"A prayer before worship," read the screen at the front of the tidy church, its oak-and-white simplicity spruced up with poinsettias, garland, wreaths, and Christmas trees outfitted with gold and white ornaments fashioned along Christian …
"It's easy to believe that there are a lot of unaccounted-for vineyards in the region."
"He hath sent me to proclaim liberty to captives," read the Scripture verse painted on the side wall. The Lucite lectern bore the church's logo: a crown imposed over a tilted cross, itself imposed over …
"When it's your goal to educate folks about wine, entry-level will take you only so far."
The craft show was housed in the building right at the top of the entrance steps, so that's where I ended up first, my oldest son towing me along. He admired the $8 handmade, one-of-a-kind …
"I'm not Jewish," I said to a man near the basket of skullcaps just outside the sanctuary. "Should I wear one anyway?" "Either way. Don't worry about it," he shrugged, a little amused by my …
"You could do a liberal arts degree with wine as the organizing principle."
"You look like you're shopped out," said Worship Arts pastor Brad Hansen. "Have you been hitting those malls like I have? Putting up those house lights? It's a good thing to be in the house …
"I believe in putting everything on the floor... Stack it high and watch it fly."
From the first, Saint Spyridon seemed to me a blend of traditions. The sky-blue ceiling showed an enormous Christ bursting through the clouds, rendered in a quasi-iconic style, his huge eyes gazing down on the …
'He started posting black-and-white photos of loyal customers on the inside walls.'
Denomination: Church of Christ Address: 5150 Jackson Drive, La Mesa, 619-465-5157 Founded locally: 1941; in current location since 1962 Senior pastor: Jim Hinton Congregation size: 150--175 Staff size: 3 Sunday school enrollment: about 80 Annual …
I think there's this kind of Puritan streak in wine writing.
"You should have been here last night," said Rabbi Scott Meltzer to me before the service. Last night, the Shabbat Kehilati Service & Dinner had started at 6:15 and lasted until 10 p.m. Still, the …
'I smell red fruit - red plums, red cherries, a little cranberry.'
"In atmosphere of love divine/ We live and move and breathe/ Though mortal eyes may see it not/ 'Tis sense that would deceive./ The mortal sense we must destroy/ If we would bring to light/ …
'If you're not here, if you're not following the format, you're sort of holding everybody up.'
It wasn't so much the 22 candles being lit for the High Mass celebrating All Saints' Day at All Saints' Episcopal Church; it was the guys lighting them: two strapping young Polynesians in floor-length black …
From the second song on, the band at Calvary San Diego -- drums and guitars and pop synthesizers -- had the congregation's pulse. (They had the congregation's look as well: a mix of young and …
At the Mass's opening, Father Felix Shabi's voice sounded from behind the red curtain concealing the Sanctuary. "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." The curtain hung …
"Each one win one" and "Go ye therefore..." read the raised foam letters on the back wall of Mira Mesa Bible Baptist Church. Below these exhortations hung rows of framed, typewritten missives from Baptist missionaries, …
'I'm overjoyed whenever I see references to Mexican wine in the literature.'
Polished pop filled the vast, low, pale-gray box that housed The Rock Church. On stage behind the band stood mock highway signs, highlighting the book of Numbers as a road trip: a caution triangle warning …
'Premium wine grapes don't thrive where ice plants and salty sea foam happily commingle.'
Pastor John Kim was finishing up the hour of Sunday school that preceded the service: "Why do people turn to drugs and other things? They need something to help them deal with the realities of …
'I'm representing wineries that make only 200 cases for the world, [maybe] 50 for Southern California.'
Saint Gregory the Great might be an Arts & Crafts arboretum, with its huge slatted dome of a ceiling, its preponderance of windows framed by great beams of wood, its gray-green tile floor, its trickling …
"NEXT Church," read the painted sign running along one wall of the converted industrial space: poured concrete floors, concrete-block walls painted in muted red and yellow, a canopied stage in one corner, and a '60s-era …
Meet me at Mustafa's. I'll jump in your car and show you the valley.
'It's daunting if you're a young businessman. You take everything so personally.'
"We are an inclusive community that encourages free thinking and compassionate living," said church board member Susan Weaver. "We have gathered here to consider the most significant issues in life and to make manifest in …
'People just went ballistic over that combination.'
In the teen section of Scripps Mesa Bible Church's library/snack room, Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X gets face-out treatment. Someone has taken a highlighter to certain passages. One such: "I wonder that all things seem …
"We're going to make some noise today!" proclaimed one of the choristers from the stage of the auditorium. "Oh, bless the Lord with the fruit of your lips! We serve an awesome God!" The drums …
I don't want to be a bar. I want to be a hangout - an oasis away from those bars.
"When the music fades/ All is stripped away/ And I simply come, longing just to bring/ Something that's of worth," sang Trevor Davis. "I'll bring you more than a song..." But songs were exactly what …
"As we sing 'Empty Me' together, just make it a prayer in your heart," said the music leader before the penultimate song. "Say, 'God, empty me of everything I am.'" It was his second such …
'There are a lot of people who don't want to spend much more than $15.'
'I call it Chuck E. Cheese for adults. I have to squeeze myself sometimes, business is so good.'
St. Paul's Cathedral displays a kind of unadorned majesty. Long green banners, tiny stations of the cross, and a couple of Madonna-and-child paintings are all that break up the great expanses of smooth, gray-green concrete …
Father Acker first addressed the congregation clad in a white cassock with an embroidered green stole knotted into his rope belt. His chasuble hung over a nearby chair. In contrast to these formal trappings, his …
'Women were dominant consumers, making mostly anonymous purchases in supermarkets.'