Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
St. James by the Sea Episcopal Church, La Jolla
Swaths of rough white stucco surrounded the stained-glass windows at St. James by the Sea. The windows -- saints above and the life of Christ below -- were tastefully small, yet rendered dramatic through their depiction of deep shadow. After that, the chief impression was the dark of mahogany: rough and blocky in the rafters of the ceiling, smooth and carved in the woodwork surrounding the Sanctuary. (At least a third of that Sanctuary was filled by the choir, which processed with five acolytes, a verger, a five-member altar party, Reverend Randal Gardner, and Reverend Julie Christian.) Only the honey-colored Christus Rex -- hung behind the altar and surmounted by an aqua canopy -- broke the tone.
"O God," prayed Gardner at the Collect, "who, before the passion of your...Son, revealed His glory upon the holy mountain, grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of His countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross and be changed into His likeness from glory to glory."
The mountain was Mount Tabor; the revelation was the Transfiguration. But before the meditation on glory, Gardner gave a nod to the approach of Lent, the "season of penitence, for turning our lives around." When the children came forward before heading off to Sunday school, he gave them a project: "On a piece of paper...or on a computer...make the prettiest picture you can of the word 'Alleluia.' Take that word and fold it up very neatly, and put it away in a drawer someplace. Remember where you put it, so you can bring it out again on Easter -- because for the next 40 days, during the whole season of Lent, we won't use that word, 'Alleluia,' in church."
The Old Testament reading described Moses's transfiguration after he received the commandments on Mount Sinai: "the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God." So astonishing was his visage that he had to wear a veil, lest the Israelites be frightened.
Moses showed up at Christ's transfiguration, along with Elijah, as noted by the hymn that followed: "With Moses and Elijah nigh/ Th'incarnate Lord holds converse high/ And from the cloud the Holy One/ Bears record to the only Son." (Just when you thought the huge sound of both organ and choir couldn't get any huger, the fourth verse rang out a powerful countermelody.)
Saint Paul took those frightened Israelites to task in the second reading: "To this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.... When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed."
The Gospel told the story. Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on the mountain and was transfigured: "The appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.... A cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to Him!'"
Author and artist Gertrude Mueller-Nelson gave the sermon; Gardner took a place in the congregation to listen. She began by asking, "What is the connection between the transfiguration and the agony in the garden? In both cases, Jesus takes the same three people with him." These three "begin to morph into types of ourselves: ordinary fellows, trying to get it. Ordinary guys who don't understand why Jesus has to suffer. They don't know how to handle mystery or the possibility of suffering or the threat of change. But transfiguration...means seeing things differently." She described iconic representations of the moment in which Christ was surrounded by an almond-shaped halo, formed from the overlap of two circles. "In that...overlap, traditionally, the religious experience occurs.... This is our world and heaven overlapping. This is when we resolve, for a moment, the opposites we love to cherish, where suffering and bad breaks also show us the love of God." And "once we've been knocked back and seen Christ, now we can really see one another, too. Now we can go forth to love and serve the Lord."
Music permeated the service: instrumentals, hymns sequences, and arrangements; sometimes simple, sometimes ornate. The late Larry King played the dedication concert on the church's pipe organ in 1976, and his arrangement of that Gospel text provided the Offertory Anthem. A high-drama performance from both choir and organ poured forth over taped sound effects reminiscent of old sci-fi films: keening minor chords; undulating, wandering tones. The effect was otherworldly.
What happens when we die?
"We remain engaged with life," said Gardner. "There is a transition from this body into some other kind of existence that is empowered by God's energy, God's life force. And I think we retain consciousness, or at least participate in consciousness with our unique identity intact."
Denomination: Episcopal
Founded locally: 1907
Senior pastor: Randal Gardner
Congregation size: about 1300
Staff size: about 12
Sunday school enrollment: about 60
Annual budget: $1.4 million
Weekly giving: around $15,500
Singles program: no
Dress: fairly dressy, lots of jackets and ties
Diversity: mostly Caucasian
Sunday worship: Rite I, 7:30 a.m.; Rite II, 10 a.m.
Length of reviewed service: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Website: http:www.stjamesbythesea.org
Here's something you might be interested in.
