Sun Day
Ok went for the my very first church service here. It was a church called St John’s Anglican Church. Apparently because they have a large congregation, they have services at a school, St Margaret's School chapel. Which is really a large chapel.
Worship was interesting; they sung mainly hymns that I have never heard. Not to say a bad thing; sometimes Hillsongs and the like tend to make their songs very much mainstream and the act of worship becomes more like a concert. Hymns have a very sombre feeling, so they do have a role to play.
But I must say this, their pastor was really really good. He was not the ‘on-fire’ type preacher you see at a lot of charismatic churches. Hillsongs is one very good example, caught their tv service last week, and he the pastor, Brian Houston is one enigmatic and energetic pastor.
But anyway, today’s speaker was Peter Collier. He was a very laid back, but yet very confident person. He spoke and he made the reading from Ephesians very practical, very real, very day to day living. Excellent speaker. He does not just use life examples, he uses analogies and the really gets the parish interested in knowing what God wants us to.
I think after being away from church for a while, coming back is really like drinking water. Not that I am saying that people around me are draining, they most certainly are not, but there is just something about being in fellowship with others of similar faith that is so refreshing.
So yeah, that was that. Excellent service today. However, I felt that the church was very family orientated and new comers had to either walk up and step forward to talk to people or to simple melt away in the background. So something I had to muster up today. Dunno if I can continue going; it is not near my school.
Oh and just an interesting note. The church’s actual location is a Latimer Square in Christchurch, which sadly is not a nice place to be at night. It is on the corner of Manchester Street, a place where night life is really seedy and well, people hawking services come out at night. A few years back, there was a sad case of a murder, well, of sorts. In 2001, a kiwi beat up a foreigner and left him for dead. The guy was put in jail for two years and then released.
To make things really really exciting, recently there was a case of a politician who was accused of rape, unlawful sexual connection, attempted rape and indecent assault. On young girls, about 12 years old. Lo and behold, he worships at… yup you guessed it. St John’s. How exciting.
Anyway thinking about dinner. Dunno what is should do. Thinking of fried rice (again) and somehow, pie comes into mind. Shudder. O well.
Worship was interesting; they sung mainly hymns that I have never heard. Not to say a bad thing; sometimes Hillsongs and the like tend to make their songs very much mainstream and the act of worship becomes more like a concert. Hymns have a very sombre feeling, so they do have a role to play.
But I must say this, their pastor was really really good. He was not the ‘on-fire’ type preacher you see at a lot of charismatic churches. Hillsongs is one very good example, caught their tv service last week, and he the pastor, Brian Houston is one enigmatic and energetic pastor.
But anyway, today’s speaker was Peter Collier. He was a very laid back, but yet very confident person. He spoke and he made the reading from Ephesians very practical, very real, very day to day living. Excellent speaker. He does not just use life examples, he uses analogies and the really gets the parish interested in knowing what God wants us to.
I think after being away from church for a while, coming back is really like drinking water. Not that I am saying that people around me are draining, they most certainly are not, but there is just something about being in fellowship with others of similar faith that is so refreshing.
So yeah, that was that. Excellent service today. However, I felt that the church was very family orientated and new comers had to either walk up and step forward to talk to people or to simple melt away in the background. So something I had to muster up today. Dunno if I can continue going; it is not near my school.
Oh and just an interesting note. The church’s actual location is a Latimer Square in Christchurch, which sadly is not a nice place to be at night. It is on the corner of Manchester Street, a place where night life is really seedy and well, people hawking services come out at night. A few years back, there was a sad case of a murder, well, of sorts. In 2001, a kiwi beat up a foreigner and left him for dead. The guy was put in jail for two years and then released.
To make things really really exciting, recently there was a case of a politician who was accused of rape, unlawful sexual connection, attempted rape and indecent assault. On young girls, about 12 years old. Lo and behold, he worships at… yup you guessed it. St John’s. How exciting.
Anyway thinking about dinner. Dunno what is should do. Thinking of fried rice (again) and somehow, pie comes into mind. Shudder. O well.
posted by W | Sunday, July 24, 2005
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