Back to Christmas Eve. Location: Sydney, Australia.
The grand plan was to attend church on Christmas Eve. We had two options: St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Andrew's Cathedral.
Two cathedrals. Two services. Two choices.
In the end we decided to attend St. Andrew's. Its service started at 11 p.m., which seemed a little more reasonable than the midnight mass at St. Mary's.
Our evening started with pizza at a small cafe near our hotel. Then we walked the streets looking at the Christmas lights, admiring the holiday displays at the department stores and laughing at the Australians who were out partying and wearing very little clothing. Maybe that's what happens when Christmas is held in the summer instead of the winter.
Our first stop was the Queen Victoria Building. The stores were closed, but the doors remained open so that holiday visitors could take in the large Christmas tree in the center of the building. It's hard to tell from these photos, but the tree is several stories high.
Then we rolled Olivia in her stroller down to David Jones, a department store similar to Macy's that does a special window display for Christmas. This year, the store had six displays that featured moving puppets illustrating various Christmas carols. Olivia loved it. We were standing at the first display for The First Noel, when the music suddenly stopped playing. Ah, the Aussie said standing next to me, they cut the music at 10 p.m.
The next stop was a government building next door to St. Andrew's, where we stood and watched its light display.
At 10:30 p.m. we walked into the historic church and took our seats. We thought by this time in the evening, Olivia would have fallen asleep. She wasn't. In fact, she was going strong, digging through the bag of goodies given to her when we entered the church. Several people suggested that we move to the crying room. Olivia looked offended. We stayed in our seats. Then the Australian family behind us started talking to Olivia. "Aren't you up past your bedtime little girl?" the man said. Olivia again, was annoyed and returned to her coloring book.
At this point, I struck up a conversation with the young woman sitting next to me. She kindly explained that she was from Iran and studying computer sciences at a university in Sydney. She said that she attended a different Christmas service each year as a way to learn about Christianity. She asked if I had ever been to the Middle East. I told her I haven't had the opportunity yet.
Olivia immediately liked this woman and continued to color with her the rest of the service. We were surrounded by people from Taiwan, China, India, England, Japan and it was an amazing feeling. To celebrate Christmas with people from around the world. It's something I won't forget anytime soon.
Another thing I won't forget is the pastor's sermon. He talked about baby Jesus and if Jesus was born today what would he be like. Like perhaps if he was born in the United States, the pastor said pointing to a PowerPoint presentation projected on a large screen, he would live in Hollywood and would be a famous actor. Up popped a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then one of Brad Pitt.
If he was born an Australian, he would be a famous athlete, the pastor finished and up popped photos of cricket and rugby players along with Olympic athletes.
In the end, it was a wonderful Christmas Eve service. Olivia didn't cry once. The choir and orchestra was talented and definitely made a joyful noise. When we walked to the hotel at 1 a.m. I had a feeling of being blessed to spend Christmas in such an amazing country.
1 comment:
How awesome! Our Christmas service was super boring compared to yours! When I was in Beirut we had Christmas dinner with people from like 8 different countries - it was really cool. I'm glad you're continuing with these posts - I am enjoying reading them!
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