Trail Seeker

No audio blog on this post, I can't access it, but I will try at some later date.

The Mormon church holds their chapels a step higher on the standards list than the rest of the building, if you want to get a civil wedding you are not good enough to get the chapel, you are delegated to the basketball court. If you have your funeral, you are required to make it a missionary tool, but at least it is in the chapel. Mormons are notorious for not clapping either when it comes to performances done in the chapel. That seems to be the standard, your ward may vary.

Where I live, that is not always the case. Several funerals ago that I attended, there was some issues about how it would be done. The local church leadership was insisting it be done to standard or close to the ideal, but the young husband wouldn't have any of that, you see, he was agnostic and didn't want all the preachy stuff, but the young lady is Mormon(inactive) and her family are very active in the church and they wanted to have the funeral at the church. The leadership did the right thing, they allowed the funeral with out demanding the preachy things and it was a nice funeral, more centered on the young lady and only a mere mention of church.

Fast forward to this past month, a man who in his fifties died a tragic death when the bridge he was crossing collapsed. He was active in the scouting program, but inactive with church. I don't know if anything went on behind the scenes on this funeral, but it was nice, and the only religious thing that sticks out in my mind was the family mentioning there recent talks of God and with the deceased and how that this fellow felt right with God.

Tonight was the 15th annual Gala festival, a community night of arts and music, and in the chapel no less. Now I know some of you are going to say "Come on Trail Seeker they have musicals in the chapel all the time" and you would be correct, but follow me on me on this. I have been in this town for over 10 years now, and I was late figuring out that the Gala festival was a place for me and I got hooked. So let me know (if your Mormon or a post Mormon) if the following is a normal routine.

The musical starts out with the stake mens choir(this is not a standard from year to year, but they were there tonight and there singing was not to bad), soon after a quartet of women play the brass, Two solos by a married couple, where one sing the accompanies and then switch. In between is clapping like no other ward building i know. In the past there has been bell ringers, violinist, guitarist, mandolines, various brass pieces, harpsicords all back up by talented performers from many different walks of faith, about the only exception is an electric guitar and drums. Although the bishopric conducts, the Opening prayer is given by a protestant preacher, tonight he was from the Luthern church and I can always count on the father from the Catholic church to give the closing. Tonight though, we didn't get the usual older father who gives these thoughtful, albeit scripted prayers( wife and I thought that he may have kicked the bucket), tonight we got a younger fellow who looks like he is from some Pacific Island who gave a nice prayer that included an enviromental thought, he prayed that we take no more than we will use. These prayers are refreshing to me, they are not the standard "God, Thank you, request, Amen" prayers

So how many other Mormon churches can boast that they had a community event, in the chapel, Where members were nearly the minority and opened by a protestant, closed by a Catholic, with lots of clapping and included more than just the standard piano, organ and an occasional violin?

I am proud of the folks in this ward for reaching out to the community in a productive way. One last note, I was surprised to see the program was also a chiasmus, strange.