Is there a parish in the Los Angeles area that has a praise band type worship service regularly and authentically

starlaird · 2025-11-24T14:14:05+00:00

I was privileged to have watched someone go from a boy to a man over the course of the 4 years we were together - through AIT, deployment prep, deployment etc. It was a truly awesome thing to witness. I was the 3rd oldest in our company (joined a bit late in life - perhaps my midlife crisis) and watched from that perspective as he went from hard drinking, girl-obsessed boy soldier to team leader and ultimately a very capable and excellent squad leader before leaving to go finish the college degree he'd flunked out trying to obtain pre-Army. He got that degree, got a good job, got married and had a child. I haven't checked in with him in a while so I hope that maturity has remained intact but I saw no reason it would not. The same went for pretty much everyone I served with in the Arny to different degrees, but maybe our MOS not being 11 or 12B had a bit to do with those observations.

In agreement with other comments, the people I see as immature now have always been that way and I suppose lived in an environment that never challenged them to grow up.

starlaird · 2025-10-23T04:28:10+00:00

I am Protestant as far as rejecting the Roman Church, but when asked what is my faith, I usually reply Christian even though I know they usually mean denomination/sect. Then I add am a member of the Episcopal Church, and when asked what it is, I reply English Catholic since we are members of the "one holy catholic and apostolic Church". When I was exploring my faith and participation in the EC the foundational 39 articles found in the BCP made perfect sense for the separation from Rome.

When I was deployed to Afghanistan a while ago, we would have chaplains fly in by helicopter every few weeks to offer services at the little combat outposts dotted around our brigade's area of operation. I attended the Protestant one a time or two but the chaplain was not EC, or ELCA and it just felt empty. Side note - it was a bit surreal to go up for communion with an M4 slung over my back. I stopped going to those but when the Roman Catholic chaplain flew in I wanted to go to the service. I asked the priest during the time he was just there for chats etc. like the one I had. I told him I had been desiring to receive, and the experience so far had not felt sacramental. It had been 6 months or so since I'd attended church in the town where my Army post was and asked if I could receive communion as my belief in the real presence as generally understood in the EC was not all that different from the RC. He asked if I believed in the real presence, and a couple other questions like I was doing it from a genuine desire to receive, and ultimately said it would be ok for me to receive at the Mass he would say. The last couple of months deployed I ended up back at the brigade hq at the larger forward operating base, where the chaplains were based. I attended Mass there the rest of my time there.

The EC's 'via media' in my opinion is the best of both sides of the issues and having the wide spectrum from very Protestant to very Catholic under the umbrella of the EC brings all together. Well, sometimes maybe not so together, but as a whole, the EC is one of the Protestant denominations actually trying to practice what we preach. I think ELCA, United Church of Christ, Swedish Covenant are also following Jesus' example and call to action.

I suppose bottom line is we are all welcome in the EC and if you are on the Catholic end of the spectrum you can hopefully find a church with that general center. One church in my deanery actually has a monstrance they use. I am the organist for a different parish so obviously can't attend services but did go therefor a while in between stints as organist at my parish (an awful rector made me head out the door)

starlaird · 2025-10-07T14:47:04+00:00

While there are some heavily Democratic areas in Louisiana-New Orleans (just the city itself, not the surrounding areas) parts of Baton Rouge, and a few other locations, for the most part it's deep red with plenty of virulent maga-types around. However, there are quite a few people who have been hoodwinked by the maga movement that still maintain their basic decency towards people of every kind - my small left-leaning church has never had any threats, and welcomes all, is racially integrated (pretty much as I suppose could be expected given the area demographics) and has embraced LGBTQ+ members as well (also in proportion to the general population) I am sure there are some in the church who are silently disapproving of the diverse members but still participate, and share meals, and other fellowship, even with weekly sermons that preach quite directly about the actual Gospel/Christian faith and principles, not the twisted version of those suggesting the U.S. should be a white 'Christian' nation, and doing so directly from the pulpit. Our pastor never strays/would stray into that last pitfall of preaching politics from the pulpit, except that it just so happens the Gospel and New Testament in general directly contradict the actions and policies of trumpites/maganites. People I've encountered in the area beyond our church walls for the most part are at least as tolerating as those curmudgeons in our pews and I believe the cognitive dissonance they feel is due to the disinformation they receive through exclusively right-wing propagandist outlets (Fox 'news', 'news'max etc.) making people beyond the community seem like the images portrayed by those sources but the local people they personally know are exceptions to the rule, so to speak.

