Mt. Zion United Church Of Christ, Cleveland, Ohio - A Review.

     Page Two Hundred Ninety.

     I may have written prior that I really enjoy going to church. I'm Jewish and my definition of God falls squarely within the parameters of traditional Orthodox Judaism, but I also enjoy a good Protestant sermon. When ministers start going on and on, I simply translate the term "Jesus" to "God" and then I'm able to access most pulpit messages with great ease. However, if the sermon is actually about Jesus, i.e. his life; his struggles or what have you as opposed to his teachings, i.e. love one another; don't be a hypocrite, etc. I'm bored to tears and zone out. That really doesn't happen often though. Thankfully, most sermons really are about his message.
     How I got to this point in my life is a separate blog which I won't deliver now, just know that many, many Sundays, if I don't have to work at the museum, I'm darkening the door of some nearby Protestant church. (When the ministers sense me coming, they run and hide.) Quite often I'll even attend 2 different churches on the same Sunday, attending 9.30AM service at one, then 11AM service at another. I refer to these as "Double Features". In past blogs, I've implied that a REAL lot of people know who I am. This is one reason why.
     So, Sunday morning, November 16th,  I was in the mood for something really different. I went to Mt. Zion United Church of Christ down in University Circle. I've mentioned before that University Circle is Cleveland's arts & cultural hub, and also home to some glorious houses of worship. Well, Mt. Zion isn't one of them. It's in an old, huge mansion with a large, 1960's sanctuary added on in back. But, brother, they get the job done.
     I met the minister of Zion at an event last summer and liked him and had also heard of the church in the past, so that's what prompted me to attend. I was surprised to find it 98% Black. I was expecting an integrated church for some reason, don't now why, just was. So, this happened to be a special Sunday for a variety of reasons: it was potluck Sunday; it was a celebration of  male prayer and there was a visiting minister who'd be delivering the sermon. This visitor was from a nearby Seventh Day Adventist church, but had a nationwide reputation for his preaching skills.
     So... where to start... where to start... where to start...
     How about the music? It was the real deal. This was the music that James Brown, Aretha and Little Richard grew up on. It was serious. It was worth the price of admission. Fabulous!
Music: 10/10
     Sermon. This guy was unreal. In the African-American tradition, some ministers deliver a message in a loud, fast voice. That message is sometimes so loud and fast that the words, themselves, are unintelligible, and indeed, almost unimportant (but the congregants would never, ever say that). But, the spirit and emotion of the delivery and the spirit and emotion of the room is what lifts away the congregation. Truly, the message itself is unimportant (but again, they would never, ever say that). By contrast, this guy was sometimes very loud, and sometimes spoke very fast, but EVERY SINGLY WORD WAS UNDERSTANDABLE AND THE MESSAGE WAS FANTASTIC! His message was this: you are God's child. You are entitled to his blessings as any child expects his or her father to take care of them. Have the audacity to expect to be taken care of. Have the nerve to not take "No" for an answer. Keep praying over and over for blessings. Live in prayer and never give up the prayer. Expect answers and expect blessings. It was extraordinary.
Sermon 10/10
     Comfort/grace/reception. I was received graciously. This was a congregation clearly used to visitors. They were friendly and appropriate. It goes without saying, but I'll say it, I ran into people whom I knew. Nobody bent over backwards to make me feel welcome, but that's okay.
Reception of the newcomer/visitor: 8/10
     Children. I adore kids, of course, and savor kid energy. The more children that are in a congregation and the more the congregation values those children, the better. In this group of 100-125 warm bodies, there were only about  8 children. That's not a good sign in my opinion. The number of youths should've been double that. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps a bunch of kids were home with colds.
Children: 6/10
     Total experience: 8.5/10
     Remains to be seen what the congregation is really all about. Demographically, as already stated it's 98% Black. Appears to be solidly middle-class and upper-middle class as evidenced by the number of BMW's in the parking lot. The congregation was absolutely NOT dressed to the nines. That's very unusual for a Black church. I suspect that's another sign of their financial stability. Politically, I'll have to do some snooping. We all know that Black churches can run conservative on social issues, but I'm assuming that some conservatism in this particular church may be tempered by the fact that Mt. Zion is a member of the United Church of Christ, a denomination widely recognized for it's extremely and intensely liberal stance on social issues. And, there are very few Black UCC churches around. So, I'm thinking that there may be something very magical happening at Mt. Zion.
     I plan on phoning the minister and setting up an appointment to sit, have coffee and chat. I'll let you know what I find out.

A One Day Staycation

     Page Two Hundred Seventy-Three.

University Circle is concentration of bldgs. at top, near horizon

     Yesterday, I took a walk down to University Circle, Cleveland's cultural, medical and educational hub. We certainly have copious museums, hospitals and educational facilities strewn all over the region; but 100 years ago the city planners decided that Cleveland should have many of them in a centralized location. So, a disproportionate amount of those facilities are in a relatively small section of town. I'm sure I've spoken of Cleveland's University Circle region in this blog before, so I won't get into it again. But really, any out-of-towner invariably ends up there.
     I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art; the Crawford Auto Aviation Collection and the Botanical Gardens, in that order. And, I was quite giddy with glee as I flashed my Cleveland  Museum of Art employee badge and received free entrance to all of the above. (The CMA is one of the grandaddies in University Circle, along with Case Western Reserve and a variety of massive, cathedral-like churches. But all the museums have a reciprocal relationship with each other.) Nothing better than a day of free museums! That's pretty much it, as far as I'm concerned.

Museum of Contemporary Art

MOCA

The Botanical Gardens

 2 different rainforests with their glass outer walls and roofs

     I live in Cleveland Heights, a suburb on the hills which overlook University Circle. So I walked down and around and back up again - about 5 miles. It was just a wonderful afternoon.

Rocky Horror vs. Sound Of Music

     Page One Hundred Ninety-Six.
     For the last few months, I've had an Indian medical student roommate who's here, in Cleveland, doing a couple rotations at University Hospitals, one of our fine, local hospitals. He's leaving tomorrow and is hoping to come back in 2016 for his medical residency.  His stay has been pleasant. He's made friends and experienced some American/Cleveland culture. I've taken him to a few plays downtown at Playhouse Square; we've gone to a few museums in University Circle; I've taken him on numerous architectural tours and we've gone out to eat at a few places. All in all, I've tried to get him out and about as much as I could during one of Cleveland's most brutal winters in recent memory and I think I've been reasonably successful.

     I've also watched movies with him. I have a decent collection of DVD's and regardless of anyone's  cinematic taste, they'd eventually find something they like on my shelves. Just last night we watched Rocky Horror Picture Show. Afterwards he asked if that was pretty typical of American musicals. Ummmm, uh...

     I do know a little bit about Bollywood and Indian culture's taste in movies, but not too much. We had a long conversation about American musicals versus Indian ones and how Rocky Horror isn't typical of anything. So then I popped in The Sound Of Music. Half way through, he declared, "I like this movie better than Rocky Horror". Gee...

Cleveland's Wonderful Street Fares or How To Get Fat And Really Enjoy The Process

     Page Ninety.
     Summer is upon us and here in Cleveland that means many things. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, people are outside jogging and most importantly, neighborhood festival time is here! Cleveland has some glorious neighborhood festivals with their multitudes of sights and sounds. Young artists are out selling their wares and street musicians are walking around, entertaining passers-by. In theory every one of our street fairs exists for some cerebral reason, whether it be religious, cultural, ethnic or what have you. But really, these street fairs exist just to feed the masses.
     Cleveland is widely known to have very strong ethnic food. This is because we attracted so many immigrants from the early-1800's to the mid-1900's. Cleveland has no history of being white bread, vanilla or Presbytarian. People nowadays don't know that from the 1880's through the 1970's Cleveland was one of the ten largest cities in America and it attracted a more diverse immigrant community than practically any other inland American town. Honestly, I don't know why it attracted such an array of nationalities, but it did. Cleveland has 'em all... and their food. All the usual suspects have their Mom & Pop restaurants or grocery stores here (we strongly poo-poo national chain food in Cleveland. It's here, but we don't really like it.): Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Italian, French, Mexican, Jewish, African-American, etc, they're all here. Now, the thing is, we also have: Ethiopian food, Hungarian, German, Vietnamese, Indian, Lebanese, Spanish, Russian, every South or Central American culture and  all things in between and really good versions of them, too. In short, if you want great ethnic food, come to Cleveland. (Unfortunately, we have a severe shortage of 5 star restaurants of any variety. But we have more than our share of terrific ethnic eateries which serve any world food you could possibly want.)
     Which brings me back to our street fairs.

                                                                   Oh My God, Is The Food Good!!!

     I'll tell you my favorite Cleveland festival. It's the Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy. The Feast of the Assumption, celebrated on August 15th, is the day that devout Catholics believe Mary was assumed up into heaven. Cleveland's Italian community adopted this day to create Cleveland's largest festival, literally. It gets about 1/3 of a million attendees over the four day party and they're all really happy. It's also the only Feast of the Assumption with a party of this nature in the world. Weird but true. And the Italian food isn't to be believed. It's overpriced, of course. But who cares? I typically attend, maybe, three or four times each year. It's in Little Italy which is a ten minute walk from me. So I walk down Mayfield Hill to Little Italy, get lunch, then walk back up the hill and come home. But more importantly, I usually go down on Saturday night with friends and hang out for a few hours. It's just one of those annual get-togethers that I really enjoy.
     The reason I have street festivals on my mind right now is because the season just began a week ago. The first one, The Hessler Street Fair, is also located very near me. It's in University Circle which is the cultural hub of Cleveland. The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Orchestra and a few dozen more cultural and educational institutions are all in this relatively small district. University Circle is also at the bottom of the hill. So I can walk down to Hessler (one of Cleveland's long-time artist colonies), look at all the art, get a bite, walk back up and go home. It's easy as pie. (All this walking is how I can rationalize eating so much crap.)
     So there you have it. I don't know the street fair situation of any other city but I certainly hope that it's rich, diverse and worth waiting for where you live. (I just wish they wouldn't charge a million dollars for a glass of fresh-squeezed lemon-aid.)