Looking at this photo from a the August wedding of friend's youngest child raised several questions in my mind. There is the stone church many centuries old; there are the nieces and nephews of the extended family, along with other children growing swiftly each on his or her own trajectory; there are the bright colors and festive hats worn by grown women, as well as the flowers and the Persian rug laid over the cool stone floor.
1. Is church experience mainly about the building and procedures lending continuity and persistence to the institution? How best to reconcile the core message of Christianity (love thy God; love thy neighbor as thyself) with the physical facts of maintaining the physical and social institution/infrastructure of the Religion? Do the material facts support or distract from these uppermost aims?
2. The transience of the wedding ceremony: at this frozen moment in time all is clear and happy, but the viccitudes of time, aging and death as well as birth contrast sharply with the appearance of unchangeability of the stone architecture.
1. Is church experience mainly about the building and procedures lending continuity and persistence to the institution? How best to reconcile the core message of Christianity (love thy God; love thy neighbor as thyself) with the physical facts of maintaining the physical and social institution/infrastructure of the Religion? Do the material facts support or distract from these uppermost aims?
2. The transience of the wedding ceremony: at this frozen moment in time all is clear and happy, but the viccitudes of time, aging and death as well as birth contrast sharply with the appearance of unchangeability of the stone architecture.
