— welcome back —
We continue our story of our experience at St John the Divine — http://www.stjohndivine.org/
Of course, GOD IS GOOD, and although we felt like leaving after the terrible experience with security, we stayed, and were blessed by parts of the service. The singing of the Agnus Dei by 4000+ people in that giant space was quite moving, and the Silent Night, accompanied by 4000 lit taper candles was most assuredly a “God moment”.
Moving on (enough ranting from me :-)… ) OTHER NEWS:
We’ve discovered a lovely New York institution, the Westside Market http://www.wmarketnyc.com/ which has the most amazing deli that I have ever scene, and have enjoyed walking the cramped isles for organic produce for “the holidays”.
For Christmas Day, we slept in, wrecked from our late night at the Cathedral, and then headed back to the Westside Market. Eating an vegetarian Australian-American Christmas dinner, we mixed fake-chicken patties with roast veges and topped it off with the most fabulous New York cheesecake and Rainforest Alliance coffee http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/ — a blessed time.
Today, boxing day, or the first Sunday after Christmas, we discovered another gem of NYC!, the Church of the Intercession, Washington Heights, our local Episcopal Church for our stay.http://www.intercessionnyc.org/ The church offers High Mass in English at 10am and in Spanish at 12:30pm on Sundays, and is comprised of local people, mostly African-American and Latin-American, but is an eclectic group. Father José, the priest-in-charge, gave us a wonderful welcome, showing us around the beautiful building including the crypt chapel.
The organ and playing of was superb and singing led by a duet of choir members was excellent. Sermon on John 1 was done without notes from the middle of the choir, between pulpit and lectern – excellent, interesting and impassioned! We’ve been invited back next Sunday – Father José has even offered for me to preach!! 🙂
After Mass we caught the # 1 subway downtown to Times Square, and confronted by the first snow of the season, we raised to “B B Kings” for our “Southern Buffet” and performance from “The Harlem Gospel Choir: http://www.bbkingblues.com/
http://www.harlemgospelchoir.com/ Julia and I saw the choir when the toured Canberra earlier this year, and their performance in the famous New York blues club was intense and brilliant. Check them out on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_Flc2cnoE
That is probably more than enough from me! Stay tuned for more adventures from the Big Apple. Please continue to pray for those without shelter from the storm, and for all those stranded by weather around the world, as well as those in my home town, Brisbane, affected by the flooding. Take care — Chris and Julia — Soli Deo gloria —
Vegan Priest, Christopher Golding 