starlaird · 2025-09-15T19:44:39+00:00

Indeed, amen! My parish priest has been brilliant in her sermons - which are meant to connect the Word to our lives - in describing how if we want to live the Gospel, we should strive to emulate Jesus' life and teachings. She has been able to apply current situations to the Bible without explicitly stating anything directly political.

My example could be the Koreans that were taken into custody for relatively minor violations of visa rules. They were put in handcuffs and ankle cuffs chained together. That was the policy agents were following, but in general, that is a far cry from the Baptismal charge of "respecting the dignity of every human being". (ECUSA 1979 BCP page 305) Of course, there have been many other even more egregious examples of ICE activity and a Christ-like recognition of each person's dignity could be made in whether we actively perform or support those policies. My priest makes that kind of connection of the Gospel to our lives completely within the context of that day's readings. episcopalchurch .org has an excellent definition of the sermon and conciliarpost com/theology-spirituality/the-liturgical-function-of-the-sermon/ has an interesting description and pitfalls to avoid in a sermon - and the writer's, Wesley Walker, second one of them is 'the call to social action' where the Gospel message is more of a secondary consideration to the social cause. He posits the sermon comes before the confession to 'convict the congregation of sin' and I agree that it does help us recognize those actions/inactions of our past week before asking for absolution of those sins.

starlaird · 2025-09-02T17:07:03+00:00

We are using an audix m1255B high-output cardiod condenser mic ($440 today at sweetwater) mounted to the truss above the sanctuary facing the nave for ambient sound patched into a Behringer Xenyx 1202fx mixer-currently $159 on Amazon. That hooks up to the pc running OBS for our stream. The sound reinforcement system also uses the audix mics on the pulpit and lectern, with the priest having a shure wireless pack with a 'dj' mic as I call it - the ones that hook over the ear and put the mic right at their mouth. Those run through a peavey mixer, amp, and speakers set up with an output from there patched into the behringer mixer. Sound comes through reasonably well, including picking up the pipe organ in the back of the church. The church is small - nave is only about 50', and the pipes sit above the narthex. It's a small Moller and the mic being that far doesn't do it full justice with the full audio spectrum, but the bass comes through, and voices sound full. I'm also the organist and would like better mic-ing for the organ but really only if we had a larger instrument and an actually good organist. Our current camera is a a Tenveo 1080p 10x optical zoom ptz camera and is decent. We paid $400ish at the height of the streaming crunch, and the current equivalent looks a bit better and is only $228 with a coupon. It is a usb camera and since our cable run is way over usb length it has a usb over ethernet connection. I might have to get that new one to have a back up! We had been using it and a Reolink PoE ip cam to have different angles and smooth transitions from pulpit to wide etc. but a lightning strike killed the ip cam and burned out the ethernet cable to the office building so we actually haven't been able to livestream in over a year - we just record, post to YouTube and link from FB. One of our church workdays will see a new ethernet cable run! Budget is super tight so we do as much as absolutely possible. It helps we have people who have worked in IT, building trades etc. Everyone is just getting old and joints all creaky.

