Charleswood United Church

April 10, 2009 11:00 am
Charleswood United Church, 4820 Roblin Blvd. Winnipeg
Rev. Michael Wilson, Rev. Joanne Kury

So I'm a bit behind on the posting, and cause of exams these next few will be a bit haphazard. But I'm still going in order. I decided to take in two services on Good Friday, one am, one pm. This was my first one of the day.

Even though my background is in the United Church, I can't remember ever going to the actual Good Friday service. Probably too busy enjoying the day off school, I guess. Charleswood United recently had a slew of renovations done, so the church building is looking really good. They've got a nice big room for alternative worship and the sanctuary itself is decked out nicely too. When I walked in there were black coverings on the windows, creating an appropriately somber mood.

There were a few prayers and hymns before the Passion was played out, alternating scripture readings, sung responses and solos by members of the large choir, which were done very well. Some churches I've been to didn't have a congregation the size of Charleswood's choir and altogether I'd say there were about 2-300 people in the sanctuary.

Rev. Wilson was called upon to do the sermon. He was an extremely good speaker, talking about the story of the crucifixion as going beyond the traditional "good versus evil" scenario. He tried really hard to pull in pop culture references from Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings and though I'm sure they would appeal to some, the connections were a bit weak for me to find them effective. Altogether though it was a nicely done sermon.

The service ended with a few more hymns, the prayer and a final blessing before the congregation filed out. It was a very nice, peaceful, traditional service, though as I often do I found myself wishing for some deviation from the standard worship format. I'd be happy to go back and see what regular worship is like at Charleswood; from my observations it really seems to be a vibrant community.

http://www.charleswoodunited.org/