Artistic offerings enrich us: 10-26-11

This past Sunday evening at my church, Second Presbyterian, my wife and I attended a fabulous choral concert by a relatively new group, the Ancora Community Choir.

The second link I've given you in the previous sentence is for Ancora's Facebook page announcement of the event.

Ancora is a volunteer chorus made up of Kansas City area residents who, as the group's own mission statement says, want "to perform accessible programs that can be appreciated and enjoyed by a wide arragy of audiences. Through the profound ministry and power of music, we strive to communicate messages of hope,  joy and fellowship."

This got me to thinking about all the artistic offerings that can be found in houses of worship around our community. And many of these events are free or quite reasonable in terms of cost.

Indeed, earlier Sunday afternoon there was a performance of "Lament for Jerusalem," as part of this year's Festival of Faiths, at Village Presbyterian Church. It will be offered again at 2 p.m. this Sunday at Redemptorist Catholic Church.

And it's hard to start listing artistic performances at area churches without thinking of the offerings at Kansas City's Visitation Catholic Church under its Venue Visitation program. The same with the Westport Center for the Arts, based and rooted in Westport Presbyterian Church.

Speaking of excellent performances, the East Hill Singers, made up of inmates from the Lansing Correctional Facility and community volunteers, will offer concerts of Handel's "Messiah" at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 6, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shawnee and at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13, at Grace United Methodist Church in Olathe.

And each Saturday in the Faith Calendar published by The Kansas City Star you'll find other opportunities for such events in other houses of worship.

It's just further proof that faith communities add a richness to our social fabric far beyond any specific religious message they may be offering.

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SHOCKINGLY, THE WORLD ROLLS ON

The failure (again) of Harold Camping's prediction that this time the world really will end on Oct. 21 has prompted lots of eye-rolling and guffaws. But this thoughtful piece suggests we might want to be careful about picking the speck out of someone else's eye. Plus, the author understands the biblical witness that God intends to redeem the whole creation, not just some disembodied souls.