Church at Sunset
Tag: church
Off Center & Not Even
You can see a really good example of being “off center and not even” at http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2017/2/off-center-not-even
Smoke and Ice (repost from 2011)
Today’s post of new cats is at http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/6/new-cats-in-town. On this date back in 2011 it was dry with smoke from fires darkening the skies and blotting out the sun. Today we got 1/3 of an inch of rain.
Originally posted June 14, 2011: The smoke was blowing in on my way home tonight and the sky looked interesting at the light at Alameda and 2nd Street, so I pulled off at the little ice house and got a photo of the cloudy, smoky sky with ice ads in the foreground. Laurie found a porcupine quill in Puck’s fur tonight. I’ll photograph it tomorrow, but this porcupine might end up being a problem. I thought the cats had enough sense not to mess with them, but maybe not. Their instinct to go after rodents, even though the rodents are three times larger and very prickly, might just be too much for their kitty sense. At least Puck’s kitty sense, apparently. He tries to be a tough cat, but messing with porcupines is a bit much. Then there are flies with major attitude, like the one pictured tonight. This fly was ready to take on the camera lens, or maybe its own reflection in the filter was getting it riled up, but it was ready to fight one way or the other.
The Week: March 16th — 22nd
This week’s Photo of the Day, Etc includes:
March 16th: A ragged butterfly — http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/3/the-butterflies-and-the-bee
March 17th: An El Camino on El Camino Real — http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/3/el-camino-on-el-camino-real
March 18th: Different views of the Sandias — http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/3/a-different-perspective
March 19th: A lonely church — http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/3/lonely-church
March 20th: A snuggly kitten — http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/3/snuggle-attack
March 21st: Horsing around — http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/3/horse-play
March 22nd: Arco Iris — http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/3/rainbow
Church at Las Golondrinas
One of the first buildings you come across at Ranchos de las Golondrinas is the church. The church is the north building of a hacienda that has a central plaza with a well in the center and hornos for baking. Note the church has a pitched, tin roof, but the other buildings have flat roofs. The church originally had a flat roof as well, and the tin roof would have been added after 1850 when New Mexico became a US territory which opened up trade and goods to come in from the Eastern US. The ceiling of the church still has the horizontal vigas (timbers) that supported the original flat, dirt roof.
The interior of the church has simple benches for pews, an artisan crafted retablo at the altar, and hand carved Stations of the Cross (the Stations of the Cross are a modern addition, according to a docent).
Family Promise
What does homeless bring to mind? Indigent street people, addicts and alcoholics with mental issues that are not to be associated with, like the Samaritans in the first century CE? While many of the homeless individuals you might encounter on the street have serious issues that contribute to their often perpetual homelessness, there is another, almost invisible, side of homelessness — homeless families. Homeless families tend to be “normal” people who have had some kind of catastrophic event that caused them to become homeless. Fortunately, there is Family Promise of Albuquerque (FPA) to help. FPA is made up of churches that temporarily house homeless families and volunteers who help support the families. Instead of ignoring these families, FPA, offers them life sustaining water.
Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? (John 4: 4-11 NIV).
Central United Methodist Church hosted two families this past week, and Laurie and I volunteered to help yesterday afternoon. When we got to CUMC, we had a pleasant surprise — there were four students from UNM playing with the kids as part of the 11th Annual Spring Storm Event put on by the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM) who volunteer in a one day service project. The students, Katarina, Jackie, David and Rudy, were wonderful. They played and played the the kids, and had a lot of fun. I was really impressed that they took a day off from their heavy class loads to play with kids — the kids were so happy, and their mom got a nice break. By giving up some of their precious time yesterday, Katarina, Jackie, David and Rudy helped make earth a little more like Heaven.
Holy Moses
I had my day all planned out — go to the second service, get material on the way home to finish the door, do more watering, herd cats — or so I thought. After the service, which had a wonderful liturgical dance to “Moses”, Jerri asked me if I had gone to their concert at Keller Hall last night and photographed it — I hadn’t, so she asked me if I could photograph the concert this afternoon. The concert was great. A mixed Choir, with the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque, performed the Easter selections from Handel’s Messiah, then the SOA played Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and Camille Saint-Saens’ “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor,” with Natalia Tikhovidova on piano. Ms Tikhovidova is a phenomenal pianist and the “Piano Concerto…” was very lively and showy. The SOA and choirs will do another performance on March 17, 2013, 2:00 pm at John XXIII Catholic Community, 4831 Tramway Ridge, NE.
I started out the photo session standing with the choir in the beginning of the concert, so I got a super-wide angle photo from the choir’s/orchestra’s point-of-view, with the audience in the pews. The percussionists were fun to watch because they followed their music with such intensity — there were times they played only one or two notes, so they obviously didn’t want to miss them.
Although I had to lay aside my well-laid plans for the day, the concert was well worth it.
Pipes
I was studying for the French test tomorrow while listening to the choir rehearse Messiah pieces with the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque at Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church. On the way home I started thinking about what kind of effect studying while under the influence of Handel might have. Let’s say there’s a question like “Why did the south lose the Albigensian Crusade?” I could answer “They were like sheep!” and that answer would be correct.
The Choir and SOA are performing selected pieces from Handel’s Messiah this Saturday, March 9 at 7:00 pm at Keller Hall at UNM and Sunday, March 10 at 2:00 pm at Eastern Hills Baptist, 3100 Morris St NE.
Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!
Laurie and I volunteered for Family Promise at Central United Methodist Church this afternoon. Family Promise is a ministry where various churches take turns hosting homeless families for a week at a time while the families are getting housing. Church members volunteer to help by bringing food, or staying and doing things with the families, or staying overnight or driving family members who don’t have cars to work and school. The local denominations participating in Family Promise include the mainline Protestant churches — United Methodist, Lutheran and Presbyterian — Catholic churches and Synagogues.
If you are asking “What’s with the lions, tigers and bears then if we helped with family promise this afternoon?” We took the families to the zoo. Besides the obvious photo ops, we had a great time, the Albuquerque Zoo is in good shape, the animals are healthy and they seem to be as happy as they can be for being in a zoo.
Off Center & Not Even 