Yesterday afternoon was the Festival Pageant held at the High School gym. There were a number of (mostly) Norwegian related music, dances, songs, speeches, and poetry. Shelley performed as part of the Fiddleheads fiddle group. The governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, flew in to be part of the celebration (including an impromptu inclusion in one of the Norwegian dances when she was drafted by one of the Vikings to join in). The U.S. Coast Guard is the "big" military installation here, so they are the ones who bring out the flags and take them away.
This is definitely a small town. Even the big festival events have a very informal, intimate atmosphere. I also thought it was interesting that even for an event that would be considered "secular" in any other place, an invocation was given at the start by the Bible Church pastor.
This afternoon, I went out to Sandy Beach where the Rotary was holding their fundraising Seafood Bake & BBQ. For $25 I got a number of tasty salads and generous servings of king salmon, black cod, and halibut. I brought back home about half of it to finish later. Elise is working so she couldn't go, and the girls would have had to pay $12 each for not eating any fish... Though I suppose I could have had them take servings of the fish anyway for me to eat... I hadn't thought of that.
The High School Baccalaureate was held this evening at the High School auditorium. The Baccalaureate is where the members of the Christian Ministerial Association provide the graduating seniors with a sermon and a charge. This is the first time and place where I've encountered a religious (Christian) service for graduating public high school seniors. Maybe there are other towns and cities that do this, but if so, I've never heard of it.
My participation was to play the accompaniment to two of the hymns. When I was assigned those items originally, it wasn't clear if I was going to lead the singing or play the accompaniment. When I arrived this evening and spoke with the pastor organizing the program, he wasn't sure either. He had sort of assumed that there would be a piano and pianist, but you know how assumptions are often wrong. So it was that I ended up on the piano and he did the leading. I suspected that this might happen, so it was a good thing I came prepared with music and had practiced beforehand. It's been a while since I felt so nervous being up front.
Over the last several months, I've come to see that the line between what is common and what is sacred is a lot more fuzzy here. I think this is perhaps closer to the Biblical model of how life should be. When I read about the Christian life, it seems that there really shouldn't be a distinction between common and sacred. Rather, everything in a Christian's life should be an expression of worship. And in that respect, I think the Petersburg community gets closer to that than other places we've lived. Whether it is a celebration, a commemoration, a remembrance, or anything else, God is frequently a visible part of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment