San Francisco Double Feature to start Movie Churches crossover month: St Paul Church and Cornerstone

Saint Paul Church

Let's dash some false expectations right off the bat. This month we're visiting churches that were featured in movies (movies we feature in our Movie Churches blog).  We went to St Paul Church in San Francisco, which doubled for "St. Katherine's" in the 1992 comedy, "Sister Act." If you've seen that film, you should know these three things:

1) St. Paul's does not (at least on the Sunday we attended) sing pop songs such as "My Guy" turned into"My God."

2) We met two very nice nuns, both of the Dominican Order, visiting for the day. But we're pretty sure neither of them was a Reno lounge singer in disguise hiding out from the Mob.

3) The area surrounding the church was not a fearful ghetto that the clergy of the church hid from in fear. It's in a very nice neighborhood and seems to be very much a part of it.

What viewers of the film will find familiar is a rather gorgeous building and sanctuary.  One can understand why the filmmakers were drawn to it. Fine craftsmanship went into the stonework for the exterior and the iconic spires can be seen from afar. The interior of the sanctuary features a lovely series of scenes of the life of Christ pictured in stained glass.

Before mass, as Mindy was taking pictures of the church's interior, an older gentlemen pointed to a stained glass window that showed Jesus at the wedding in Cana, showing the water becoming wine. "The miracle is happening," the man said, "It's right there in front of you."

This was one of several times in the morning when people approached us to begin conversations. After the service when we went for coffee and donuts, I noticed what I thought was a brilliant innovation that really should be replicated in a number of places. The church has a school and we were in the school's gym (another brilliant move, since it gave kids the opportunity to run around and make noise without bothering people conversing around the food), and on the wall was a big screen TV showing the San Francisco 49ers game in progress. A man asked me if I knew the score. We watched as the Niners gave up a safety and shared the pain too common in this current Red and Gold season.

Sadly, in our many visits to churches over this year, there have been times when we've been ignored, even pointedly so. There have been times when we have been noticed and greeted, but awkwardly ("So, what are you doing here?"). The congregation of St. Paul's struck us as a friendly community with a number of people happy to engage both longtime members and guests.

Intermission

But this morning we needed to move along to see other longtime friends. We went to a second church service at noon at Cornerstone Church, a nondenominational Protestant congregation.

 

There are several reasons we could give for going to a second church this last Sunday.

We could say that since it was both All Saints Day and Reformation Sunday, we wanted to go to both a Catholic and Protestant church to celebrate both occasions.

We could say that since we're featuring "Movie Churches" this month, we decided to celebrate the dying cinematic tradition of a double feature.

Cornerstone Church 

But we really went to Cornerstone to see friends who attended Concord Bible Church with us back in the early '90's. Dave and Val Gallaher were vital and active members of that church and fun and delightful people. Our son was a baby just a few days younger than the Gallaher's twin girls, so Mindy and Val spent a lot of time in a hallway behind the sanctuary that functioned as a cry room.

So we were excited to have a chance to see where Dave and Val now worship. We arrived early and parked in a garage that the church maintains for first time visitors and families. We chatted with one of the parking attendants, Kris, and of course she knew the Gallahers. We talked to several other people in the church before Dave and Val arrived, and they all knew our friends; which, of course, speaks well of Dave and Val and of the church (as it turns out, Val is active in the visitor information program).

Attending services in both churches was a vivid reminder of differences in how worship is done these days. At St. Paul's we flipped through the pages of the missal (a liturgical book with songs and order of worship for each Sunday in the quarter or the year) to find the words to the songs. A piano and organ provided the accompaniment. A small choir sang occasionally to the side of the congregation and a song leader at times led in the front.  Classic hymns were sung and the newer songs were of a piece with the older songs.

 

At Cornerstone there was a loud and lively worship band, and during one song, time was taken for an electric guitar solo. The room was darkened for worship and the lyrics appeared on the screen in front. Some of the songs I've sung in other churches and heard on K-LOVE, but some were new to me.

At both churches there was a brief time of greeting with the exchange of smiles and handshakes.

At St. Paul, the priest who gave the sermon, Father Mario, was just returning to minister after surgery and convalescence. He apologized in advance if "things didn't go according to Hoyle." As fitting All Saint's Day, he reminded the congregation that God has called all his people to live as saints. As you might note in the statistics below, he spoke for ten minutes.

