...and New Year in St Louis

Webster Hills UMC

If you read the previous blog you will know that after leading the contemporary service at Decatur First United Methodist Church I packed and boarded a flight to St Louis.  I was met by Kim Jenne who was an exchange student from Candler to Wesley House, Cambridge last year and is now minister of Webster Hills United Methodist Church.  Arriving in the evening I only briefly saw St Louis as we drove home from the airport.

  I woke up the next day to snow!  Thankfully I had a quiet day in and it gave me an excuse to watch Georgia Tech football team play in their Bowl final.  In the evening we went to the Cathedral in St Louis for an evening Taize service which was beautiful before going on to Kim's cousin's house for a New Years Eve party.  We got home in time to watch the ball drop in Times Square, NY to signal the start of the new year.  It was slightly disappointing remembering that actually this was a repeat as the ball had dropped an hour earlier due to the time difference!  New Year's Day was another quiet day in front of the TV.

Can you guess which of us are real?

Inside the new Capitol building

  The next couple of days involved Kim having to work which did give time to do a bit of studying and a bit of relaxing.  Then, on the Friday we drove with a friend of Kim's to Springfield, Illinois (the next state across from Missouri where St Louis is) and visited the Abraham Lincoln museum and Presidential Library.  It was a fascinating museum retelling his life and giving visitors the chance to walk round his log cabin and the White House as it told the story of his rise to prominence, the Civil War and his subsequent assassination.  After visiting the library we drove through town to the old State Capitol building and then to the new one.  We were on the verge of arrest as we attempted to enter an elevator in the new building to go up to the floor with the Senate and Representative rooms, but thankfully the guard believed it was an honest mistake - probably demonstrated by the fact that we spoke to him as soon as he started walking over, and didn't attempt to take flight!

The Old Courthouse from the Arch

A view of the city

  On Saturday afternoon we went into St Louis and went into the Arch.  St Louis was designated as the Gateway to the West when the early pioneers set out to explore the new American lands.  So, in the 1960's they built a 630 foot arch to commemorate it.  After watching a film about its construction, in which I was amazed that no-one died during the building of it as there were no safety measures, we queued up to enter these little pods which took you to the top.  Thankfully it was a clear day and so we had a great view from the top.

One of Webster Hills' windows

  Sunday was obviously a church day and so, after the morning worship in which I read the lesson and led the prayers, we went to an Epiphany lunch at the house of a couple of church members, then went and shared in Communion at a residential home, before meeting up with some of the youth to discuss how they may be involved in worship.  Finally, and not connected to ministry, we visited another friend of Kim's to watch the first episode of the third series of Downton Abbey!

Inside the caverns

  On the Monday a couple from the church took me out for the day so Kim could get on with some work.  We went to the Meramec Caverns.  It was an impressive tour through the caves with many and varied stalactites and stalagmites.  It was also into these caves that Jesse James fled and even managed to escape out of by wading through an internal river.  After this I was taken to a working silica mine as the husband had previously retired as the plant manager.  As it was an above ground mine we were able to drive through the tunnels which had been bored out as he explained the process of mining silica, along with its many properties.

Inside the Basilica

One of the mosaics.

  After a quiet day on the Tuesday another couple from church took me back into St Louis on Wednesday.  We visited the Catholic basilica which contains the world's largest collection of mosaics.  Every picture and pattern on every wall and across the ceiling are made from mosaics - there are no paintings at all.  After this, and in a 'slight' change of tone, we went on a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery.  This is the company which makes Budweiser among other things.  It was a really interesting tour and even included a free sample.


 

The pep band

  Finally, Thursday evening Kim and I went to a basketball game.  This was the first time I had ever been to a basketball game and it was great to see how popular college sports are over here.  There were people of all ages present and they had a fantastic pep band (with the aim of pepping up the crowd) which must have had 60 musicians taking part and who played every time the game stopped.  It was a fun night, made even better by a St Louis Billikens victory.  Then, on Friday, it was time to pack and return to Atlanta, ready for the start of the new school semester.

Christmas in Decatur...

After all the adventures of driving on the wrong side of the road, I returned to Atlanta ready to enjoy a nice quiet Christmas.

An example of a Chrismon tree

  The festivities began with the Christmas Eve carol service at church.  Due to the popularity of the service they hold identical carol services one at 4pm and one at 6pm.  I was at the later service and the church was packed - and I understand it was similar at the earlier one as well.  There was a makeshift choir which met the day before to rehearse and then a tableau was created at the front by the characters of the nativity service as each reading was delivered.  The service ended with the lights being dimmed and every member of the congregation had a candle which was lit, and then we sang 'Silent Night' by candle light - a beautiful experience.  The other interesting thing of churches here over Christmas is the use of Chrismon Trees.  Apparently it is a Lutheran idea originally but they have standard Christmas trees but decorated with Christian symbols, which actually was really effective.

  After the service I went to a Christmas Eve party being hosted by a lady from the church.  As I still had a car I drove to it following someone else from church who knew the way.  After a lovely evening with good food and meeting some interesting people, I went to leave - without anyone to follow.  It had become very foggy and so I became quite disoriented and convinced that I had missed my turning.  I started getting slightly nervous as I was in an unfamiliar part of town - but thankfully then my turning appeared!  So I made my way back to church in time for the 11 o'clock service.  This was held in the old chapel and so there was a far more intimate atmosphere for the service.  I was involved in leading some of the Communion liturgy and also serving Communion - and then it was time to head home to the comfort of my bed!

The Mobley family

The Decatur blanket

  I had a lazy start to the morning.  Listening to the radio and having a late breakfast.  A family from church had invited me round for dinner, but they weren't eating until the evening.  Having read all the posts from friends who are now probationer ministers on Facebook about how busy those few days around Christmas had been, I felt truly blessed to have a quiet one to enjoy.  In the evening I headed back to Decatur for dinner with the Mobley family.  They have become good friends since I arrived here so it was great to share Christmas with them.  We had a traditional American Christmas dinner (so I'm led to believe) of ham, turkey, spinach casserole, sweet potato casserole and salad.  It was quite a dramatic mealtime with thunder rolling and bright lightning flashing throughout.  Not only did they cook a lovely dinner, but they also bought me a wonderful Decatur blanket with pictures of various Decatur landmarks.  I am really lucky to have been sent to Decatur First United Methodist Church partly because the church is great, but also because its in the middle of such a nice community - it is the one place I've been around Atlanta that feels like a British town.

Close up of the blanket

  I did also get an invite on the Friday after Christmas for dinner with a couple in Decatur who have links with the church, although they attend a different church.  The husband is a professor at Candler (which I didn't know until I got to their house!) and the wife works at the Decatur First pre-school.  I was surprised at how they had kept their English accents despite having lived in Decatur for 21 years.  The meal was capped with a home-made minced pie (and another to take home) - my only ones of the season.

Picture on front of the church bulletin

  My Decatur Christmas ended on Sunday 30th when I led the service at the contemporary Come As You Are (CAYA) service.  We had a number of people involved in the worship reading Scripture and reading reflections based on various characters from the Nativity story as we considered who we were in the Nativity story and why it was still important to engage with it.  With the regular CAYA band playing it was great time of worship - the first I have led since coming here.  Then I just had time to rush home, have lunch and pack before my ride to the airport arrived as I flew off to St Louis...