Yoga Class:

Christ Church Cathedral offers yoga classes on Tuesday evenings.  Yoga is a great way to keep your body young and is a good extension of your spiritual practice.  This class is open to beginners as well as intermediate students with some previous yoga experience.

 Instructor:  Raj Shah

Class Time:  Tuesdays, 6:30 - 7:30 pm

Location:  Rear of the Nave, by the Narthex

Cost:  $10 per class

Please bring your own yoga mat and wear comfortable clothing.  If you are interested and have further questions, please contact Raj Shah at 502-893-3939 or at rkshah99@insightbb.com

Hope to see  you there!

Robert L. Boomzan, Director of Music

In June, the Cathedral Staff took a day of retreat to look at the year ahead and do some planning.  As a part of that planning, I suggested a new outreach to our many homeless folks who live around the Cathedral by cooking breakfast on Sunday morning once a month.  This seemed like a practical way to begin a direct outreach to the homeless community.

I felt a personal interest in this ministry having worked in my parish's food pantry when we lived in Memphis, Tennessee.   We always came away from that experience changed, having packed what could possibly be one families' food for a week into one paper sack.  Could we have made that one sack of groceries last the week and feel we had eaten sufficiently? 

The question of hunger always comes to mind when I leave the Cathedral after hours and see the homeless settling in for the evening, making their beds with cardboard and blankets with trash bags.  While I may not be able to change their circumstances, sharing a meal seems the least we can do.

So, over the course of the summer, the staff continued to talk about this meal, how it will work, who will cook it, who will clean up and just how will it work?  I volunteered to chair it and volunteered the choir to cook the first meal..  The group cooking contributes to pay for it and does all the clean up as well.  Parishioners are welcome to make a donation to offset the cost as well.  With coaching from our kitchen coordinator, Norma Laufer, we forged ahead and planned for about 20 people initially.  However, as I began to talk with people further, many people wanted to be there to help or to just support the breakfast with their presence.  I suggested the "More than a Meal" model in which we all sit down with everyone that comes, get to know people by name, and really share a meal.   So we upped our number to fifty (grandiose we thought) and planned our first meal for the first Sunday in October.  About ten choir members volunteered for this first breakfast and several of us brought our spouses to help. 

We arrived at 7:30 and began setting up and cooking.  While I had written instructions for every detail (those that know me know this routine), the synergy of the morning just swept us away along with the music of Pipedreams and With Heart and Voice on WUOL.   We set placemats at each chair, real plates and silverware, and used table cloths just as we would at any other meal or reception. 

Our first person arrived at 8:30 and had a meal to go, an option I felt was important to offer, knowing not everyone might feel comfortable staying to eat.  Folks slowly gathered, many members of the Cathedral and many others from the homeless community, until 9:00 am when the room was full and we were bringing more food from the kitchen.  By 9:20, we had served around 50 plates and were now out of most of the hot food, eggs, hash browns, and bacon.  Several choir members had baked muffins and thankfully, there were plenty of those remaining along with individual servings of milk and juice.  It was at just that moment that Randy Peters came in and said that on Heart and Voice our CD recording of Abide with Me had just been played.  It seemed a small reminder that as we give to others so are we blessed.

So, we shall continue our reaching out to our brothers and sisters in need by sharing this meal the first Sunday of each month.  Different groups in the church have signed up for this ministry, though I am waiting for the next open spot so we can sign up again!

In Peace,

Robert