The Story of St. Mary's

When it comes to telling the story of St. Mary's I think the history of the church is imperative to the story. Telling how the church and why the church came to be is actually really interesting. I also think it's really important to focus on the German history associated with the church. St. Mary's had a German mass while most churches were still latin masses. Since we seem to be adopting a theme of "entertainment" and how are churches accomplished that within the Washington Neighborhood then I will be definintely focusing on the Casino, the schools, and the tons and tons of organizations that St. Mary's had during it's time period.

While the basic historical facts are important to telling the story of St. Mary's, it's also important to tell the people's story of the church. I would like to interview people and find out their stories within the church. Personal testimony adds to the emotional part of the story and makes it much easier to relate too. Also, I find personal testimony much more reliable, and also more entertaining than some of the bare bones historical facts.

I think that St. Mary's needs this story to be told. They are closing which makes it even more important that their story is told. Soon, the building will be empty. It's future is unknown. Thousands of memories will be lost. This provides a chance for people to look back at their own history, maybe learn some things they did not know, or help them feel pride.

Reflections on Joe and Ed's Presentation

I was really surprised by what I learned from Joe and Ed’s presentation. I had no idea that Presbyterianism traced its roots back to John Calvin. I really didn’t have any pre-conceived notions about what those in the Presbyterian faith believed, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with John Calvin and therefore Calvinism. I think the Calvinistic view of “works” or service is very interesting. They believe that people are saved through faith not works. However, they also believe that works are a manifestation of faith. This seems borderline contradictory but if I try hard enough I am able to understand what is meant by this. On many social issues I wasn’t surprised to find that Presbyterians seems to feel the same way many of the other religions felt. They are wishy washy on abortion and they are against capital punishment. Is there any Christian religion that actually supports capital punishment? Just curious. Anyway, I wasn’t that surprised either by the Presbyterians strong use of organization among its parishioners. I guess their affiliation with Calvinism reminded me of the early American settlers and how their Puritan groups were basically the government. I’m sure that I messed up something about those connections but that is what learning about the Presbyterian hierarchy so to speak made me think of. I really enjoyed the Presbyterian social creed. I think it touched on a lot of issues that the world needs to focus on today. I think it’s interesting that they updated this Creed from an earlier Creed. I think this revamping illustrates their motto “Church reformed, always needing reform, according to the word of God.” It shows that they truly do believe their church is always in need of reform, that we can always strive to be better.