Church With No Power. Or Was It?

Grex and I turned the corner to arrive at church yesterday to find that the street was blocked by a flashing police car, cars not allowed to approach the parking lot, the front walkway barricaded by police tape. Hmm, turn around and go back home? Or park the car and walk up to investigate? We decided to walk.

We weren’t the only ones. Turned out, the police said the door was blocked so that people would’t walk OUT of the door in that direction, toward the fallen power lines. Even though there was no power in the church building or Social Center, it was perfectly safe to enter the building.

Still, the parking lot was completely blocked from cars entering it, and streets leading to the area were randomly blocked. It took a little creative energy getting there in the first place. But lots of people did, and the pews were filled!

The choir room was full of people too. Fortunately, there are several windows in the room, making a little pre-church warm up and rehearsal not too difficult even though the sky was still heavy and dark with nor’easter clouds. And thank God for battery-operated book lights! We do keep a few of those around.

I think we take light for granted. I mean, to see the music, you needed more than just the light from those windows.

Even though the Sanctuary at the First Presbyterian Church has several windows, it’s still fairly dark in there, and especially so on rainy days. With no windows on the soprano side, they got the majority of the limited supply of book lights kept in storage for use on music stands during special occasions when an ensemble might be playing. The candles in the pulpit are always lit during church services, but I don’t think I’d ever really appreciated them until yesterday.

The youngest choir was scheduled to sing yesterday. I figured with all the flooding in town that only a few children would show up. Turned out we were only missing two children! Almost everyone came! And what an adventure it was for them! The kids, age 4 through 1st grade, were excited, and maybe a little bit frightened, but in the end, I think most of them were happy to be part of a fun little adventure.

As I was sitting in the balcony trying to get a shot of them singing in the dark, a woman beside me said, “You’re not going to be able to get anything. Why are you even trying?” I just winked and thought to myself, “Never know if you don’t try.” And anyway, the point wasn’t to get a well-lit shot, like you’d normally strive for. The point was to capture the true ambience of the situation. So rather than exposing the shot to make it light, I exposed the shot so that I’d capture how it really looked.

I am SO PROUD of the Carol Choir for rising to the occasion and singing about Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness praying, all alone yet unafraid. How truly appropriate for a Lenten service. I think we should have church services with the power turned off more often!

Because all in all, if you were there too, wouldn’t you agree, it was a very powerful service despite the lack of power? Hmmmm. Come to think of it, I felt a new appreciation for the proverbial light our church shares every time we gather.

As I was sitting in the balcony (not singing even though I’m an alto in the choir — sorry Brenda!) I kept thinking about how this church must have looked in the days before electricity was widely used. I’m sad to say that our predecessors were probably laughing at us from heaven for making such a big deal out of a lack of bright light and heat.

Off in the distance, one of the fallen power lines.

Thank you, Brenda and Sam, for going ahead with services despite the challenges. I love my church family!