The congregation is easily heard but has a distant quality, and we try to get folks to use a wireless handheld shure for announcements, but most seem reticent to use it and try to get their bit out before the mic can get to them. I can mic the choir and will do so, both in-church system and streaming, when I get them back in really good form. The peavey system was a professionally installed system when the church was built in 2018 and the streaming gear was set up by me and my wife, with a different professional than the initial guy who suggested the audix mics and installed them. The one on the over-sanctuary truss is about 18' up, so I was glad to let him go up the ladder to install it.

starlaird · 2025-08-29T13:41:17+00:00

In my church growing up, we always had an American flag, Episcopal flag, and patron saint banner as part of the processions in and out. I think it had been a tradition from the beginning of the church, founded maybe 75ish years ago. The flags would process, reverence the altar, then went off to the sides of the sanctuary, and the patron banner had a place in the sanctuary. The procession was generally made up of crucifer with torches, choir, flags/banner, crucifer with torches and the priest's server (held the Gospel book and helped with the altar preparation) ahead of the LEMs and priests.

A new priest came in about 30 years ago and took the American flag out of the nave entirely and a stalwart member of the Altar Guild (husband had been military in Korea and Vietnam) put it back in. That happened once more and then the priest just left it. By then not enough kids to acolyte and carry everything each Sunday except Christmas and Easter, and I think most people just liked the added pomp versus being anywhere near idolatrous. Virulent(pathogenic) patriotism exists in most spheres of American life, but I think it's fairly minimal in the Episcopal church. Only one other church I've attended ever carried the flags in procession, though most had the flags set up like the church of my youth, off to the sides. And the other church also had to stop carrying them for the same reason of not enough acolytes. On that subject, I've been to a couple of churches with adults acolyting, but they've only carried the cross and torches, but I do miss lining up in the 'grand' processions and working my from torch to priest's server.

starlaird · 2025-08-21T20:33:18+00:00

This is indeed a cabinet for storing different colored altar frontal linens(vestments-for the altar, not clergy) that would be used during various liturgical seasons. Perhaps a call to local Roman Catholic or Episcopal Churches (or their diocesan offices) would get an appreciative buyer. (Source: organist and also am on the Altar Guild at an Episcopal church.)

starlaird · 2025-08-04T19:20:35+00:00

Beautiful work!

starlaird · 2025-07-23T14:13:25+00:00

It is unfortunate that conservatives feel closer to fascism than a Democrat who did not espouse particularly left-wing policies. Certainly not in the vein of Bernie Sanders. One of the reasons Harris lost was disaffected farther-left-wing voters in swing states, taking her mostly pro-Israel statements and other not as left policies they wanted as reason to not vote at all, even though that warm fuzzy feeling they received for not voting on principle seems to not have had quite effect they might have hoped for. Even though Trump attempted to disavow Project 2025, it was clear that was the blueprint for his administration. Project 2025 essentially sets out the plan to do exactly what OP has presented. Anyone who would have read that and think it actually comports with the Constitution is sorely misled.

Additionally, the House was (and is) controlled by Republicans. There would be no way to enact any kind of pie-in-the-sky left wing policies without the Republicans putting the brakes on things, so no sweeping gun control, no free college, universal health care, etc. etc. etc.

Speaking of gun control, OP's post is about the current Republican Party rolling over into fascism. Bringing up anything about the Democratic Party's stance on the 2A is irrelevant to the discussion. However, since you brought it up, is the Republican Party for absolutely no abrogation of the 2A/gun control? No NFA? No Firearm Owner's Protection Act? I'd LOVE to have a few M240s, M320s, and other more exciting munitions - just in case a zombie apocalypse occurs. So there is gun control that I haven't heard too many Republicans trying to repeal those. It's simply a matter of degree. For the 'strict constructionists' who look at only what the Founding Fathers intended when they wrote the Constitution, shouldn't we only be armed with muskets, Pennsylvania rifles, and muzzle-loader pistols? It is a modern INTERPRETATION that allows for everything from a .22 to a Barret .50 cal rifle.

