Gloria in Excelsis Deo

As the parish family of St. John gathered at three different Christmas services, we once again experienced the joyous message, sounds and sights of the season: The message of the greatest gift of all that we receive at Christmas--the birth of the infant Jesus Christ; the wonderful musical offering from the choir and soloists; and the beauty of our chancel enlivened with the sparkling trees alongside the reredos and the bright greens and reds of poinsettias, garlands, many bows, and our treasured "Nativity Banner" suspended above the chancel steps.

This fine art piece was hand-sewn by a former member of the parish, Nadine Raich Pool, in 1967. The work, created in applique, took four months to complete. It was exhibited at the "Art of the Spirit" show in Evanston in April 1968. That Christmas, Nadine generously loaned the banner to St. John's to be part of the festive decorations. The rector wrote in the January 1969 The Eagle: "Father Adams has noticed that he mutters 'Thou shalt not covet' to himself every time goes through the church". However, in time, the banner did become the property of the parish, when Nadine donated it in 1974.

Milton and Dorothy Raich were members of St. John's for many years and their two talented daughters contributed so much to the parish. Nancy served as organist and choir director for several years and Nadine created an art work which has become a cherished and integral part of Christmas at St. John's.

-Angela McCormick

Pentecost

Here are the banners that greeted us as we walked into church today:


Thanks, Julianne!

Pentecost, as you know (ahem!), commemorates the manifestation of the Holy Spirit:

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

(Acts 2:1-4)

We observed the "Birthday of the Church" by reading the Gospel in English and, simultaneously, in any other language spoken by a member of the congregation. This year we heard French, Russian, Latin, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Chinese. And I'm pretty sure I heard some Tagalog when we did the same thing with the Lord's Prayer. Not too shabby for a little country church in the city.

Easter Sunday

If you were looking for evidence that St. John's is growing, you need look no further than today's Easter services: there were three of them! Does anyone remember the last time this little congregation had to hold three Easter services to accommodate everyone?

What a spirit-lifter, after the Stripping of the Altar on Maundy Thursday, to find the church decked out in lilies and banners this morning.

[Click on any picture in this column to see a larger version of it. Then use your back arrow to return to this page.]

I attended the 8 a.m. service, which had "only" 35 attendees. I say "only" because that's about twice what we normally get. At the 8 o'clock, congregants gather around the altar for the communion prayers. Can't do that with 35 people! We didn't know how to behave.

I came back to take some pictures of the 11 o'clock service.


The "banners" behind the readers above and below are actually strips of ribbon hanging down. From the back of the church they give the illusion of being whole-cloth banners. Kudos to the artistes, Leslye and Julianne!


Below is Kara reading the Gospel. This time I didn't get the back of her head (see Maundy Thursday), but maybe you recognize the back of Julianne's head?


Here's Kara giving a great sermon about, among other things, the dangers of certainty in religion. Usually, a few of the faces at Easter services are people dragged there by family members. They gave up on being part of a church community because they found dogma to be an obstacle to faith. [On this subject, I love a comment by Flannery O'Connor: "Most of us come to the church by a means the church does not allow."] I thought the Easter sermon was an excellent introduction for these folks to a different way of thinking about faith. Look for it on the official St. John's Web Site. (This puts a little pressure on Kara to actually write the sermon down. Do it in your spare time, Kara!)[Update: Well, that didn't take long. Kara has posted it.]

At the 11 o'clock service, Rich, Karen, Jackson, and Geneva all signed the parish register. Geneva was signing when the picture below was taken, and the podium hides her pretty well. That's Jackson behind the lilies.


Once Rich was finished, Vlada and Rebecca signed, too. Both these families have already contributed a lot to life at St. John's, and we're happy they've decided to stick around.


Okay, everybody, stretch your legs for a hymn!

Communion.


Once everyone had gone to the undercroft for coffee and goodies, or into the garden for the Easter egg hunt, I got closer to the altar to take more pictures of the flowers.


The reredos were open again, with Theon Betts's paintings of St. Francis, Mary, St. John, and Thomas Aquinas. Welcome back! We missed you. Yes, even you, Thomas.