At Cornerstone, the senior pastor is on sabbatical, and one of the associate pastors, Luis Menjivar added to a church series on the "I Am" statements of Jesus, speaking on "I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life". He spoke for forty minutes.

As happens at St. Paul and every Catholic Church every Sunday, the Eucharist was celebrated.

At Cornerstone, communion is celebrated once a month at a special Wednesday evening service.

In two years, it will be 500 years since that first Reformation Day. Through those years, conflict between churches has been fierce, even bloody. But we were reminded this Sunday that God continues to work through his Saints of various denominational stripes to make His love known.

Statistics:

Saint Paul Church (9:15 Mass)

Service Length: 1 hour 15 minutes

Sermon Length: 9 minutes

Visitor Treatment: two greeting times during service (one was "passing the peace"), fellowship time in St Paul School gym after 9:15 mass. No visitor card that I remember

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none (but then again, they didn't know we'd been there)

Our Rough Count: 150

Probable Ushers' Count: 175

Snacks: coffee and donuts, donation appreciated

Musicians: piano, organ, song leader, four or five singers

Songs: Holy, Holy, Holy

            Glory to God

            Alleluia

            Hear our Prayer (choral prayer response)

            "With All the Saints"

            Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts

            The Mystery of Faith

            Lamb of God

            Blessed are They

            We are the Body of Christ (Somos el cuerpo de Christo)

Miles to place: 64

Total California Miles: 14,604

Church website: stpaulsf.org

Cornerstone Church  (noon service)

Service Length: 1 hour 12 minutes

Sermon Length: 41 minutes

Visitor Treatment: greeting time during service, private parking garage for first time visitors, information team wearing badges in information area near cafe and outside building, slide on screen with email address for more information

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none (although we had lunch with a member of the information team after church) 
UPDATE: We got an email from the church inviting us to an informational gathering in January and letting us know about various classes (which, if the letter weren't sent by our friend who works on the information team at the church and knows we wanted the information for this blog, would have been tailored to our demographic needs) are available. Thanks Val!

Our Rough Count: 200 plus (we couldn't see the balcony very well)

Probable Ushers' Count: 300

Snacks: cafe with coffee,other drinks, and various kinds of toast for sale

Musicians: drums (male), electric guitar, mandolin and some vocals (male), acoustic guitar and vocals (female, worship leader), electric bass and standup bass (male), keyboard and vocals (female)

Songs: You are Good

            Filled with Your Glory

            Mercy's War (just band)

            The Way (just band)

Miles to place: 1.6 miles from St Paul Church, 66 miles from home

Total California Miles: 14,669

Church website: cornerstone-sf.org

Calvary Armenian Congregational Church, San Francisco

We love subtitles in our house. We use them, of course, when we're watching a foreign language film, since when you're watching a dubbed film you lose the original voices, and you lose much of the passion and feeling that went into the film's making. Truth be told, we often use the subtitles for English language films as well, so we'll be ready when our hearing hardens. So one of the little ways Calvary Armenian won our hearts was by using subtitles (although I guess since they were projected above the pastor's head, perhaps they were "overtitles)."

Translations were found in other places. The bulletin had an English language synopsis of the Armenian portion of the sermon. When we sang the Lord's Prayer in Armenian, the screen had the lyrics in the Armenian alphabet and transliterated into Latin lettering and also translated into English. (I appreciated the opportunity to melodically massacre the Armenian language).

On the church web site a slogan proclaims, "All are welcome to worship with us on Sundays." While one would hope that would be the aim of every church, that's not the case, which, in some ethnic churches, is understandable to some degree. In the United States, churches have provided a sanctuary for immigrants. It might be the one place where an immigrant's home language is spoken, customs are understood, and food is served. This year we have attended ethnic churches where an effort has been made to see that we were made to feel welcome. At the Chinese Evangelical Free Church we attended, a woman who met us before the service offered to translate for us. At some churches, smiles and warm handshakes sought to overcome language barriers.

But we have attended some churches where people appreciated the opportunity to be with the family and friends they knew, and weren't looking for new friends or family.

Though Armenian culture is a major element of the church, we did meet non-Armenians after the service: two women who had married Armenians. One of the women was an American and the other was from El Salvador. Both had obviously found a home in the church. Many cultures seemed to influence the church. A family was welcomed back during the service from a trip to Beirut, both the husband and wife of that a family still have family there. The church's pastor for the last ten years, Nerses Balabanian, was born in Syria. In the prayers of the church (and from the literature and posters found in the hallways) concern for the world was plainly evident.

