Justin, his friend, Jesse, and I had a lovely birthday dinner at Carrabba's tonight, more than a week after his big day. Justin did not seem to mind having the waitresses sing Happy Birthday to him in Italian, especially after I coaxed them all to smile, as though they enjoyed having to do this! Some old friends of the three of us were there, and joined us for a bit before our meals arrived. My jet skis had been purchased from Will, and Hailey, his wife, is the daughter of our friend, Joan, who has hosted us for Christmas and shared many meals with us. Justin recollected the time I was at Wal-Mart and ran into so many people I knew, just inside the doors. As I stood and talked with them, Will came through as well and asked, "What are you doing? Running for mayor??" It was so funny! Hailey complimented me, saying I had not aged a bit, since it's been a few years since we did stuff together, saying she missed my smile. The last time she and I did something was to go to the movies to see "Mamma Mia" when it came out. A long time ago! Warmed my heart to see them again!
Anyway, back to my trip recap: Judy and I attended several workshops conducted including one about the liturgical church year and another concerning outreach via worship. Not too sure about some of the ideas taken from the last one mentioned, but it was interesting. On the day when we went to Martin Luther College, following the worship, we attended a workshop we 'thought' was about the history of Lutheran hymns, and, in fact, it was. Finding ourselves way over our heads, Judy and I very much enjoyed this study of Praetorius' Christmas Mass, complete with live and recorded music, and analysis. Mom has this Mass on CD, I believe gotten years ago when suggested by Pete Prange, so it was not foreign to me. Seeing and hearing music from the inside, as it were, was really quite interesting.
The special services for our time at the Conference began with Palm Sunday complete with a procession, similar to what we experienced at the School of Worship Enrichment last fall in Palm Coast. Next was a Maundy Thursday service where we partook of the Lord's Supper in what is called continuous distribution, which Judy said she has done at the national LWMS rallies in the past. My first experience with it, but necessary to do given the number of attendees being served. Over 1000 were there, and I am assuming, most took communion. The 'sunrise' service for Easter was somewhat more "unconventional" (I stop short of calling it contemporary) but the Easter Festival was quite formally conducted. In this procession, a participating pastor carried a Bible covered with a very ornate gold holder, and later, when the Gospel was read, the Bible was carried part way down the aisle and read from the center of the chapel. It reminded me of Episcopal services I have attended.
The pastor from FG had a son attending the Conference and he was asked to serve in the procession. His aunt, a Facebook friend, told me he was apprehensive about it, but he did it anyway. On Easter, he carried the "Alleluia" banner in with the procession. I managed to sneak a photo of him carrying it as the procession stopped in the aisle for the photographer, but his mom did NOT wish to see the picture. She is NOT a friend of processions at all. Another friend, also at FG, reported that when she watched the service being streamed LIVE, she nearly threw her computer across the room. Her hubby, a semi-retired pastor, cautioned her about watching it, and he was right. Since we have a simpler version of a procession at my church, I was not as off-put by it. Those who feel differently, feel quite strongly about it, much as I do about the 'happy-clappy' style of worship!
I must say, there is nothing like singing, and listening to the singing, as this event presented. Wow! If I could have posted from my cell phone, after that first concert, it would have stated only "WOW!". The choirs were amazing, they rehearsed for hours and hours, different choirs for different services. Mary Prange directed the choir and some of the orchestra for one of the services. When Judy and I went into the chapel for the closing concert, we walked into the lobby just in time to hear the choir singing "Jerusalem, the Golden". It stopped me in my tracks, and immediately the tears began. I told Judy to go on in to save our seats, as I had to collect myself. It would not be good to have me sniffling while the choir was trying to rehearse right in front of us.
As I stood off to the side, dabbing my eyes, just short of sobbing, Mary came through and gave me a big hug. Another man was with her, and she told him that I was from her nephew's congregation in Florida. He hugged me, too, as she explained that I already had someone in "Jerusalem" whom I long to see again. Both of them assured me that by the final stanza of the hymn, hardly anyone was able to sing, due to the weeping! After the concert wrapped up, I saw this man again and he asked me if I got through it. And I had, through the tears, sung this anthem with the choir and orchestra! Not only that, we sang the "Hallelujah Chorus", something I thought I never get to sing again. It was 'bliss beyond compare..."!!!!
