Chapel The Times
1 February 2004 21:04
The Choir Swings!
Last weekend was a home run for the chapel choir. On Saturday evening they went bowling, and a very successful time was had. Almost all the choir members went (some more willingly than others) and surprised themselves at the fun and winning ways they have with the alleys and the gutters. Both were equally cheered. The next evening they were all in their places with sunshiny faces at the annual church Ecumenical Service which is held to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It was the culmination of a week of services held in the various churches at noon, Monday to Friday. At the Sunday service they sang Lord, for Thy tender mercys sake by Farrant, and joined the Wolfville United Baptist Church Choir in Lead on, eternal Sovereign by Gustaf Holst. The tune was Jupiter in Holsts Planets. Not only that, but throughout the service the choirs and the congregation sang the ancient Christian hymn, Kyrie Eleison to a beguiling and attractive tune by John Scott, who is the Director of the chapel choir (and the choir at the Baptist Church).
John Scott at Choir Rehearsal
It was exciting to have the Chapel Assistants also participating in the Sunday Service. One read a Lesson, and the four others lead in prayer. All in all, the chapel was well represented at the service as a visual and vocal witness to our desire for the increase of ecumenical worship and dialogue.
Jesus the Ultimate Friend
Margaret Kralt presented this talk on Friday 8 January 2004. The text was Ecclesiastes 4: 712 Friendship, this has to be one of the most valuable things we have. This was not a topic I had any intention of talking about today, but when I explained to my friends what I was planning to talk about they scoed and suggested I talk about friendship or rather them. In fact the friend who was most persistent about this topic is the friend who assured me time and time again that she would come to my other talks but just couldnt manage to get out of bed on time. 11:30 I didnt realize that was so early. So being the victim of peer pressure I decided to focus on this topic. But as I began to reect on this subject I realized it wasnt such a bad topic after all. In fact when we look to the future and realize our time at Acadia is limited it is good to reect on the friendships that have formed here. I am sure that everyone has received one of those dreadful forwards that has all the pictures of nice owers occasionally some soothing music playing in the background and a quick little poem that describes exactly what a friend is. Often times that poem will use phrases such as Someone who loves you unconditionally, An ever present support in times of trouble, The
person who never disagrees and other such sappy phrases which are designed to stir up emotions from within and make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Although those are nice thoughts, is that reality? Please dont mistake me I do believe that friends can love unconditionally and will help you in times of trouble. I just do not believe that that is a complete description of friendship. It really just describes characteristics of those of our closes friends and fails to give a complete description of friendship. Think about this for a minute. Of all the people you consider friends, are all of them that close to you that they will be an ever present help in times of trouble? Probably not? What about that person you sit next to in your class on Tuesday morning. When you see them you say hi and exchange friendly greeting; you may ask them how their day was and occasionally youll work on some homework together but beyond that your connection ends and you go on your merry, or perhaps not so merry way. That person, although still a friend is not the person you are likely to call at 3 in the morning when you are experiencing a crisis. The point Im trying to make here is that dierent friends serve dierent purposes. When we look at this passage it lists 3 dierent purposes. Friends help each other up, friends keep each other warm, and friends resist those who assault. Does one single friend always fulll all of these
requirements? I dont mean to oend anyone, but there are few friends I would be willing to lie close to in order to keep warm and even then it had better be a life or death situation. Friends are important and they each have a special purpose in for our lives. However not any of them are so complete that they satisfy all of our needs. Except one and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus is our ultimate friend. As I say this I am reminded a of familiar hymn I sang as a child What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bare. All our sins and griefs to bare. What an awesome task. Do our earthly friends fulll that role? Some may try very hard but is this the case. Do we have friends that will go with us and be with us at every stage in our lives. Roger mentioned in his talk yesterday morning that we have dierent friends at dierent stages of our lives. The friends we were close to in high school may not be the friends we are close to now. Jesus will always be that friend. He is there and will always be there. In our times of need he will be that ever present help that those tacky Friendship emails mention. This is what makes him the ultimate friend. God has blessed with the gift of friendship to give our lives meaning and purpose. Verse 8 gives us a clear depiction of what life would be like without friends: someone without a friend, with out a son or a brother, toiling endlessly yet never satised with his wealth For whom, he
asks, am I toiling and denying myself the good things of life? His work, although productive, seems fruitless to him. He has no one in which to share his wealth. Did you catch the tail end of the verse? . . . the good things of life The good things in deed. Friends are just that: good things. To my friends who suggested this talk, even the one who has trouble getting out of bed I say thank-you for your friendship; it is greatly appreciated. As we head into this second semester we realize that when it comes to an end it will be a time to say good-bye to some very close friends, some of who we may never see again others perhaps less frequently. Although this may be a sad time we must rejoice in the gift we have been given. Some of those friendships may have come about in very unusual ways. The roommate from rst year you thought was crazy turns out to be your best friend. As we say goodbye to those friends and prepare to meet new ones we must remember that we will have one friend who will always go with us through each stage of life. That friend is Jesus; our ultimate friend.
Ready to Play!
The script of this years passion play is presently in the hands of the university print shop, and should be delivered to the Chaplain later this week.
(continued on back. . . )
Charles Taylor Granted Order Of Canada
It was announced last week that Dr. Charles Taylor has been made a member of the Order of Canada. This is the highest honour which a Canadian civilian can receive. He is honoured because of his pioneer work in establishing Clinical Pastoral Training as a normal requirement for ministerial training in Canada. As a professor at Acadia University, he helped to make this course a requirement for training at ...