Sunday, April 18, 2010

All Saints Parish

3847 NE Glisan

All Saints Parish is located in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. The church is a modern design that I can see being preserved someday as an example of modernism. The parishioners were mostly white -- okay, they were 100% white.  The parishioners for the most part fell into two camps: those of retirement age and those with young children. At this Mass at least, there was not too much in between.

The pastor, Father Richard Thompson, gave the homily. The Gospel reading was about Jesus' post-resurrection appearance to the disciples while they were fishing on the Sea of Tiberias. (You may ask yourself, "what is this Sea of Tiberias? I thought the disciples always fished in the Sea of Galilee? Well, it turns out the two are the same, and are also known as the Lake of Gennesaret.) Father Thompson raised the interesting question of why the disciples were back fishing after spending so much time with Jesus, knowing he had been resurrected and knowing he had already asked them to become fishers of men. To my disappointment, however, Fr. Thompson did not answer the question.

After Mass I grabbed a bulletin. Interestingly, it contained a short hagiography of Saint Adalbert of Prague. I wonder if, being named All Saints, each week there is a biography of a different Saint in the bulletin? St. Adalbert's day in April 23, so maybe the pastor picks a saint from the upcoming week to write about. In any case, I like reading about Saints, as long as the story doesn't seem too much like a legend.