I was raised in the Seventh-Day Adventist church, but stopped attending when I was of the age to do so without getting grounded by my parents or told I wasn’t allowed to borrow the car for my flagrant disregard for authority.

With that behind me, I set forth to explore other religions and other religious practises around the world, the irony being that I was actually very interested in religion. However, I couldn’t imagine that I would enrich my spiritual life more by attending the same church every week than learning firsthand how everyone else worships. After all, how could you know that what you were taught was actually right? I wasn’t about to buy everything I learned wholesale, I had to do some shopping around first.

These days I consider myself hovering around agnostic (which never seems to be a choice on forms); the definition of agnostic is something David and I discussed at great length when we were together. The religion he identified with the most was Taoism, while I was leaning toward atheism but settled with agnostic.

Terminology aside, what we did share was an avid interest in art, and there is an abundance of objets d’art in churches. Even in lean times, churches had conspicuous wealth and a strong influence with artists — a good example of this is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, which is still unfinished today. I wrote a post about my ambivalence toward ecclesiastical art while visiting Spain (the last two paragraphs) in 2004.

I was very appreciative of Reverend Spires inviting us to view the interior of the church and allowing us to take photos. It’s that kind of welcoming, open attitude that slows attrition rates and gives a more favourable impression of the clergy rather than what gets splashed all over the media. It’s not to say that they should be immune to negative publicity, but certainly a balanced (ahem) picture is called for.

Whatever one’s attitude is toward religion, it has to be said that churches hold a great deal of architectural importance. Back in the day when churches were the centre of village life, they served as a focal and meeting point for everyone. Town squares were anchored by churches. Today, I hate to say that town squares have been replaced by shopping malls as the most likely place to bump into your neighbour.

After we got our fill of Trinity Anglican Church’s beautiful interior, Monica and I had a chilly walk around the town to take a few photos before the sun made its disappearance over the horizon. We headed back to her house for dinner, where I met some darling cats who didn’t like having their pictures taken. I did manage to get a decent one of Jane, the matriarch of the three. It’s so nice being around cats again that I’m leaning toward getting two kittens, not just one!

matzoh brei

matzoh ball soup

We had Passover dinner (called “seder”) at David’s mom’s house earlier this evening. As with all Jewish holidays, there’s a great deal of religious significance represented in the food and prayers. David practiced his Hebrew reading from the “Haggadah”, a booklet of instruction and explanation for all the Passover rituals and traditions.

There are very specific objects for this holiday, including a floral centrepiece and lighted candles. A large platter is placed in front of the one conducting the Seder, with the following:

• Three matzohs, placed in the three separate sections of a (a specially designed) Matzoh Cover, or in the folds of a large napkin
• roasted shankbone
• a roasted egg
• bitter herbs, cut into small pieces, or ground horseradish
• charoses, a mixture of nuts, apple and cinnamon, finely chopped and mixed with a little wine
• parsley, lettuce or watercress, cut into small pieces.

The following are placed on the table for the participants:

• one or more dishes of salt water, depending on the number of participants
• a wine goblet in front of each place; a large goblet, filled with wine, at the centre of the table — this is the Cup of Elijah
• if desired, for convenience, extra dishes of bitter-herbs and charoses can be placed on the table.
• a pillow or cushion is placed on the left arm of the chair used by the Leader, or on another chair close to it.

Well, this being 2005, we didn’t follow the instructions of the Haggadah to the letter, but we did indulge in a lot of Kosher DESSERTS!

David’s mom also gave us a Passover card (yes, Hallmark covers Jewish holidays, too), which is that little blue corner of paper sticking out underneath the top layer of matzoh brei in the upper left photo. She mentioned that children are supposed to go look for hidden “gifts”, but that isn’t mentioned in the Haggadah, so it’s probably something someone slipped in to compensate for missing out on chocolate Easter eggs. (Mom edits these traditions as suits her, says David.)

Here’s what’s on the cover of the card:

Passover - then and now

A Seder Plate for the New Millennium
(clockwise from the top)

Egg (Beaters): cholesterol-free alternative
Greens: stir-fried with a little low-sodium soy sauce
(Gourmet Greek) Charoset: apples, pine nuts, balsamic vinegar, grape leaves
(Jalapeno) Matzah with sun-dried tomatoes
Bitter Herb: Espresso
(Vegetarian) Shank Bone: tofu-on-a-stick

Click on the photo for the description.

Yes, I am facetious.

In completely unrelated news, I uploaded a videoclip of “Enter the Haggis” from Friday night — some spontaneous dancing:

Too funny…

Fancy’s commentary on the Spanish Catholic Church endorsing condom usage.

Wanna see why I should never go into Marketing?

Go bookmark Fancy’s blog. She’s underappreciated up there in Edmonton.

I can’t believe it. A weekend without a deadline hanging over my head. It’s been so long I’m forgetting what it’s like! Lately, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. As much as I moan on this blogsite about how much there is to get done, it’s just all hot air, really. Deep down I know if I didn’t have stuff going on, I would wither up and die with boredom. If I didn’t channel this energy into something constructive and productive, I’d probably end up in jail for mischief…

The weather’s been so good lately, I’m looking forward to doing stuff outside. When Ross called from Boston on Monday, he said it was snowing. I took this pic this afternoon, and as you can see, the blossoms are out in full force on Beach Avenue.

