about boundaries around our communities and our beliefs about Jesus or Christ.
 
In our case, the number of participants is relatively stable. Just like last Summer, we have a little less participants when the weather is nice. One difference, though, is that we are partly open for up to 25 persons in church. Numbers vary (2-4 in French, up to 25 at the English service), but when I add up number of people online plus those in church, we come to roughly the same.
 
We introduced our new to us baby grand Yamaha piano in our online service for today. Brenda chose Haygood Hardings's "Homecoming" for the prelude expressing our hope that the church will be the home for this piano for the rest of its life. The prelude and postlude are beautiful pieces of music that helped me finally understand the fuss about grand pianos. They really do sound better than even our good upright Yamaha. The service is longer than usual, but I believe worth the extra time. It already had 25 views by 9 this morning. Here is the link:
 
Our service was not good this morning. I might try and re-watch the taped version later today. We're having a real problem with the sound during the livestream. It appears to be a bandwidth issue, and of course, Bell has been feeding us the line that we don't have the appropriate level of cables in this neighbourhood. However, that doesn't explain why this was not a problem when we started, and has been getting worse. However, the "sermon" was a pre-recorded Zoom conversation between the Rev and our Region's Youth Ministry Co-ordinator, Jeffrey Dale, around the topic of mental health, and the sound was fine for that part, and I always enjoy seeing Jeffrey, so that was nice.
 
I enjoyed popping in to St Paul's in GP, AB. @GordW had today off so another friend was preaching. Her message was excellent about logos vs vexing voices. I may watch again.
 
BetteTheRed said:
Our service was not good this morning. I might try and re-watch the taped version later today. We're having a real problem with the sound during the livestream. It appears to be a bandwidth issue, and of course, Bell has been feeding us the line that we don't have the appropriate level of cables in this neighbourhood. However, that doesn't explain why this was not a problem when we started, and has been getting worse. However, the "sermon" was a pre-recorded Zoom conversation between the Rev and our Region's Youth Ministry Co-ordinator, Jeffrey Dale, around the topic of mental health, and the sound was fine for that part, and I always enjoy seeing Jeffrey, so that was nice.
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That sound issue must be frustrating for you all who work so hard to provide a worship experience. I wonder if the 'traffic' on your neighbourhood network cables is increasing on Sunday mornings? I have no real knowledge of how such things work - but to my simplistic view seems like that may be an issue. No doubt someone will explain. I've had a few instances at home where I get "your internet connection is unstable" messages - they seem to pop up at random times, when nobody else in the house is actually even online.
 
BetteTheRed said:
It appears to be a bandwidth issue, and of course, Bell has been feeding us the line that we don't have the appropriate level of cables in this neighbourhood.
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Then try Rogers. At work, we have locations where we can get fibre or decent quality cable connections from Rogers (or Cogeco if that's the local cable company) and only old school DSL from Bell.
 
Sermon was fine with Rev. Pentland talking about the importance of the common good. With all the nutty anti-mask and anti-vaccination people in the news in Alberta it was a timely sermon.
 
Nutty people in a world possessed by folk that have it all right? Is this a stray comment ... gone nuts?

I find that the eternal mystery is just overwhelming (Paul Tillich) driving the requirement of a lot of questions ... fundamentally avoided by all those that believe they have the entire thing in hand --- Eli Jah and after the Sha' out there in the wind shadow! May stir a pool of curiosity!
 
jimkenney12 said:
We introduced our new to us baby grand Yamaha piano in our online service for today. Brenda chose Haygood Hardings's "Homecoming" for the prelude expressing our hope that the church will be the home for this piano for the rest of its life. The prelude and postlude are beautiful pieces of music that helped me finally understand the fuss about grand pianos. They really do sound better than even our good upright Yamaha. The service is longer than usual, but I believe worth the extra time. It already had 25 views by 9 this morning. Here is the link:
Click to expand...
A good sermon Jim and the new baby grand sounds like it will be an excellent addition to worship!
 
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