Saint Margaret's Anglican Church

October 26, 2008 10:30 am
Saint Margaret's Anglican Church, 160 Ethelbert St. Winnipeg (at Westminster)
Rev. Tony Harwood Jones, Rev. Dr. David Widdicombe

So! First Anglican service, checked off the list. Located in the heart of Wolseley, St. Margaret's Church boasts the finest interior I've yet seen. Architecture reminiscent of centuries-old European Churches coupled with artistic stained glass windows had me "in the mood" from the moment I walked in. I arrived at about 10:15 to find the place pretty empty; in retrospect I'm thinking there must have been a lobby/reception downstairs that I managed to miss. The building filled up remarkably fast to the point where a head count was beyond me; I'd guesstimate two or three hundred.

I've got to say something for the diversity of the church. I saw a quintessential hippie sitting beside an old grandpa in a suit sitting beside a pretty haggard fellow who could easily have been without a home (though to make those kinds of judgements based on appearance is, I realize, completely unfair). Point I'm trying to make is, there was EVERYONE there. The young/old ratio was surprisingly even, with plenty of young couples and plenty of older people as well. The choir sat in a large alcove at the front of the church where the altar was and the ...get this... seven priests (read: people in robes) stood.

The service begun with a hymn, led tastefully by the choir as the clergy "team" led the way up to the front. I'll admit with only minimal embarassment that it took me by surprise when suddenly the backs of the pews came down to form little kneeling blocks; the woman sitting beside me probably thought I was nuts: as she pulled our block down I went "whoa!" I'm sure I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, to say that those things are damned uncomfortable.

Something that really interested me personally was the musical contrast in the service. Hymns out of the hymnal were sung often in four part harmony. However, there were also sections in the bulletin where the congregation sang from a triple-line block notation apparently inspired by the tradition of Gregorian Chant. It was strange for me to go from four-part to pedantic chant.

The sermon was offered by visiting Rev. Tony Harwood Jones. Rev. Jones was a great speaker who preached with an air of authority, yet also friendliness. He talked about the two "great" commandments proclaimed by Jesus (love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, might and love your neighbor as yourself), and how they compared both to the original ten commandments and to our modern life. He did a great job of making all of the commandments relevant to us in our day and age, and all of the sudden BAM out of left field he started relating it all to the commandment to tithe!

Apparently (and unbeknownst to me) I visited on what's called in the Anglican Church "Consecration Sunday," or the Sunday on which matters of money and giving to the church and to God are discussed in detail. It's apparently fairly common practice to devote a service to cash once per year, though I don't think my home church ever had a name with it. I do understand it as a necessary (though often unnecessarily distasteful) part of church life: churches need cash to run. However, they made no concessions for the fact that there might me guests in attendance. I don't need to hear about giving 10% of my income to their church, cause I don't go there regularly, yet I was handed a little pledge card along with everyone else.

My ranting aside, I wish I'd picked a different day to go because matters of money in any context always leave me with a sour taste, and Rev. Jones did do a great job of speaking. After the offertory came the "prayers of the church," which by my watch lasted a full ten minutes. I think the lady speaking must have prayed for every member in the building, by name, as well as every high-ranking member of the Anglican clergy in Canada, also my name. The service ended with more singing and Communion, which involved 6 of the 7 robed individuals onstage, the closest I've come to guessing why all of them were up there.

After the service I had a brief chat with Rev. Dr. Widdicombe (I think). We chatted about my little church project and he invited me downstairs for lunch, but I had to decline. This definitely has my current record for longest service, clocking in at 1 hr. 55 min. I was almost late for work.

I'm feeling a bit shell-shocked now, comparing this church to last week's. Total polar opposites. St. Margaret's Anglican is definitely a tradition-based church, and I would love to go back to see what the service (and sermon) is like sans "Consecration Sunday." It really seemed like this was a fascinating community that I wasn't quite sure how to read.

http://www.saintmargarets.ca/

Grant Memorial Baptist Church

October 19, 2008 11:00 am
Grant Memorial Baptist Church, 877 Wilkes ave. Winnipeg
Pastor Tom Castor

After a brief hiatus to extract teeth from my head, I'm back on schedule. Today's church was Grant Memorial Baptist Church, a huge church just off of Waverley. Once again it was my first time experiencing a Baptist service, and I must say it was extremely interesting. There was a 9:30 service that I slept through so I attended the later 11:00 service.

Upon walking in I was greeted immediately by a "Host" and proceeded to spend several minutes walking around looking lost. There were probably two hundred people milling about in the foyer, so it's no wonder that despite several wandering "Hosts" (or ushers), I was wanting of a conversation.

To put it lightly, the sanctuary was FULL. My guesstimate was about 600 people, maybe more because I didn't count the balcony. It was a pleasant, open space with a large wooden cross in the center and, inexplicably, a huge purple gorilla in the far left corner across from the pine tree. A band (bass, sax, drums, piano, voice) did the prelude remarkably well and we were off.

This was a baptismal service which was particularly exciting for me as it was my first time witnessing a full-submersion (immersion?) baptism. Three people were baptized, and we watched their videotaped confessions of faith on two large monitors. One by one they were immersed in the hottub-sized pool at the front, after a single "i do" style question from Joe Welty (who apparently wasn't Pastor Castor, whose name rolls off the tongue almost too nicely).

The singing was great; a bit too pop for my tastes, but well done. The woman leading singing had a huge voice disproportionate to her small stature, and at times I wished that she would throw in a few less flashy vocal ornaments, which just served to make it harder to sing along. She did have a great voice though.

Pastor Castor's sermon was interesting if a bit too much of a history lesson: he spoke (apparently continuing a series) about King David and the early days of his reign when he made the decision to bring the Ark back to Jerusalem. Pastor Castor compared these events to everything from the Canadian election to our own personal faith journeys and while he was a decent speaker, I wasn't compelled to follow along as I would have liked to be.

I guess my general opinion of this church was that it has the most "pop" appeal of any church I've yet visited. The youth/young adult/young family demographic was HUGE; for the first time the forty and under population seemed to rule the roost. I liked Grant Memorial as an engaging and uplifting experience, but it seemed to lack the substance and the close-knit community that I would require from a home church.

http://www.grantmemorial.mb.ca/