Dublin was the site of a visioning summit which brought together a study of future scenarios for congregational communities. Dublin is a really interesting city. I don't feel as though I really got around to see as much as I wanted to. We stayed in a sort of corporate office park at the end of the Luas......>ZZZz.z.zzzzz....but the rest of the city is a great blend of 14th - 21st century architecture and newly reformed industrial revolution english empire excess. We spent a day up the coast near Skerries...also a place to fall in love with....but oh the stories that go with the town.....
Visiting Toronto for a series of meetings. Toronto is a great city, it has very diverse ethnic neighborhoods, very pleasant downtown and interesting architecture. We visited The Church of the Holy Trinity, not only where the Cowboy Junkies recorded their Trinity Sessions album but also a pretty interesting church. All the pews in the 18th century sanctuary are portable making the space totally flexible and they use it for a wide range of worship services but also as a homeless shelter and kitchen.
This was, first and foremost a family trip to visit the other side of the family but it was also a chance to let the kids connect with their cultural roots. And lastly a chance to look across the world at a part of the world which is so different and yet so much the same.
The quality of history, humanity and depth of experience in a country of a billion people is amazing...that same depth is even more overwhelming in a country where there are more languages than we have states, more ethnic and religious divisions than we have political parties....and a truck load of scooters too....
Up by the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga Tennessee on a fine June evening. This was shot on film and scanned by the photo-finisher...they do a butt crappy job. But there are some good images.....ok...on my list to re-scan.
The Reverend Wife and I drove north in the summer of 2003 to visit Anglican parishes in the First Nations communities of James Bay and the interior of Northern Quebec. We stepped into the midst of a complicated equation of resource exploitation, paternalistic culture 'improvement' , deep boredom and confused aspiration. We visited the historic trading post community that was supposed to wash a way...and hasn't, the trading post where half the town gathers for two weeks every summer to reconnect with the past and with each other, a wedding ...the bride left the beauty shop to come to the wedding.....about an hour after the wedding was to start....allowing for the two hour drive from Chibougamau...we started a little late......These images were all shot on print film and scanned...and not very well at that. So I am looking for the negatives and will rescan them when they show up.....really.....
These are images from my western trips in 1991, 1992 and 2000.
In March 1991 I flew in to Las Vegas, rented a car and drove to Joshua Tree for five days. The I drove up through the Panamint Valley...tried to climb Telescope peak and then dropped down into Death Valley for a week. Then I went up to Zion for a few days. While I was there there was snow up a few thousand feet.
My second trip was after spending the summer in Estes Park. I drove out to Maob for a week. This was around the time the mountain bike crowd started to wander out to the slick rock. Moab is pretty amazing, and not a very small place...room enough for all. I camped along the river north of town and went up along Dead Horse Point, down towards the confluence and then undertook the not so minimal drive out to the Horse Shoe section of the park to go down into the canyons to the great gallery.
The last time I was out was in 2000, having been in Denver for General Convention I rented a car and took a few days to drive over to Moab again. I headed pretty much straight for the Great Gallery again...nothing like the rental car on the 50 mile dirt driveway...yeah I never did get all the dust out of the nooks and crannies. The great Gallery is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. In addition to the fabulous assortment of little guys there is an amazing group of full size figures. Over the 8 years between when I first visited and went back the amount of obvious traffic was pretty noticeable. In a perfect world I shoud go back one last time with the big camera....but that is for another day.....