Mindy and I very much liked Pastor Balabanian. Mindy thought he looked a little like Bob Keeshan (I thought it would be more dignified to use the actor's name rather than Captain Kangaroo, since we respect both). I enjoyed his slight accent and at times awkward phrasing ("This is time of prayer before we go more singing" and "Don't go to your bulletin... I changed things... Spontaneity is beautiful"). I fully acknowledge that his English far outshines my Armenian.

The sermon was the last in a series on the Lord's Prayer. "Today's sermon is one word: 'Amen'. You've heard the whole sermon." Pastor Balabanian acknowledged that most texts of Matthew don't have the words, "For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen", and Luke doesn't either. But he said, "I don't want to argue whether this ending should be part of the Lord's Prayer or not. We Armenians, as one of the early churches in the world, kept it in our liturgy."

He talked about "Amen" as a universal word in the church, adapted to every language. He talked about how "Amen" was used throughout Scripture. And he talked about how in some churches "Amen" was used as a common exclamation of agreement. He said that was rarely the case in the Armenian Church. "Our church is not expressive church, and I respect that," he said, which received a loud "Amen!" from a member of the congregation. (This was said during the English language portion of the sermon. The first half was in Armenian and the second half was in English with the offering coming in between.)

The pastor pointed out that the word "Amen" will be used in Heaven (Revelation 5:14). I enjoyed greatly hearing God praised this Sunday in Armenian and English. I greatly look forward when people of every tongue will join together in the great Amen.

-- Dean

Statistics:

Service Length: 1 hour 13 minutes        

Sermon Length: 43 minutes (including offering and singing the Lord's Prayer)

Visitor Treatment: greeters at the door, a time during the service where guests and visiting family members were introduced, and friendly greetings before and after the worship service. We were invited to join the fellowship time after the service

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 63

ACTUAL Ushers' Count: 67 (we happened to see the count after church)

Snacks: coffee, hot tea, cranberry juice, two birthday cakes, proscuitto, a variety of fruit, pita, hummus, pesto, feta, mini quiches, and homemade Armenian honey cakes 

Musicians: one man on piano, a woman on organ

Songs: Faith of our Fathers

            Holy Holy Holy

            Doxology

            Amen

            Lord's Prayer

Miles to place: 65

Total California Miles: 11,090

Two Things I Didn't Know about Brotherhood Way*

1. The area was created when surplus city land on the south side of what was then Stanley Way was sold to various religious institutions and renamed in honor of the religious mix. It has its own neighborhood association (and they're not very happy about the new home development across the street).

2. The "Peace" statue, a metal sculpture by Beniamino Bufano, was at the entry to San Francisco International Airport for almost 40 years.  

 

*plus three bonus facts about the Evangelical Armenian Church!

I. The Evangelical Armenian Union of North America is an association of Protestant churches intentionally ministering primarily to people who identify as Armenian by culture and language. The various evangelical Armenian churches in Canada and the United States banded together to form the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America in 1971.

II. Individual congregations may also belong to denominations including United Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, United Presbyterian Church (USA), or Church of the Nazarene.

III. The group originated in 1846 when a group of 37 men and one woman in Istanbul were excommunicated for their desire to reform the existing Armenian Apostolic Church. As a result, the new church was formed. Due to wars and persecution, many Armenians migrated to the United States and in the 1880s, the first Armenian Evangelical Church in this country was formed in Worcester, Massachusetts. When it was formally organized, in 1892, it was called the Church of the Martyrs. 

-- Mindy

St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco

 "Step with your right foot to the right, move your left to the right in front, step with the right foot..." We were receiving instructions on performing a modified Hora, as we circled the communion altar. We also held the lyrics of a song to sing in one hand while the other hand was on the shoulder of another congregant. If our choreography was observed by a resurrected Agnes De Mille, I'm afraid she would not have been impressed. Martha Graham, dancing on the walls above us with 88 other saints, looked more or less benign.

Just as churches everywhere provide the talented and the tone deaf an opportunity to sing, St. Gregory's provides those who are graceful and those with two left feet an opportunity to praise God through dance; using the arts and sensual experience are central tools for worship in the ministry of this church in a business and warehouse district of San Francisco.

