Saint Joseph's, Tuolumne City

Life isn't like the movies (which is usually a good thing), so as we visit churches this month that were featured in movies, we deal with Movie Church expectations that  aren't met in real life. This week was no exception. St. Joseph's was used for the church exteriors in the Western classic, High Noon, but if you were hoping for any of the following things, you'll be sorely disappointed if you visit this small church in the foothills of gold country.

1. There were no horses tied in front of the church, and no buggies parked. I suppose this shouldn't be surprising as the film is set in New Mexico Territory in the late 1880's, sometime after the arrival of the railroad. The church was built in 1908, so it wasn't quite in the era of the Old West, but it was close. The pastor, Father John Fitzgerald, has been serving at this church for 23 years, and it was not until his tenure that heating and air-conditioning was added to the facility.
2. The church in the film seems to be a Protestant church of some variety, which is not the case here -- as you can see by a glance at the name of the church. Among the morning's hymns, though, was "I Sing the Mighty Power of God" by Isaac Watts which was sung in plenty of Protestant churches in the Old West.
3. The service was not interrupted by a sheriff asking for volunteers to face a vengeful killer and his brothers arriving on the noon train. In fact, I didn't notice anyone entering the church after the service began, which isn't that common. At the other Catholic services we've attended, a good number of people have come in late. We have no explanation for these facts (we didn't notice any train tracks in town, either, but we doubt these things are connected).

We were quite thankful not to be late for church. We'd  spent the night in Bootjack with friends (more than an hour's drive away), so we left their house around 7:00 in the morning. When we pulled up in front of the church, it was easily identified as the church from High Noon. We thought we were an hour early, since we'd thought mass started at 10:00 am. But we saw the sign reading "9:00 am Mass," and we heard the bells ring. We entered just minutes before the service began (so again, no movie reenactment here).

An elderly woman was lighting the candles at the front of the sanctuary. She turned to the congregation and said, "I need a man to help with these candles!" Knowing the sorry example of cowardly men in the film High Noon, men too cowardly to volunteer to help Gary Cooper, I volunteered immediately. I went forward and could see that the high candle she was trying to reach was, in fact, already lit, though the flame was small and blue. Though she couldn't see it, I assured her it was lit.

The service began. Soon I was experiencing a frustration I've experienced in every Catholic service we've attended this year. I really have a hard time following the order of service, the readings and the songs. Entering the service we were handed a folder with three different books in it. We switched off between those three sections without being told at any time which section we were using. You need to look up the day's date at the beginning of the book to know that on that day, November 15th, was the 33rd Sunday of ordinary time (I think). Father Fitzgerald reminded us it was almost the end of the church year (Advent is the beginning). The numbers of the songs could be found on a board on the wall. But finding the responses and songs still was a challenge. Even lifelong Catholics must get lost on occasion.

The Scriptures, especially the passages from Daniel and Mark, focused on the End Times, the Second Coming of Christ. Father Fitzgerald spoke of the tribulation Scripture foretold, "Once we thought persecution was just in the past, but today, particularly in the Middle East, it is quite upfront." He said, "The Second Coming has the warning of judgment, but greater is the promise of consolation that will come with Christ's return."

     

During this weekend of the terror of the ISIS attack in Paris, it was good to look at the hope found in the promise that history is in God's hands. Father Fitzgerald made a point that we, as Christ's disciples, must live in the present, but we are able to do so because of Scripture's promises for the future.

After the service I went to talk to the cantor, the woman leading the music. I needed to ask her what instrument she was playing. I thought it was a mandolin, but I have little experience with mandolins. It was. Then she told me I had given her an example of faith that morning. She hadn't been able to see the light of the candle either. But she trusted my word and later watched the flame grow.

The flame of St. Joseph's Church in Tuolumne City has been burning for over a century, and I trust it will continue to burn. I hope until Christ's return.

