Blessed

My first bus ride was very enjoyable. I was taking No. 7 to get to a church I had located on the web. I'd decided to visit this church because it kinda felt right. On the No. 7, I actually didn't quite know where I was going to alight - I thought I would just go with my instincts. I alighted and to my surprise, the church was just next to the bus stop! :-) That was easy.

Dominion-Chalmers United Church is a small and traditional congregation. There were about 50 people, of which more than half were ladies and gentlemen with full heads of white hair, as well as wheelchair-bound worshippers. With its Methodist roots, D-C is similar in many ways to church back home. However, it doesn't have contemporary praise and worship like many of our Methodist churches today. The service is filled with beautiful hymns and psalms in a very large and historical sanctuary, with the largest pipe organ I've seen to date. It's lovely to have organ accompaniment throughout the service, plus this morning, the Chancel Choir was back in season. Sixteen strong, the ensemble sounds more like a 30-person choir.

There were at least 2 new people in the service this morning - the pastor, and me :-) At the end of the service, a few people came to talk to me, since I looked obviously new. I got to know Pam and Scott, who were sitting in front of me. Daphne, who was up at the pulpit, came over to introduce herself as well - she even bought me my lunch ticket for the special D-C BBQ Lunch later. This lunch was prepared and served by the D-C Brunch Buddies - men in the church who have a yen for cooking. And they cook well! Check this out:

Over lunch, I sat with a Filipino couple who've been in Ottawa since 1982. Manny and Genny Villaneuva live in the Ottawa East-End, and are active members of the Chancel Choir. Their son, Ernest is beginning his final year in Bizad, and daughter Jemma is currently teaching in Japan. Genny told me that there's actually a Singaporean couple in D-C who are both physicians, but they were not present this morning. We were joined by another family (Peter, Ruth and their daughter Deborah), who were also friendly and chatty. I even had to turn down a few offers of a ride home because Genny had already volunteered to take me back.

I look forward to getting to know the D-C community more... and to the highly anticipated Dinner & Auction on 4 Oct ;-)