First Presbyterian Church Archives - Page 10 of 11

Unexpected

I still flinch when I see him walking behind me.

This happened about a month and a half ago. I decided to write about it, then not. But it still has some control on me, obviously, so I figure writing about it will release the hold it has. Well, that’s the theory.

It’s a Thursday evening, choir night in the choir loft, and we were about over with the rehearsal section and were about to start with the prayer concerns. Someone in the tenor section made a comment about how the music repeats and looked to him to note that we have to remember to modulate, i.e., go to a different key.

Then someone from behind me punched me. Hard, with a downward motion, to my left shoulder blade. It was one of the basses, about twenty years older than I was. Distinguished man who had served not only this church but the Albany Presbytery and the national church. I stood up, turned around, and said, “You hit me!” He said, “You didn’t shut up.”

I am now livid, as much by his “justification” as by his blow. I think I wanted to hit him. But the truth of the matter is that I’ve seldom punched anyone. If I were to have struck him, it would been purely reflex. Once I stood up, this wasn’t going to happen.

Besides, the narrative was all wrong: “60-year-old man beats up 80-year-old man, in church.”

Still, I was not in the attitude of prayer. I got up, leaving my music where it was, muttered, “I’m done here,” walked to the back of the church, got my bicycle and backpack, and peddled home. I was really angry that evening.

Friday, I was REALLY sad. Music is a refuge, church, and especially choir, is a refuge, and it was violated. And my arm still hurt, to boot.

I thought my abrupt departure might have engendered a call or an e-mail or some Facebook comment from a choir member, but no. (Arthur, n.b., this was the source of the reference to Split Enz’s Nobody Takes Me Seriously. A more appropriate tune might have been Mr. Cellophane from the musical Chicago.)

One of my sisters, who read my cryptic FB message, wondered if the man who hit me was suffering from some sort of dementia.

That Sunday, talked to the choir director, who hadn’t see what had happened. Nobody did, not even the guy sitting next to him; only the guy I was talking with did; his wife was very angry on my behalf. During the week, I also spoke with one of the pastors.

Long story short: he hasn’t hit me again. We haven’t spoken, except when I passed him a pen, through a third party. I still flinch when I see him walking behind me – getting Communion, e.g. – because I still don’t know the real cause of his action. I was glad the one Sunday he was absent. Now that the choir season is over, I won’t have to deal with this directly, until the fall.

The one thing that helped more than a little was this post by Lisa, called U is for Unforgiveness, which came out after he hit me, but before I saw him again. “If we’re waiting until we get an apology, or see some sign of change or simply waiting until we’re good and ready, it will never happen.”

If I had gone out to breakfast with him, and 14 other guys, the following Thursday morning, expecting an apology from him and didn’t get it, I might well have been furious. Having read that, I was merely resigned to that outcome.

That seems to be my general state regarding this issue: disappointment, loss of respect for him, and more than a little melancholy because my “safe place” feels like it’s gone. Someone in the congregation, who knew of this situation, said to me after church about a month ago that I looked sad. I said, “The mad goes away quickly; the sad tends to take a bit longer.”

Grey Anatomy’s ’80s Music; Stephen Colbert to CBS

The longtime president of Union College, Eliphalet Nott, was previously the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Albany.

I noticed that Grey’s Anatomy had been using songs familiar to me, but by different artists from the originals. What I hadn’t sussed out is that the program will feature all ’80s covers for the remainder of season 10. Here’s a list of recent music.

For instance, Episode 14 included [LISTEN to all]:
Don’t You Want Me by Young Summer, originally by the Human League.
Man in the Mirror by J2, featuring Cameron The Public, originally by Michael Jackson.
All Through the Night by Sleeping at Last, originally by Jules Shear, popularized by Cyndi Lauper.
Don’t You Forget About Me by Wind & The Wave, originally by Simple Minds.

This is part of a collaborative effort between Grey’s creator Shonda Rhimes and music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas — what they call the ’80s Covers Project.
***
My buddy Alan David Doane was musing about the limitations of the Stephen Colbert caricature on Comedy Central as a right-wing blowhard: “His ‘character’ gets in the way of providing the value and insight Jon Stewart delivers every day [on the Daily Show]… It was an amusing conceit that has proven limited in its capacity to entertain and enlighten, and this [then] current brouhaha seems to be the point where everybody has finally gotten as tired of it as I have always been.” It was always thus for me as well. I got the joke; I just didn’t think it was particularly funny over time.

When David Letterman announced his retirement from his CBS Late Night show, and Colbert was selected to replace him, I was hoping we’d then see the real Colbert. It will be so. Mark Evanier wrote quite a bit about all this HERE and HERE (what about Craig Ferguson, whose show follows Letterman) and HERE (why not Jon Stewart) and HERE. Also, Stephen Colbert hits back at Bill O’Reilly.
***
I had to be rooting for Union College as it defeats Minnesota for the college hockey national championship. Not only was it a much smaller school, and an underdog against a perennial power, but it’s located in Schenectady, NY, in my metro area. Used to walk through the campus all the time in 1978.

Moreover, the longtime (1804-1866) president of the college, Eliphalet Nott, was previously (1802-1804) the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Albany, my present church home.
***
Killing off a major character could be fatal to “The Good Wife”. I hope not, because it’s one of the few programs I actually watch and my favorite drama.

Can’t keep from singing

Oddly, I did not sing much in college. I certainly never joined a vocal group. I did sing in the stairwells with my friend Lynn, but that was it.

