Christmas Cathedral

I have these fifteen...

*crash*

TEN! TEN commandments!


This weekend, Orrick and I went to see an elaborate Christmas pageant at the Crystal Cathedral -- home of Trinity Broadcasting's Hour of Power -- in Garden Grove near Anaheim. Singing, dancing, live animals, angels on flight rigs, and, oh yeah, the baby Jesus. At an hour, the program seemed longer than necessary, with a number of songs that could easily have been cut, but the production values were spectacular -- a fact reflected in the ticket price. Perhaps the length of the show, then, was to insure that patrons felt they'd gotten their money's worth, though with one look at the set and costume design, there could be no doubt that they did.

We made the trip with Orrick's parents, who had seen the annual performance before. In fact, it was Orrick's mother who arranged the outing and bought the tickets (thank you, Joanan). We arrived early and walked through the "God inspired Garden and Grounds where the Bible Comes to Life" -- a garden replete with life-size bronze sculptures depicting, as the title of one of them suggests, the Holy Family, milestones, and miracles.

The spirit of the lovely garden and the "true meaning of Christmas" seemed a little lost, however, in the overpriced gift shop, where after the show, rather than fight the exiting traffic, Joanan picked up a few gift items and I found a ladies room tucked away from the line-forming crowd.

Defining the word "cathedral" as the principal church of a diocese (the juristiction of a bishop) which contains the bishop's throne, I had been surprised to learn that this one was not affiliated with the Catholic church. I had made the assumption that Catholicism was the only Christian religion with such a hierarchy. Either I am mistaken (for all the cathedral's beauty and Christian affiliation it is in no way accomodating to a Catholic mass) or other demoninations equate the words "big church" to "cathedral" regardless of hierarchy.


Given the staunch attitudes of most Christian churches toward the trappings of a secular Christmas, I was further surprised to find the cathedral housing a rather tall and colorful star-topped tree at a height competing with its illuminated cross. Oddly though, at "the first great church that was conceived and designed to be a television super studio" for Christian worship, the seeming commercialism of a Christmas tree was not at all out of place.

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