The Great Spaces Music & Art Series sponsored by Grace Episcopal Cathedral Topeka Kansas has been bringing cultural events to Topeka for several years now. On Monday Jan. 31st they hosted the St. Olaf Choir. Despite a heavy snowfall that day the event was extremely well attended. Two of the members of the St. Olaf choir are also members of Grace Cathedral and are attending St. Olaf College in Minnesota.
The next event in the series will be held this Friday evening when the Washburn Percussion Collective (Everything but drums) will perform at 7pm. Tickets are $10/each and at this time are still available. Contact Steve Burk at Grace Episcopal Cathedral Topeka (785) 235-3457 for more information.
The presents are wrapped, Wanamaker is quiet, most of the stores are now closed, even Walmart! The hectic pace of the secular world of the hoped for Christmas buying frenzy is now done. As I sit here writing this at 2:20 AM Christmas morning there is time to reflect a bit and drink a warm cup of hot green tea.
I’ve attended Grace Cathedral located at 801 SW Polk here in Topeka to some degree all of my life. I say to some degree because there were years that it would be a big stretch to say I was regular in attendance. But even in the lean years I was a Christmas/Easter Episcopalian. Sitting there tonight listening to the carols and the words from the bible I had a bit of time to reflect on Christmas’ past. It is always a beautiful service but it is a great gift to be able to be comfortable with the service to the degree of being able to sit and reflect and to appreciate the beauty of it all but also comfortable enough to daydream a bit.
I remembered:
The years I was a acolyte and participated in the service.
The people that were also always there every year but are now gone like Joe Thompson, Dorothy Burgess and other people that I lost track of.
Years I felt as an outsider sitting on the periphery and years that I wanted to be in the very middle of it all.
When I was a child and Midnight was very very late but I knew it was close to morning which meant presents!
There have been years I was bored and years I soaked in every minute
Family that are with me and those that aren’t able to be there
The year my father passed on 12/23
Times in my life when my faith was strong and times it has been weak
Christmas’ that have been at stressful times and those that have been relatively carefree
The smell of incense and Silent Night being played with the lights dimmed
Snow falling some years when church let out
Getting coffee at the Truck Stop (Ihop) with friends and family after the service
Years where we get up and go also to Christmas morning services
The old church before the fire.
Years that I document the service with photographs and years that I just show up and soak it all in
Being thankful that I have a church home where I know most everyone and they know me. It’s a very warm feeling
Merry Christmas to all may all your memories be treasured!
Let’s Help of Topeka is a great Topeka organization serving the underprivileged. Let’s Help provides meals during the week. They also have a clothing bank. Each day of the month a organization of Topeka volunteers to cook, prepare, serve and cleanup during lunch. On this particular day was the people of Grace Episcopal Cathedral (8th & Polk) preparing their specialty of “Taco Salad”.
Let’s Help provides some of the food, in particular the meat I believe, but it is up to the organizations to add the “extras”. On this particular day there were 451 meals served.
One of the serendipities of volunteering to help with a job like this is getting to know the person much better that sits in the pew next to you every Sunday morning. You can greet each other for years but a bond doesn’t attach nearly as well as if you work with that person. You learn very quickly what they like and what they don’t. Out of this type of relationship real lasting friendships are formed. What starts out as a desire to help others ends up helping you!
I remember reading somewhere once Dr. Menninger was asked what the first thing someone should do if they felt they were having a coping challenge if I remember correctly his response was “leave your house go across the tracks and help someone else!
Easter Morning 4/4/2010 was a beautiful morning after a long cold winter this year here in Topeka. I was invited to attend the Easter Morning Sunrise Service and Breakfast at the First Church of God In Christ located at 619 California Ave, here in Topeka.
I got to see some old friends and to meet some new friends. The service was great, the fellowship was great and the food was fantastic. For breakfast they served Grits, sausage, ham, eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, biscuits & gravy, coffee, juice and there may have even been some fresh fruit but I never got that far!
Thanks again to the wonderful people at First COGIC Church for inviting me in and making me feel so welcome. I am looking forward to many visits in the future!
A landmark in Central Topeka is Grace Episcopal Cathedral. Located about four blocks directly west of the Kansas Capital, Grace prides itself as being a “House of Prayer for All People”. The church is used for many community activities during the year. Everything from nursing school graduations to silent movies.
One of, if not the most, moving of all the services each year is the Easter Vigil. You walk into a almost totally dark church with everyone very somber and quiet. The service then builds to a joyous event. In this video about 1:30 into the video the choir sings “Jesus Christ Has Risen Today”. The hymn has evolved over the years beginning with the Latin words in the 13th century.
