St. Margaret's Episcopal Church

Our van is finally kaput, so we were Episcopalians this morning.

Since we couldn't all fit in the truck to go to church, we decided to walk together as a family to one close by. The most viable one was an Episcopal church. I have visited Catholic Churches before with friends or for funerals, but Episcopal was a first for all of us.

It is surprisingly a lot like the Catholic church service in form and yet was a more comfortable building/service, if that makes sense. There was a lot of liturgy and congregational response. About half of the songs were familiar to us (we went to their contemporary service). They had some small stained glass windows. Their building was welcoming. Phillip noted how everything was pointed toward the Lord's Supper. The congregation sat in three sections all pointed toward the stage. The table in the middle of the stage held the bread and wine. The bishop (?) only went up on stage when it was time for Communion. Everything else was done from the main floor. 

I was glad they had everything spelled out in the bulletin ~ the songs, the readings, congregational response. They did have it in two different sections that we had to go back and forth on. We were confused at first but figured it out. We loved how serious and sound it was: Scripture, the Lord's Prayer, the Nicene Creed, thanksgiving, prayers. It was filled with doctrine, and we were glad to see that as a part of the service.

The sermon was short, but it was Scriptural and to the point. The kids were nervous about Communion because it was different than our tradition. A greeter had told us that any baptized believer could participate. We all went forward and knelt around the stage. Then the bishop (rector? priest?) came by and gave each person a wafer cracker saying, "The Body of Christ, Bread from Heaven" to each of us.  Then a lady in a white robe passed by with a chalice of wine and said, "The Blood of Christ, Poured out for us." (I think that's what she said.) Some people dipped their wafer in the wine and some took a drink from the cup. We all dipped. Except Liz. She thought she was supposed to eat the wafer, and therefore did not have a wafer to dip. And she didn't drink; so she is now the only one in our family who has never tasted wine. 

Our family sitting together for a liturgical church service which we walked to from our home. It was quite a cozy throw-back experience.

We have acquired a new-to-us van since this morning (good work, Phillip!), so we'll be back to our regular church next week. But we did enjoy the excursion.

McNay Museum of Art

As you may have noticed, the city inspires me to get to as much of its offerings as we reasonably can. Especially the free offers. And I especially love the museums and nature areas. The McNay is free every Thursday evening, so I took the home kids this past week. Liz has dance classes with a friend, so she wasn't able to come with us. 

The McNay is a home built in the 1920's. The lady of the house loved to collect art. Upon her death she left the estate, art collection, and endowment to San Antonio, so the city could establish its first museum of modern art. 

I have to say we weren't super impressed with the 'modern' part of the displays, but there are a number of recognizable artists ~ Renoir, Monet, Diego Rivera. Lots of Impressionism and Bronze sculpture. Well, some bronze. They took away my favorite: Don Quixote on his horse. A lady told me it was in storage. She didn't seem too sure of herself though, "Yea, we don't have that. Wait, isn't it over there? No, not anymore. It's in storage. It's in storage." 

Bummer.

There was a very colorful textured-type modern art display. In the past they've had a cardboard display and a Cheetoh display. Both of those are a little strange, but you could definitely tell what the objects were that were made out of cardboard or Cheetohs. Their current feature is not of anything. Just lines and textures. I'm sure there is something we don't understand about it, but it just doesn't have the weight of real objects, in my opinion. Is it supposed to evoke a feeling? Trick your mind? Make you contemplate? It's all very strange. 

But like I said, there is still plenty of other understandable and lovely art throughout the 24-room house. 

And downstairs, a little out of the way, there were these large sequined canvases that the kids could draw on. 

Phoebe's got talent. I sat and watched her finger-draw "Girl in Evening Gown."

The boys put up Donkey from Shrek (I think). They had a good time. 

There was quite a crowd this week at the museum. There was a band playing on the front lawn, food trucks, a girl getting Quinceañera photos taken by the fountain (very princess-y, these types of photos are). It was festive and fun to be there. 

We are 1/4 of the way through our school year, despite sickness, which lasted about a month among all of us. Jon and Phoebe have gotten a pretty good handle on their co-op classes. Jon takes the PSAT next week. Phillip started a job in town this past week. Harrison is finishing up listening to the Penderwick series by Jeanne Birdsall. This is a modern book series, but very similar to other series he enjoys, such as The Melendy's (not as modern). He's on the last book and is sad that it will end soon. What a fun find for him....