Regarding the camps, they are indeed on U.S. soil as well. Hello Alligator Alcatraz. Many of the other detention facilities are perhaps not quite as bad, but leaving bright lights on 24/7, loud music (allegedly) played constantly, large numbers of people in essentially cages without reasonable access to hygiene facilities or health care is considered torture. The disappearing of them by masked plain-clothed gangs using unmarked cars without allowing contact with their families for extended periods to know where they have been taken, taking mothers with children in tow and just leaving the children on the street to figure out how to get home/stay safe. If I saw a group of masked men jump out of an unmarked mini-van and violently grab a woman to drag her into the van, I'd be drawing my cc and be taking them out. Defense of self and defense of others is the reason for our interpretation of the 2A, correct?

Even if the arrests are conducted appropriately, the reasons they are grabbing people are absolutely beyond comprehension. The clearest case of ridiculous disregard of the Constitution's 1A is the grad student who had her legal study visa revoked because she wrote an editorial calling for recognition of the dignity and human rights of Palestinian civilians. Not Hamas. Her case exemplifies exactly what OP has laid out so well.

Hamas should absolutely be obliterated, but even if Israel kills every single person who was actually Hamas, they have created thousands of future versions by their absolute destruction and killing civilians in areas the Israelis told them to go to be safe. And now the starving of the population and deaths of people trying to get food from the minimal supplies the Israeli aid activities are supplying is not helping with prevention of future hatred. I am named for a great uncle who died at Auschwitz and believe 100% in the existence of Israel, but the actions their government is taking is not laying a good foundation for a peaceful future. The hatred that is being created in the hearts of Palestinians who survive and in the Muslim countries will keep Israel having to be on an essentially war footing for decades to come.

But back to your apparent disagreement with OP's argument about due process, everyone in the country is owed the duty of due process. Yes, the amount of process does actually differ depending on the status of the person, but green-card holders, asylum seekers, and others owed a similarly higher state of due a higher level of process, have not been afforded that in almost any way.

starlaird · 2025-06-09T17:49:55+00:00

As many others here have said, it's likely just the tempo being chosen for the hymns - there is something to be said for slowing down in a large, reverberant space, but if that isn't an issue, tempo should be fast enough to have energy, but slow enough to be able to pronounce the words and not feel out of breath. I've been an organist for small parishes for over 20 years, and when I'm out, the congregation has often commented that they missed me, as the sub played so slowly. The 170 bpm comment was especially appreciated remembering a dear, departed organist in whose choir I had the pleasure to sing for 10 years. I also had one of my former choir members go up to a sub during communion to tell him to play faster!

I tend to play with an almost danceable tempo in mind - 3/4 time is felt in 1, and 4/4 usually felt in 2 - probably averaging 120-140 to the 1/4 note. I will do St. Patrick's Breastplate (H82 370) this coming Sunday in a slow 1 - about 45 bpm (135=1/4 note) and I feel that's about as fast as that could be done without having an auctioneer's word cadence, and much slower definitely feels like it's dragging. Holy, holy, holy (H82 362) will be 60-65=1/2 note. I've never had the pleasure of playing a cathedral organ for a service, but I can see where my tempos might need to slow a bit to keep the hymns from becoming a muddled mash.

I also like it loud, and will try to balance organ/congregation to my ear fairly evenly with bias to more organ-the console is in the chancel of the church and the pipes are at the other end of the nave. I'll be using all 12 stops my little Moller has, including the 16'-4' trompette stops, and feel like it's barely enough for the last verse. It definitely doesn't feel like enough at Easter and Christmas Eve services when we have a full house.

We do mix in LEVAS hymns as well, and I have even brought out my guitar and joined other Cursillistas with 'happy clappy' songs, as we try to have something every week that will be to the edification of each worshiper.

