This morning (Sunday) I took Mike and Rachel C to St Nicholas’ Antiochian Orthodox Church. (The others went to St Michael’s and CSBC.) I really like going to St Nicholas’. Mike was saying that it’s like stepping into 2000 years of history. He said that everything seemed so unfamiliar, but it was also clear that they were definitely Christians, just like us. Parts of the service were in Arabic and others in English, so it was difficult to follow the liturgy, but there was a man standing behind us who told us which page we needed to be on when we were confused.
In the evening some of us went to CSBC. Darren Andrews (my old boss) from Green Collect started a discussion about ecotheology. Unfortunately, I think that Len’s closing comments at the end of the service really undermined what Darren was saying!
After church we went and had dinner with our neighbour Setal, whose husband Tekeste is away in Qatar. Drank lots of coffee, and watched a DVD of Tekeste’s brother’s wedding. (I asked Setel last week what an Eritrean wedding was like.) Setel’s friend Janet said, ‘See, all Michael Jackson’s dance moves come from Africa!’
After dinner we went out of the Seeds blanket run. Every second Sunday night some of our mob go out walking around the city, seeing if there’s anyone who wants blankets or coffee. It’s also a good way of getting to know the neighbourhood, and a chance to notice things we don’t notice when we’re just rushing around town. We noticed an illuminated icon of Jesus smiling down on the city:
Filed under: CSBC, City mob, Melbourne, Melbourne (city), Mission Exposure, Urban Seed/Seeds, advertising, church, city, environment, food, homelessness, weddings | Tagged: #me09, advertising, blankets, church, city, Collins Street Baptist Church, Eritrea, Green Collect, homelessness, Jesus, Melbourne, neighbourhood, orthodox, poverty, Seeds, Urban Seed, wedding
