East er Weekend 2010

Where were you? was a common question as Bruce and I played hooky Easter weekend and went to Ottawa for the first time on Easter weekend. We stayed overnight at Jocelyn's house in Glouchester. Friday evening we took Jocelyn to the Met Bible church for her practice then went for a quick supper to a nearby restaurant. We returned easily in time for her 6 pm concert on "The Power of Grace". WE were impressed by the number of musicians that contributed. AS we are from mainline churches we only knew two of the hymns! Amazing Grace -with chains we knew part of .
AS we drove back to Jocelyn's place she phoned some friends of ours, the Grahams who invited us to drop by. We enjoyed a quick visit with Wendy and Jim Graham and a late snack of 1-1 pizza!
Saturday was spent touring Westboro, trying out the driving range in Orleans and making a family dinner for Jocelyn and her two room mates from Mexico and Egypt. We had some interesting discussions around the supper table. WE ended the day by watching the latest Harry Potter movie.
On Sunday we drove to the church for the early 9 am service. It was packed in the sanctuary and they had to ad chairs in the open area! Again- only knew a few hymns but were impressed by the number of out reach programmes in the church. I looked up the book that Pastor Rick Reed quoted: The Resurrection of the Son of God" by NT Wright and found out it was written by an Anglican bishop of Durham!
The church reminded me of the one Jocelyn went to in Red Deer, "Living Stones" and also the large modern Mennonite ones in Steinbach.

In the increasingly secular world it is encouraging to see the number of people who attend the service. However I still prefer singing some of the old favourite Easter hymns such as Jesus Christ is risen to day!

WE drove to another friends for lunch. Ada and Bill Hallett live in New Edinburgh, on Springfield road, near the Indian Embassy on one corner and a Second cup on another. WE had a lively discussion about different types of religious denominations. The Halletts attend an Anglo Catholic church in Ottawa: St. Barnabas, in the centre of the city, near the old Met Bible church building. Bill said the church has a good choir that may win a major competiton. He enjoys the incense and old fashioned service. Their church is also growing. They have members who drive in from Shawville.

We completed our weekend in Ottawa by driving Jocelyn back to her church for another choir practice then driving home to Petawawa. During the weekend we also visited an aunt who was in the St. Vincent centre for rehabilitation. It seems we touched on the extremes in present day Christianity: a very conservative church, a very modern church and also connected with people who compromise and go to a combined Anglican/United church. So there is room for all points of view within our family as we try to be tolerate and open to different ideas.