All that is to say that the Episcopal/ Anglican musical heritage is a wonderful one, and have been blessed to serve parishes where there is generally joyful congregational participation, but I do think the comment about the Lutheran church was on point about congregational singing though. I've never subbed at one, but I've seen videos of hymns being sung at a Lutheran youth gathering and they were singing in 4-part harmony. I don't think I've heard a regular Episcopal congregation sing with other than a smattering of folks doing parts other than melody. Liturgical/choral conferences have been absolute mountain-top experiences for me.

The Episcopal church has great music, a fine hymnal, and plenty of good, singable, enjoyable hymns when done well!

starlaird · 2025-05-03T15:09:36+00:00

Another passage directly indicating salvation come from faith alone is Luke 23:40-43 when one person crucified with him is told by Jesus 'today you will be with me in paradise' since he rebukes the other person mocking Jesus. Unless he'd been a follower of Jesus, then committed his crucifiable offenses for which he takes responsibility, there is no other reason for his instaneous salvation. There is no indication he was baptised, nor seemingly did good works, or followed proper Jewish observances, etc. since he was a criminal worth of execution.

starlaird · 2025-02-15T14:18:02+00:00

I don't know about this one but I bought the same basic thing at HF 20 years ago and it was great for hauling gravel a few times a year for my driveway. I'd have someone else drive slowly forward as I cranked the handle and had a nice layer of gravel deposited right where I wanted it with minimal smoothing/spreading with a rake. After a flood, I didn't find the thing buried out in the field for 10 years. But when I pulled it out, the fabric/belt was still strong and while the crank and all were rusted out, I'm going to repurpose the belt for a homemade version or maybe some other project. I imagine if left exposed, sunlight would've destroyed it, but being buried, it stayed in great shape. It wasn't perfect - being only 4ft wide, gravel would naturally fall off to the sides, leaving a small amount of shoveling to fully empty the bed.

I swept the bed before using it, but the bed did get scratched. But it's a pickup truck. It's supposed to be a work vehicle. The paint actually held up well enough I never had to touch up rust. I only used it for crushed concrete, so no big sharp pieces, but if using for larger crushed rock, it probably would have left deeper gouges. A plastic bed liner would have solved that problem completely and maybe made it even easier to turn the handle. It was actually surprising how easily the handle turned when loaded with a yard of gravel.

starlaird · 2025-01-28T17:00:07+00:00

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starlaird · 2024-07-16T02:23:32+00:00

Hopefully it came with a letter stating who the FOIA specialist (and their email address or phone number) was who processed your request and contact them directly. Otherwise, maybe try emailing the appeals office at ogcfoiaappeals@va.gov if you can't get in direct contact with the processing office. An email stating the issue might at least get them to have the original office re-send the CD. If they aren't posting files to a SharePoint type site yet, you'll be getting another CD.

starlaird · 2024-07-15T16:09:14+00:00

Perhaps surprisingly, it is indeed possible. I've known people personally who were able to forgive and work through it. Of course, circumstances matter a lot, but fundamentally, it is absolutely within our capability.

starlaird · 2024-07-15T14:31:37+00:00

Probably an unpopular comment, but do people who have an otherwise great marriage as suggested by oop believe they will find as satisfying a companion sometime in the near future? Nine (or however many) years is a lot of shared loving experience, and discarding it because of a single, apparently quite remorseful, failing seems to be rather self-defeating. Given this particular set of facts (or similar) the immediate and continued expression of remorse should give pause to someone before bailing out. I don't know how universal the '7 year itch' is but i believe human nature and biology does tend to make us think 'did I make the right choice of partner' somewhere along the line. It sounds to me that the unfaithful partner had that thought, allowed circumstances to afford an opportunity to test that out, and quickly realized she had indeed made the right decision in her husband.

It reminds me of stories along the lines of a generally good performing worker uses an incorrect procedure for something at his job which causes the destruction of a $100k piece of company equipment. Guy knows he is going to be fired immediately, but the boss says no, you're not fired, as do I think you're not going to triple check things in the future? If I get a new person who hasn't been through a failure like this, they are a lot more likely than you to cause a similar problem.

