Bicentennial and a beginning

This past Friday, February 27, 2009, Park Street Church celebrated it's bicentennial. There are guest speakers all year to commemorate the occasion, but Friday was the exact date. To celebrate, the entire church body (well, the majority of it, anyway) attended a Bicentennial Gala at the Westin Copley Place Hotel. I decided at the last minute that I should go too, and really try to become a part of this church I have been visiting for the past semester. Tickets were pricey, but there were also "scholarship seats" available, so I signed up for one last Sunday. While I was doing so, a woman asked me if I would like to join her table, and I readily agreed. Knowing at least one of the people I would be sitting with for the evening took a great load off my shoulders.

On Friday night, after having two of my neighbors help pick out my outfit (I still felt undersressed--some of the women were treating this like a night at the opera. I suppose it might be the biggest event of the year, but the weather was iffy, so I didn't want to be wearing a skirt.), I made my way down town to Copley Square. I ended up being very early (better than late, right?), so I got to watch as the lobby slowly filled. At first there were only a few older couples, but by the time they opened the doors to let us into the ballroom, there wasn't even room for the wait staff to walk through the crowd.

The decor was rather unusual, featuring apples. Here's an example:


Apples featured heavily in the table decor as well. I was the first in our group to find our table, so I got a good picture of it when it was still pristine:


Okay, so there's a funny story behind this next picture. The couple is Alecia, the woman who invited me, and her husband. Yes, that's his blackberry shining through his shirt pocket. The photo was actually taken by Katie, who was sitting on the other side of me, because she and Alecia found it hysterical. So why was it taken on my camera? Well, Katie's on a photo kick right now and has decided that she needs to take at least one photo every day. She had her camera with her that evening, but realized, to her dismay, that the memory card had been left at home in the computer. So I came to the rescue and offered my camera--it still counts as her picture since she took it. I just had to email it to both her and Alecia.


The dinner itself was amazingly good. I would list the menu, but then you'd all just be jealous. After dinner there was music from an ensemble of musicians from both the traditional and contemporary services. Here's a picture, which doesn't really show the musicians well, but it's another good look at the room:


After the music were several speakers. Also at this point was the Park Street trivia game. We all had questions at our tables about the church, and the answers were revealed at this point. For instance, did you know that over the last three years there were 35 babies born per year at PSC (I assume that's on average), or that the original Sunday Night music director used to play backup for Aerosmith? Or that the wife of PSC pastor Edward Beecher was indirectly responsible for the start of the Civil War (in writing to her sister, Harriet Beecher Stow and encouraging her to take up her pen)--this one is probably an exaggeration, but the historical connections to a church that's been so vibrant for so long are bound to stack up.

The more I learn about this church, the more it impresses me, and the more grateful I am to have found it right away (thanks to Dr. Hiigel and others who suggested I check it out). The senior pastor, Gordon Hugenberger is incredible. Here he is addressing us from the podium at the gala (yes, we really did need those video screens so people in the back knew what was giong on):
In all, it was a very good night. I actually got acquainted with the people at my table (and hope to continue the trend of defeating my shyness) and felt like I might actually be a part of this place now. Oh, and I bought a book on the historyof the church, hot off the presses for the occasion--and the author was there, so I even got it signed. I'm such a nerd...

The beginning alluded to in the title came this morning. I went to church early today to help with the great labeling project in the church library. Two weeks I started helping with the process, attaching barcodes to books. Today, though, there was a meeting between the library staff and some other church elders. They invited me to sit in, and now I seem to be deeply involved in the development of the library. There was a lot of talk about what direction the library should go in, and how we can better reach out to the congregation to help them find appropriate resources and how the needs of various ministries could be accomodated. It was a very interesting discussion, and I even had some input, sharing how valuable a good stock of pathfinders could be to helping fill some of those needs. The leaders were pleased with how the conversation went. Apparently now I'm an official library person with real input, more than just a volunteer. It's amazing what a semester of library school and one good catchphrase will do for a person's credibility! I know it's likely to make me even busier, but I'm excited to be involved in this. Plus, it will look great on my resume.

I made the decision this semester to actually become involved in the church I love attending. It seems I cannot inch my way in but must simply leap headfirst into the thick of it. After all, the metaphor isn't sinking into a hot tub where I'll simply soak in comfort, but diving into a pool where the race has already begun and I need to catch up.

-Kim