What I have slotted for this weekend, work-wise, is:

1) finally finish off my taxes so I can get my refund!
2) attend Anglican Church to collect data for my ethnography paper about religious rhetoric.

In case there are any Anglicans reading this, I’d just like to say that I have never been to Anglican Church, and that my use of the word rhetoric is not in the pejorative sense. I’m taking Advanced University writing, so the entire field is referred to as rhetoric studies. Just thought I’d clear that up. Why did I choose the Anglican Church?

a) there are several in the West End and around the downtown core
b) if I attend my brother’s church (the one I grew up with), I would be less objective, and it would mean waking up early on a Saturday; somehow, this seems harder after a tough week — I need to break myself into the weekend!
c) the Anglican Church is an old church, and one of my objectives is to examine the modernization of religious messages. The reason why I didn’t choose Catholic is because it’s more of an inherited religion — people will more likely identify themselves as Catholic if their parents were Catholic, even if they were non-practicing. There seems somewhat less of a need to modernize Catholicism, although this is more my impression rather than a statement of fact and I’m certain that there are Catholics out there who would argue this. In any case, I chose Anglican because although it is an old church, it has adopted some (relative to Catholic) progressive policies (ordination of women as ministers, gay marriage) and appears to position itself as attempting to be more relevant to its constituents. I understand that within the Anglican Church there are different levels of conservatism/liberalism, but I chose to study a church in an urban setting as it would seem to address relevancy to a modern way of life more than a suburban or rural church.

Fun Fair at Kits Point??

I returned from Sechelt late on Wednesday night, and found it oddly bright outside. Where was all this light coming from?? My office/bedroom was flooded with light, and there were massive stadium-sized lights on the beach by my apartment, across the water at Kits Point. I’ve just done a Google search, and according to Katkam, it’s just a film set. I was wondering why there was no advertising, no press junkets, no information whatsoever. Vancouver, as a location for all kinds of filming — feature films, commercials, made for TV movies, etc. — can transform itself in a matter of hours. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve unintentionally walked or driven through a film set over the years. It’s bizarre, but interesting, to observe the transformation. One minute you’re standing on a city streetcorner, and the next block over is New York City, complete with NY shops, cars with NY plates, cafes and NYC police.

Dining Out For Life

Eliza and I had much more fun this year working Dining Out For Life. Last year it was pissing down with rain, there was a hockey game (in Vancouver that does tend to keep people indoors), and the restaurants we had assigned to us were all over the city — Kitsilano, Main Street, downtown. Some restaurants closed early, one didn’t even know why I was there, and the rest all mentioned at some point or another that it was a pretty slow night. This year, the weather was good, people were dining out, and there was no hockey game going on. Everyone was in good spirits, I never had to wait long to get the boxes, and I’m very certain we made a lot more money than last year and hopefully beat the total raised from two years ago.

What Eliza and I had to do was pick up the donation boxes that were placed at each of the participating restaurants. There were about 150 in total, but we were assigned about 10. In some places, people found us a pretty curious sight: me with a name tag, running in and grabbing a box, then running out again to jump into a canary yellow Mercedes SLK. Kam, of Kam’s Place Singaporean restaurant, joked that he would only give me the box as a trade for the car. Driving around in a yellow sports car is like putting wheels on a neon sign!

Project Empty Bowl

While we were out driving around, I asked Eliza to cruise by the Virgin Megastore window so I could take photos of the display. I alluded to a debacle on Tuesday, the day of the installation. It all got sorted out in the end, but let me just say this is the second display. The first was dismantled. I only learned about this yesterday, and I was mortified and apologized to the Virgin Megastore marketing and promo manager by e-mail. That is the last time I will let something I’m responsible for go unsupervised (unless I know the people involved first-hand). This is generally my policy, but as I had to be in Sechelt — ironically, so I could work the other A Loving Spoonful project — Dining Out For Life on Thursday, I couldn’t be around to be involved in the installation at Virgin. Karen played it down, but personally, I was embarrassed.

The bowls on display at Virgin are the largest and most flamboyant of all the bowls created for Project Empty Bowl. Because the windows at Virgin are so large, the posters created for them were special ordered and — I’m sure — very expensive. Karen picked out the “loudest” bowls to showcase there, and the pics I took below are two very ornate pieces that we were hoping to display at Holt Renfrew. I’m going to go there sometime over the next few days to take photos and see what they’ve done with the displays.

I’m listening to Prince’s “Purple Rain” at the moment and lamenting over his conversion to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. There goes all his creative energy. Yesterday I received a random phone call from a Jehovah’s Witness and was surprised that they’ve expanded from handing out pamphlets on the streets to phoning people at home. Maybe they’ve done this for years and I just haven’t been “lucky” enough to get a call. Highly doubtful, though, since I’ve been working from home for years now, so I’d be an easy target. My number’s even in the book — I haven’t resorted to my little trick in the past of listing my phone number under a different name to avoid the ex-directory charge. The Caller ID device is a pretty good filter as it is.

The Jehovah’s Witness guy wasn’t pushy, though, to his credit. When I was a teenager and they’d ring my parents’ bell, it took a lot more effort to get rid of them. This guy kept it short and to the point.

Now, if Prince had phoned me, would he be short and to the point?

Ananova - October 15, 2003

Watchtower’s press clipping from USA Today, 2001