Statistics:

Service Length: 1 hour 2 minutes

Sermon Length: 13 minutes

Visitor Treatment: we were greeted and given the worship binder (with three different books in it) at the entrance. During the passing of the peace, the people around us greeted us, and after mass, Father Fitzgerald made a point of meeting us.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 44

Probable Ushers' Count: 50

Snacks: donuts and coffee cake, coffee and hot chocolate (which was welcome on a chilly, rainy morning)

Musicians: three women singing (one with mandolin)

Songs: "I Sing the Mighty Power of God"

            chanting introit

            Psalm 85 chant

            "Glory be to the Father"

            "Lord Jesus you are the hope" chant

            "Lord Have Mercy"

            "Alleluia"

            "Lamb of God" chant

            There were several chants that aren't listed here, and I missed the name of the last song

Miles to place: 289

Total California Miles: 16,105

Church website: omnsanct.org

Why Do We Have Fake Churches Along With the Real Ones?

If you're a curious (or should I say inquisitive?) person, you may have asked this question. We’ll try to be as faithful every week posting about a church from a movie as we are posting every week about a real church we visit. And there’s a reason for that.

In the Western world, it's pretty easy for a person to go through life without going to a church or meeting a member of the clergy (for better or worse, you've met me), and it's also easy for a person to think they know all about the church and pastors and priests and nuns because they’ve seen it all in the movies. But all some people know about church is what they get from the media, and more often than not, the movies do a lousy job depicting churches; not just the negative portrayals, but inaccurate portrayals as well. 

It isn’t necessarily a bad thing when churches are portrayed negatively. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing when a member of the clergy is portrayed as crook or a fool or a pervert. Because there are bad churches. There are members of the clergy that are pretty awful. 

But often these negative portrayals are created by people who seem to have no idea what they are talking about. They get all the little details wrong, leading to getting the big picture wrong. And if all the churches and clergy are shown in a negative light, then they aren’t getting things right. Because though Richard Dawkins would not agree, there are some really good churches and really good clergy people out there. Seen it for myself.

If we are a part of the church, and want to introduce people to the real church, we may find it useful to deal with the expectations people have from seeing Bing Crosby as a crooning priest and Robert Mitchum as a homicidal preacher and even Whoopi Goldberg as a phony nun if we consider these things for ourselves.

So we’ll keep traveling to churches at work in the real world. But we’ll also keep visiting the fake ones, because they’re working in the imaginations, hearts and minds of people who need the God who is worshipped in real churches.

St. Eugene's Catholic Cathedral, Santa Rosa

A certain challenge comes with this project of visiting churches with the expressed intent of writing about them: it can be difficult to be in the service, to worship. This week, as we attended Latin Mass at St. Eugene's in Santa Rosa, I struggled with this more than I ever have before.

During the last two weeks of attending services conducted in other languages (Spanish and Korean), I was usually able to stay involved because the congregation was lively and attentive. This week, along with long stretches spoken in a language I didn't understand, there were also long stretches of silence, such as during the ablutions when the priest was cleaning the utensils used for communion.

During that time I was thinking about what I'd write this week, considering, "I could write, 'A certain challenge comes with this project of visiting churches with the expressed intent of writing...'" In fact, I even thought about how I could use this repetition. I really should stop before I get us into a temporal loop from which we can't escape.

The purpose of services in a variety of languages is usually quite clear. There were attendees in the Spanish service we attended two weeks ago that only understand Spanish, just as there were attendees in last week's Korean service that only understand that language.

But I'm certain that there was no one in Sunday's service who understands only Latin, certainly not the priest conducting the service. When he read Scripture and made a few remarks in English, he had a southern, perhaps Texan or Oklahoman, accent and sounded rather like a radio preacher (stretching out words like "in-eq-ui-teeeee").

  

Another reason to conduct worship in a language other than the one dominant in the community at large is the idea of "worship languages" (mentioned here). People often prefer to worship in the way they worshiped when they were young or when they first came to faith. So just as someone might prefer the hymns of their youth, they may enjoy worshiping in the language they used when they were young.

