St. John Brebeuf Parish

November 9, 2008 9:30 am
St John Brebeuf Parish (Roman Catholic), 1707 John Brebeuf Pl. Winnipeg
Pastor Monsignor David Ward Jamieson (?)

The last time I attended a Roman Catholic service was at St. Ignatius, in Winnipeg, probably close to four years ago. Nonetheless, I went into this service with an idea of what to expect. By the time I walked out all of my predispositions had been tossed right out the window.

I always like to talk a bit about the building first, and it would be a shame to deviate given what an architectural masterpiece this church is. To put it simply, it's... round. Circular. Attractive brick, interesting 'swirl' layout, great alcoves and a really nice, roomy, modern feel. Also cool, there are artful stone plaques decorating one wall symbolizing the stations of the cross. I was impressed and excited from the moment I walked in.

You must forgive me for my (now, obviously unfair) bias, but I was genuinely surprised to see a band in a Roman Catholic church. Two guitars, hand drums, keyboards and a small chorus prominently and ably led the musical portion of the worship. Not a whole lot of participation from the audience.

As for the service itself, it was no deviation from any worship format with scripture readings and a sermon relating Jesus' "temple" allegory to materialism, presented decently by a man whom I assume was Pastor Jamieson. A small but significant (for me) note, Pastor Jamieson was careful to welcome any visitors to the service. Made me feel good. The service was music-heavy, which was fine with me! And the kneeling blocks were padded, though seldom used (compared to the Anglican Church last time).

St. John Brebeuf's service really had the feel of contemporary mixed with traditional, old mixed with new. This is a format that many more churches should be looking into. I don't mean replacing every choir with a band; I love choirs! I just mean exploring different means of getting God's message across, some little deviation from the norm. In this case it's evidently working. The 9:30 service was packed with a great mix of young and old, lots of families and youngsters but also a healthy older population, and there was still an 11:00 service to come.

I was very disappointed that I had to rush off right afterwards, as I'd been hoping to chat with some of the parishoners. Regardless, this was certainly an experience, and I would be very interested to go back over the course of a few weeks and really get a feel for what is certainly and interesting church.

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