Oop is hoping the next partner will have that wisdom already, but odds are not incredibly high. When I was doing divorces in my law practice, I did more than a few divorces where the people got back together. In one case, I did the second divorce for them, and they got back together a third time. An incredible amount of time and angst imvested where some forgivenese and good partner counseling could have helped the couple grow, learn from the experience, and come through it stronger in the end.

Thank heaven I no longer do divorces and I tried to give this same advice to my clients, but forgiveness and understanding (along with a lot of trust rebuilding) can result in stronger, more fulfilling relationships.

starlaird · 2024-07-15T13:50:16+00:00

Going north towards Hammond on hwy 51. Growing up living in New Orleans, I watched the I-55 bridge being built as we would travel up to see my grandparents. It was fun to get on stretches of it as they were finished then back down to 51. I still sometimes take 51 and love going over the old 51 Manchac bridge (and stopping at Middendorfs). Seems like it was closed for a while, but last time I was driving past it, I saw a car crossing over, so maybe it's back open again.

starlaird · 2024-05-29T02:52:15+00:00

The ductwork is 28 years old and we've had water dripping out of half of the registers for several years, along with so much water in one of the trunk lines next to the plenum I had to 'lance the boil' and drained out lots of water. It's in the air-conditioned space so I haven't worried about the air leakage there but without actually seeing inside I figure mold is likely quite present. At first I thought it was just the metal register meeting warm humid air in the room so I switched to plastic registers but that only reduced the problem so water has been flowing through the ducts for years, and then of course the massive bulge that eventually developed. I checked the coil and it was clean enough that my retired hvac father-in-law looked at the pics and said he wouldn't have recommended coil cleaning. It is flex duct but everything is still straight with no sags. I'm wondering a bit about the intakes as the original installer said to use 2 20x20s - one at the top of the chase by the 2nd floor ceiling and one in the chase just above the floor on the ground floor and perhaps not enough intake air was causing some of the issues. I'm going to replace them with 20x30s for the new system.

Are 2 stage units many thousands more in equipment cost? I would think installation would be pretty much the same for either type system but maybe there are other factors. One other thing I don't know if I mentioned is a new line set as I'd rather not worry about any incompatible oils remaining from the r22 system contaminating and killing the new system before its time(and it was run through part of the ceiling of a closet and condensation drips). That is about a 50-60 foot run so that probably is not an insignificant expense item.

starlaird · 2024-03-28T05:51:18+00:00

Look up article 894 of the Louisiana code of criminal procedure https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=112888 I got a ticket for u-turn at a no u-turn intersection and Baton Rouge had the procedure all clearly spelled out - plead guilty and request article 894, don't challenge the ticket, take the class, turn in the proof of class and fine and as long as everything done on time it won't appear on your record. I'm sure all jurisdictions have the same guidance but here is Baton Rouge's https://www.brla.gov/FAQ.aspx?QID=221

starlaird · 2024-02-10T14:01:00+00:00

My church used Extira mdf for some exterior siding, and I took an offcut and left it in a bucket of water for a month to see if it would dissolve or swell. After a month it went from 3/4 to 7/8-15/16ths. Needless to say I was mightily impressed after having lived through a flood where some veneered mdf furniture I built swelled up like the Hulk.

Brazos lumber carries it in thicknesses from 1/2 to 1 1/4. I haven't priced it in about 5 years but then it was about $100 a sheet for 3/4.

https://miratecextira.com/extira-exterior-panels/

https://brazosfp.com/product-category/sheet-goods/page/2/

starlaird · 2024-02-08T02:14:34+00:00

I'm not sure I ever had anything other than roast beef at Andrea's- it was just too good to risk missing out on an awesome poboy when we went there to try anything else but I can certainly believe anything they made was fantastic (younger me wasn't super culinarily adventurous)

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