Just got back to my hotel [in Seattle] after the Easter service at St. Mark’s Cathedral. No, I haven’t gone and got religion; I was there with my son, Chris, who was being confirmed. A long service (started 8:30pm, finished about 11:15pm, we left the post-service socializing around 11:30pm), and a beautiful one. For the first 2 hours the church was lit only by the hundreds of candles the congregation and celebrants were holding. Now maybe I’m just an old fogey, but they don’t make candles like they did when I was an altar boy! These skinny little things burned down in around 45 minutes for most people, around 30 minutes for me. (No idea why mine burned quicker than usual.)
Chris’s sponsor was a really nice ex-teacher called Steve. During dinner before the service he and I got into a nice discussion about the relative importance of tradition and integrity (as in, why do Christians not cut out all of that blatantly un-Christian stuff from the Bible? Cue Thomas Jefferson…). Ironically, most of the readings during the first part of the service (before the baptisms, confirmations, and reaffirmations) were Old Testament passages of really questionable relevance to Christian values and beliefs. Steve had the good grace to acknowledge the fact….
Ah, well. I must head to bed, so that I can get up and meet Chris and Celeste for breakfast before tomorrow’s service when Chris will be an acolyte (complete with white robes and coloured streamers).
[By the way, religious proselytizers need not waste their time posting comments about religion. I’ve heard them all before, and I’m not interested.]