87% on Worlds in Yellow

Went dark for a week to give my brother's MS Walk notice (below) some room. Had a great time at Necon recently, though 4 days and it felt like it flew by and still, with only 200 attendees, didn't get enough time with everyone. Still, it was good to be home and hug the family. :-)

Worlds in Yellow... trying this title again... I like it, just wish it looked better on the page... coming along well, though.

On the home front, we decided to try attending another non-denominational church on Sunday in the next town. The sermon was great, but aside from that the entire service consisted of 6 contemporary Christian songs (which I think are great for services, mind you, in moderation) in a row. This is the second time we've hit something like this. Now, the Catholic church is a bit over-structured in my opinion, relying too heavily on ritual and tradition, and has drifted too far from its original foundation (hence the need for reformist, protestant denominations), but at least they know enough to break things up a bit. A couple of songs in the beginning would be good, then do something else, go back to the music, etc... 6 songs in a row waters down their effect on worship, in my humble opinion. Ah, well, maybe I'm being too picky.

This is one of the things that turned us off when we visited the non-denom church in our own town, but at least they kept it to 4 songs up front, then they had other content like scripture readings before getting to the sermon. In retrospect I guess it was pretty good. I do have a problem with the one in town, for a few reasons I won't bother to blog. But we should give the church we went to Sunday another try - something too new needs to be experienced a few times for any truly subjective decision. And Tom Morin's a good preacher The spirit was in there, which counts for a lot. And I don't want to start window-shopping, which I sense is starting. There's no such thing as the perfect church, I suppose. But I've gotten too disillusioned with the Catholic church, try as I might to stay with them, mostly for the rest of the family. But there's so much to learn and experience in our faith, and to be honest, the only thing keeping me at our current church is the ability to teach religious education for 16 weeks to the high school kids and show them their faith from a different perspective. But at what cost?

Church shouldn't be a place drag ourselves to simply because it's where we've always gone and the people are familiar. I want us to enjoy ourselves when we're there, feel close to God, LEARN about our faith, not drift off because the same things are being said. Though I do wish the non-denominational churches did Communion more often. Should be a priority (I don't mean make it the center of worship, the way the CC does, but a part of it, an important part).

Anyway, a bit of a theological aside. We'll probably alternate weeks at each, for the kids - and us - to be able to see which one is right. In the end it's Jan & my decision, but they're not birds, can't just push them out of the nest. OK, OK... back to writing....

Dan