St. James Presbyterian

April 26, 2009 11:00 am
St. James Presbyterian Church, 1476 Portage Ave. Winnipeg
Rev. Allan Farris

So I remembered to check which side of Portage this church was on, unlike last time. I was greeted warmly by several people walking in and though at a quarter-to the tiny sanctuary was almost empty, around 100 people had arrived by go time. For such a small congregation the youth were fairly well-represented, with lots of families in attendance as well.

The service followed a pretty normal format, opened with prayers, announcements and hymns. I noticed how full the pew shelves were: a hymnal, a bible and two psalm books were in every compartment and all were used during the service.

Reverend Farris was probably one of the youngest ministers I've encountered so far. His mannerisms seemed a bit awkward at the beginning and for a while I couldn't put a finger on what was different about him... eventually it hit me. He was smiling the whole time; genuinely enthusiastic and excited about what he was talking about. Making eye contact too. And his sermon was pretty neat; he used a hilarious story about his nephew's interpretation of Jesus as a popculture zombie to illustrate how we categorize things we don't understand. He went on to argue that Jesus and the resurrection defies categorization, and therefore as a people Christians should (and sometimes do) defy categorization as well. I think he got a bit hung up on this idea and had trouble drawing a conclusion, but it was an engaging and generally relevant sermon.

Offertory, a few more hymns, a neat children's "sermon" about the idea of children of God versus 'regular' children and the service was capped off. I would say I definitely got a positive experience out of this one.

http://www.stjamespresbyterianwinnipeg.com/