These pictures, above, my “baby” sister posted on her Facebook feed. I was 7 and 52, respectively. The first one, which was for Advent, was in some internal section, but the latter was right on the front page; in case you can’t read it, I’m rehearsing for the Faure requiem.

I reposted them on a Thursday – actually late on Wednesday night – and I was told that I was participating in Throwback Thursday. I am generally so oblivious to social media norms that I did not know that Throwback Thursday was a thing. I HATE doing social media “things”; next time I post old pictures, it’ll be on a…MONDAY.

This is another in those occasional pieces about how I’m surprised that people who know me don’t know me as well as I thought.

You may recall that I previously mentioned a choir member who did not know I was a librarian. On my birthday this month, I was at church. The choir was going to sing for something called First Friday. I see an old buddy of mine from my FantaCo days in the 1980s, but I know him better since he started blogging in the past few years.

He asked what I was doing, I tell him I’m going to singing with the choir, and he says, “I didn’t know you sang.”

I’ve written about how I used to sing with my father and sister, back when I was growing up in Binghamton. I also sang in the youth choir at Trinity AME Zion Church in Binghamton (see picture #1), and the chorus in high school.

Oddly, I did not sing much in college. I certainly never joined a vocal group. I did sing in the stairwells with my friend Lynn, but that was it.

I was in the church choir at First Unitarian in Schenectady for about five minutes in 1979. My real reintroduction to choir singing, though, began with my grandmother’s death in January 1982. She died on Super Bowl Sunday, in Charlotte, NC, but she had expressed a desire to be buried in her hometown of Binghamton, and she was, in May 1982. I got to sing in the choir, and I realized how much I missed it.

I went church shopping. Attended all the FOCUS churches at the time, the UU church in Albany, and about a half dozen others. It ended up being between Trinity Methodist and First Church, the Dutch Reformed Church downtown. During Advent, Gray Taylor, one of the tenors at Trinity, made a pitch for people to join the choir. A sign!

I sang for a week, then not the next two, but by January 1983, I was a regular. Stayed there until The Troubles in early 2000, after which I moved on to First Pres (see picture #2).

So yes, I sing. I’d rather sing harmony than melody. I’m a baritone and can generally find the bass line to any song, even those without one. I sing in the shower. I sing inside my head when singing out loud would be inappropriate.

I do sing.

Home Repair Workcamp coming to Albany in June

Since 1977, over a quarter of a million youth have participated in this program providing more than 6 million hours of volunteer service around the country.

Picture purloined from nationalservice.gov

There will be an Albany Home Repair Group Workcamp, June 29th to July 5th, 2014. This week-long junior and senior high work camp is co-sponsored by the City of Albany and the First Presbyterian Church of Albany, in conjunction with Group Cares Mission Trips. The participants will be housed at Myers Middle School. Participants gather together for large group meetings, eat in the cafeteria, and sleep on classroom floors.

The average camp size is 300-400 students from around the country, along with adult chaperones and Group staff members. Student volunteers work under the supervision of an adult with construction experience. These adults are supported by others with additional knowledge and construction skills.

There will be approximately 65 individual projects worked on this week, including painting, and the construction or repair of wheelchair ramps, porches, and porch stairs. This will be done at no cost to homeowners or occupants. The homes being repaired have been identified by agencies that work directly with the city of Albany, plus neighborhood organizations and churches. Materials are being donated.

Construction sites and families are visited several times in preparation for the Workcamp. Descriptions of the requested work are recorded and signed-off on prior to the arrival of the volunteers. Building materials will be delivered to all sites prior to the beginning of the week.

Homeowners or residents are expected to be on the property during each day of the construction week; family members or close friends may take their place, though, if needed. Because of the possibility that not all volunteers who register will come, there can be no guarantees that every approved job can be done. However, all jobs that are begun will be finished.

Since 1977, over a quarter of a million youth have participated in this program providing more than 6 million hours of volunteer service around the country. Group Cares, formerly Group Workcamps Foundation, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization, works together with many types of partners to cosponsor volunteer service projects providing minor home repairs for elderly, disabled, or low-income residents.

Participants pay a registration fee, which covers the cost of food, lodging, programming, insurance, and a portion of the project materials. All participants are matched within a small crew that typically consists of one adult and five youth. Youth groups are split up to work with participants from other groups providing them with the opportunity to make new friends from across the nation.

Not only do the young people get to assist the elderly, disabled, and low-income families with home-repair projects they cannot manage themselves, they support local agencies with their backlog of home-repair and weatherization projects. At the same time, the students receive a cross-cultural service experience for young people, helping them to grow in their Christian faith through service.

The youth of First Presbyterian Church of Albany have participated in similar activities in past summers, traveling to other cities to do home and building repairs. First Presbyterian Church of Albany is located on the corner of State and Willett Streets. The Pastors are Glenn and Miriam Leupold.

The Lydster, Part 119: The Lion King

The Lion King: March 2, at 12:15 pm, at First Presbyterian, 362 State Street, Albany, NY.

This is what The Daughter will be doing this weekend, playing the young Nala in The Lion King. So far, the only Christian adaptation I’ve seen is the song He Lives In You will be God Lives In You. There are Equity (professional) actors playing Scar and another role.

It would seem unseemly, I suppose, for me to say that my daughter is the best dancer of the kids performing. There was a sample of the production at church on February 16. Now, if a half dozen people, unsolicited, tell The Wife and/or me that The Daughter was great in that dance number, perhaps the best in the troupe, we shan’t become TOO proud, even though we might agree. Though she’s no longer taking ballet, I think the experience has served her well.

She has worked very hard learning her dialogue and the songs as well. If you’re in Albany on March 2, stop on by.