But considering the fact that the Catholic Church moved to vernacular services after Vatican Two, over fifty years ago, and a number of the participants were younger than that, something else must be at work.  

There are a number of  Catholics who believe the traditional Latin mass is somehow better than a mass in their native language, but I had a hard time in quick research discerning why they would believe this. There are some who simply argue that the Latin is more beautiful.

And there certainly was beauty in some of the Latin chants and songs in the service. The priest would chant and there would be a response from a small group of nuns in the balcony (they were right behind my back, and at the beginning of the service I thought the choir was a recording). There certainly was an ethereal quality to their singing.

But most languages can sound beautiful, at least to their native speakers, so why pick Latin?

It is tradition in the Latin Mass for the Scripture readings and the homily to be done in the vernacular. In this service the Scripture (I Corinthians 13 and Luke 18) was read in Latin and English. There was no homily as the priest gave a special appeal for giving to the Diocese. (The appeal, "This Latin Mass would not be possible without the work of the Diocese" sounded rather like a public radio pledge drive.)

The priest did causally refer to the value of the Latin mass because the words on the cross were written in Latin. But according to Luke 23: 38, the inscription "This is the King of the Jews" was written in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. So why is the service in only one of those languages? There is a bit of Greek in the service, "Kyrie Eleison" (for you Mister Mister fans) but no Hebrew that I noticed.

A book was provided with English or Spanish translation for the Latin which one could use to follow along with the service. But I often lost track in the book as I was trying to figure out when to stand, sit or kneel. The use of the Latin to my untutored sensibilities seemed to have a distancing effect rather than adding an enhancing element to worship (which was the opinion of Martin Luther and other reforming ancestors).

I was also put off a little by all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the Lord's Table. Philistine that I am, I kept thinking of the scene in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" where Indy chooses the correct cup as the Holy Grail, because it is the most simple one, one that might have been used by a carpenter's son. All the vestments and procedures used to get to the bread and the cup to the faithful make your average Rube Goldberg device seem straightforward.

There were a number of other elements of the High Mass that I had never experienced. There was the Asperges, the sprinkling of Holy Water on the altar, the clergy and the congregation. This is a representation of the cleansing of sin (Psalm 51 is often used in this part of the service) and I appreciated this part of the service (as a Christian and -- more sadly -- as a fan of vampire lore).

There was also use of incense. As a protestant, I'm sometimes a little bothered by the fact that our tradition ignores Scriptural passages such as Psalm 141:2: "May my prayer be set before you like incense" (that symbolism is lost on us non-papists, but not on Catholics).

During the service, up until the time of communion, I noticed people going in and out of the confessionals. And most (but not all) of the women and girls in the service wore head coverings (as did Mindy, who didn't want to go all Michelle Obama in Saudi Arabia on the service). Lace for head covering was available in the same basket that held the Latin-English and Latin-Spanish booklets.

We appreciated, during the Diocese Pledge Drive, a testimonial from a seminarian about his training. He spoke of the four pillars of their 6 - 7 years of training, the Intellectual, the Spiritual, the Pastoral and the Human (learning about their individual strengths and weaknesses). He seemed like a good guy and the Church is blessed to have men and women willing to devote their lives to the service of the Kingdom.

It was certainly an interesting experience and I'm sure Latin will be one of the many languages used to worship God in Heaven...but I'm good with experiencing it just once on this side of heaven.

 Statistics:

Service Length:  1 hour 30 minutes

Sermon Length:  no sermon, as the priest announced, but the Diocese Pledge break was about ten minutes

Visitor Treatment: no acknowledgement of visitors

Our Rough Count:  70

Probable Ushers' Count:  95

Snacks:  none

Songs:  Before Mass began, the nuns in the balcony sang "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" (in English). Much of the Mass was sung or chanted (in Latin), but we didn't note which songs they were.

Miles to place: 7 miles

Total California Miles: 4561 miles

-- Dean