A State Park Becomes a Cathedral

October 15 was a Sunday we will all remember.  It got off to a very good start when we welcomed a new Covenant Participant during our morning worship gathering at our church, Fellowship of the Valley.  Then it just kept getting better. 

Immediately following worship, we trekked over to Tannehill State Park for a blue-ribbon pot-luck dinner followed by a moving (and chilly) midstream baptism.   The first baptism ever for Fellowship of the Valley! It was a brilliant day with crystal blue skies and a hint of autumn color in the treetops.  With great joy and lively conversation, we shared our feast on well-worn picnic tables under shed number three, which was ideally situated amidst a gurgling stream, a dusty road, and a grassy knoll.  The kids couldn’t wait to run and play in such a compelling spot on such a lovely day.    

After we had eaten our fill, a search party went upstream to find the perfect site for the baptism.  When they came back with a good report, we gathered everything up and made our way over to the chosen spot.  It was everything we could have hoped for!  A gentle bend in the clear-water stream was framed by sheltering trees and lined with gently-sloping banks.  The congregation gathered creekside to witness the much-anticipated baptism of two of our beloved “Fellowship Folks.”   

Pastor Mike waded into the water first, Bible in hand.  After reading Romans 6:4-10, he stood still in the flowing stream while Scott led in prayer.  As the church quietly sang “The Doxology,” Brian boldly invaded the stream.  Mike, resting his hand on Brian’s broad shoulders, said, “Brian, I baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; buried in likeness to Him, and raised to walk in newness of life.”  Then he dipped Brian backwards into the stream, immersing him completely under the waters, and raising him straightway up.  Murmurs of joy and approval rose up from the congregation. 

Kay was next, and her face registered shock as her bare feet rudely took her into the frigid flow.  After repeating the baptismal prelude, Mike plunged Kay beneath the flood.  She sputtered something unintelligible when she first rose up out of the water; later she told us that she tried to shout “Hallelujah,” but some water got in her throat.  As it turns out, words were unnecessary.  We all knew, and shared, what she was feeling.  

 It took a long time for everyone to leave that newly hallowed place.  It’s funny, isn’t it, how a state park can become a cathedral.  Last Sunday, at Tannehill, it did.  Hallelujah!  

Joseph and the World’s Oldest Profession

The touring company of the Broadway play, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” is in Birmingham this weekend, but I’m not going. 

It is not because I don’t want to go.  After all, it is one of my favorite plays (I saw it once in Providence), with some of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s best music and lyrics, and it is based on one of my favorite Bible stories.  It is an impressive production, and I would enjoy seeing it again.   

The reason I’m not going is because of the cost.  Tickets are $58.00 each, plus a $7.50 “convenience fee” if you purchase them online (which nullifies the convenience, if you ask me).  And that is for a seat somewhere in the nether-regions of the BJCC.  And believe me, the BJCC has some mind-boggling nether-regions.  The last play I saw there was “Mamma Mia,” and from where I sat, the stage was the size of a postage stamp.  People look bigger on my 19-inch television screen.  For most of the play, we were distracted by the woman, two rows in front of us, who insisted on dancing (badly) to the music.  I can assure you, she was no “Dancing Queen.”    

Compare that with my experience last Sunday.  A friend and I went to the Birmingham Festival Theatre to see “The World’s Oldest Profession,” a  local community-theatre production.  I wanted to see the play mainly because one of my friends had a lead role.  A refined, upstanding Episcopalian lady playing a woman of ill-repute.  Who could resist? 

It was a “pay-what-you-want” afternoon performance, so the tickets set us back twenty bucks, total, for the two of us.  We found a free parking space right across the street from the theatre.  The seats were not assigned, and the place was almost full when we arrived.  Even so, we found seats center-stage about 15 feet from the performers with an unobstructed view.   We could see every expression on the actors’ faces. 

The play was baudy, sometimes funny, and thought-provoking.  The amateur actors were impressive – they could really sing – and the audience was engaged, involved, and responsive.  We all laughed out loud and often, and gave the cast a standing ovation at the end.  We shook the hands of the actors on the way out.

I have reflected on the experience all  week.  The play, as all good plays do, caused me to think.  It addressed many themes; the hypocrasy of Christians, the ways people experience family, the roles of women in our culture, and who goes to heaven (and why), among others.  Additionally, my friend’s participation in the play allowed me to see her in a new light.  I have a greater appreciation for her as a three-dimensional person.  And, boy, is she brave!  

Here’s my point.  Community theatre is accessable performance-art.  It is evocative stories told well.  Every production is a community-building event, and all who participate grow.  It is good for the local economy.  People develop skills and cultivate relationships.  In good companies, important topics are addressed and local issues are examined.  Audiences are not only entertained; they are often challenged and provoked.  And sometimes disturbed.  Good stories tend to do all those things to us. 

Best of all is the cost.  I could see five community theatre plays for the price of one professional production.  An afternoon or evening at the theatre does not break the budget.  All that entertainment, culture, education, and fun for about the price of a movie at the “Rave.” 

I hope I will have the opportunity to see more Broadway plays on special occasions.  I might even see “Joseph” again if I get the chance.  But in the meantime I plan to see many local live theatre performances.  I hope to meet many Birmingham-area people who value the performing arts, and I want to have deep conversations with my friends about the meanings of the stories. 

Oh, and that great story about Joseph in the Bible?  It can be found in the same ancient Biblical book as a story about a woman of ill-repute.  I wonder how Andrew Lloyd Weber would stage that?  I might even pay $58.00 (plus a $7.50 convenience fee) to see it.  Nah…