St. James by the Sea Episcopal Church, La Jolla
St. James by the Sea Episcopal Church, La Jolla
Swaths of rough white stucco surrounded the stained-glass windows at St. James by the Sea. The windows -- saints above and the life of Christ below -- were tastefully small, yet rendered dramatic through their depiction of deep shadow. After that, the chief impression was the dark of mahogany: rough and blocky in the rafters of the ceiling, smooth and carved in the woodwork surrounding the Sanctuary. (At least a third of that Sanctuary was filled by the choir, which processed with five acolytes, a verger, a five-member altar party, Reverend Randal Gardner, and Reverend Julie Christian.) Only the honey-colored Christus Rex -- hung behind the altar and surmounted by an aqua canopy -- broke the tone.
"O God," prayed Gardner at the Collect, "who, before the passion of your...Son, revealed His glory upon the holy mountain, grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of His countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross and be changed into His likeness from glory to glory."
The mountain was Mount Tabor; the revelation was the Transfiguration. But before the meditation on glory, Gardner gave a nod to the approach of Lent, the "season of penitence, for turning our lives around." When the children came forward before heading off to Sunday school, he gave them a project: "On a piece of paper...or on a computer...make the prettiest picture you can of the word 'Alleluia.' Take that word and fold it up very neatly, and put it away in a drawer someplace. Remember where you put it, so you can bring it out again on Easter -- because for the next 40 days, during the whole season of Lent, we won't use that word, 'Alleluia,' in church."
The Old Testament reading described Moses's transfiguration after he received the commandments on Mount Sinai: "the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God." So astonishing was his visage that he had to wear a veil, lest the Israelites be frightened.
Moses showed up at Christ's transfiguration, along with Elijah, as noted by the hymn that followed: "With Moses and Elijah nigh/ Th'incarnate Lord holds converse high/ And from the cloud the Holy One/ Bears record to the only Son." (Just when you thought the huge sound of both organ and choir couldn't get any huger, the fourth verse rang out a powerful countermelody.)
Saint Paul took those frightened Israelites to task in the second reading: "To this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.... When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed."
The Gospel told the story. Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on the mountain and was transfigured: "The appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.... A cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to Him!'"
Author and artist Gertrude Mueller-Nelson gave the sermon; Gardner took a place in the congregation to listen. She began by asking, "What is the connection between the transfiguration and the agony in the garden? In both cases, Jesus takes the same three people with him." These three "begin to morph into types of ourselves: ordinary fellows, trying to get it. Ordinary guys who don't understand why Jesus has to suffer. They don't know how to handle mystery or the possibility of suffering or the threat of change. But transfiguration...means seeing things differently." She described iconic representations of the moment in which Christ was surrounded by an almond-shaped halo, formed from the overlap of two circles. "In that...overlap, traditionally, the religious experience occurs.... This is our world and heaven overlapping. This is when we resolve, for a moment, the opposites we love to cherish, where suffering and bad breaks also show us the love of God." And "once we've been knocked back and seen Christ, now we can really see one another, too. Now we can go forth to love and serve the Lord."
Music permeated the service: instrumentals, hymns sequences, and arrangements; sometimes simple, sometimes ornate. The late Larry King played the dedication concert on the church's pipe organ in 1976, and his arrangement of that Gospel text provided the Offertory Anthem. A high-drama performance from both choir and organ poured forth over taped sound effects reminiscent of old sci-fi films: keening minor chords; undulating, wandering tones. The effect was otherworldly.
What happens when we die?
"We remain engaged with life," said Gardner. "There is a transition from this body into some other kind of existence that is empowered by God's energy, God's life force. And I think we retain consciousness, or at least participate in consciousness with our unique identity intact."
Denomination: Episcopal
Founded locally: 1907
Senior pastor: Randal Gardner
Congregation size: about 1300
Staff size: about 12
Sunday school enrollment: about 60
Annual budget: $1.4 million
Weekly giving: around $15,500
Singles program: no
Dress: fairly dressy, lots of jackets and ties
Diversity: mostly Caucasian
Sunday worship: Rite I, 7:30 a.m.; Rite II, 10 a.m.
Length of reviewed service: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Website: http:www.stjamesbythesea.org
Comments