We were drawn to the church by the work of writer (and now St. Gregory's Directory of Ministry) Sara Miles. And it was these aesthetic values that initially drew Miles to the church. A nonbeliever, she was attracted by the architecture of building and once inside, was intrigued by the art on the walls. Then came the home baked bread for communion served with a good wine rather than stale grape juice. The reality of Christ's presence came to her through the bread and the cup. (I found it interesting that we noticed no concessions made for teetotalers or the glucose intolerant.)

People are provided with various opportunities to develop their gifts. We heard announcements for classes for bread baking and icon painting. We attended the first service, which didn't have a choir, but we heard the second service does and all are welcome to be a part of it. Even the children's ministry has a similar focus. The lesson material, from the Godly Play Foundation, uses Montessori methods to help children learn Bible stories through art, storytelling and imaginative interaction.

Mindy and I arrived a few minutes late for the Daybreak time of prayer, psalms and meditation, just after 8:00 am. We realized quickly we wouldn't be using our pens and notebooks. In a church with pews, it's usually easy to take notes rather inconspicuously, but instead we were seated in a semi-circle. We joined in chanting a number of Psalms (which, even without music, were surprisingly simple to follow). Many Fundamentalist and Evangelical churches say that the Scriptures are central to worship, but few devote as much time as this church (and many Episcopal churches) to the reading of Scripture. At Saint Gregory's the Bible is spoken and sung throughout the worship times. Between times of singing and prayer, the worship leader would ring one of the prayer bowls to indicate a transition.

As the worship leader pulled the rope to ring a bell in the church tower, the half hour Daybreak service flowed in the 8:30 worship service (Holy Eucharist). Liturgical books of songs and readings were on every other chair, along with a few printed papers with announcements and music to songs not in the books. We sang a number of songs, often from long-ago periods of church history. Between songs, readings and prayers, time was often allowed for periods of silence (true for the Daybreak service, as well).

The Gospel reading was the story of Jesus calming the storm. The sermon that followed introduced a topic that I'm sure was on the minds and hearts of many who came to worship that morning. The woman who spoke (seated, rather than standing) said that when she considered the Scripture early in the week, she thought of personal storms she'd faced in her life; vocational crises, the death of her father, the birth of a child.

But midweek, she realized she'd have to deal with a national, shared storm: the shooting of the nine people at church in Charleston, South Carolina. The mention of this event resonated in the congregation, I feel like we all longed for and dreaded its mention.

She went on to talk about the storm of racism that continues to engulf the nation, coming up in squalls like the killing of blacks by police. "For crying out loud," she said, "Even the President of the United States is criticized for his race instead of his policies!" She talked about the difficulty of facing such a vast problem (with a mention of Jon Stewart's take on the issue). She urged us to face the storm with assurance of Christ's presence.

After the sermon, people were given an opportunity to share how God had spoken to them. One woman shared the encouragement she had received studying the lives of the apostles. A man shared the Scripture from Job (which he had read aloud during the Daybreak service) where God answers the questions of Job.

After the worship service concluded with the Eucharist, the bread and cup are removed from the altar and replaced with morning snacks (which included bacon, but don't expect that every week. Fresh fruit and pastries are generally available). I asked a woman named Carla what led her to the church. She said she'd been attending for nine years now. She'd grown up in the South and had grown weary of the church's not only failing to condemn racism, but practicing it. When her mother came out as a lesbian, she saw the church treating her with "gay hate."

Living in San Francisco, she wasn't looking to be a part of a church. But one Christmas Eve, she just wanted to hear some carols. She came to St. Gregory's and felt something different was going on there. She was invited to come back on Sundays and she did because she had been made to feel welcome.

Mindy and I appreciated that we too were made to feel welcome at St. Gregory's.

Statistics:

Service Length:  50 minutes      

Sermon Length:  13 minutes

Visitor Treatment: We were given nametags shortly after we sat down, and during the refreshment time were asked to sign the guestbook if we'd like

Our Rough Count:  38

Probable Ushers' Count: 50

Snacks: cherries and other fruit, coffee, tea, bagels (with a toaster) and cheese spread, various pastries, chocolate cake, leftover communion bread (but not wine), bacon, sausage

Musicians: none, although during the dance around the altar, tambourines and other hand held percussion instruments were available, especially to children.

Songs: "Holy God"

            "Surely it is God Who Saves me"

            "The Lord's Prayer"

            "How Firm a Foundation"

Miles to place:  63

Total California Miles:  8,766

-- Dean