Church sanctuaries are spaces where those who occupy them feel they have some kind of sovereignty of what can take place there. I recently watched teens gingerly toss a football inside a sanctuary during a mission minute to tout a homeless project fund-raiser tied to Super Bowl XLII.
Sometimes cheerful kids run lickety-split through church aisles looking for parents or when they are dismissed to go to a childrens group. Banging drums, dance and worldly demonstrations may offend some people who gather in sanctuaries. A sanctuary suggests sanctity of space a place where things that go on there should be with respect and grace.
Then there is flash photography something commonly controlled by church rules because they can come across as intrusive. There is an unwritten rule that church sanctuary activities must not be disturbed by a blaze of flashes.
A former Tribune colleague, Greta Huls, now the communications officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, shares, on her blog, the details of a recent incident while she was just doing her job, but with some personal importance. But she wasnt using flash.
Her mother, Patricia Pat Taylor Huls was among seven ordained as deacons at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Phoenix. She serves St. Stephens Episcopal Church in
Phoenix.
In Greta Huls blog Episcayune, she says attendance was high for the special service. For the event, she pulled double duty, as both a presenter for her mom and as communications officer of the diocese. Once my duties to her were done, I was to wander and take photos of the service and the seven new deacons as the service went on, Greta Huls explained.
Imagine my surprise when a woman (lightly) whacked me with her rolled-up order of service and told me not to take photos! she said. It came as a surprise because Huls has been taking photos for the diocese since high school and a professional journalist since 1989. I never dreamed that my first assault of the press would happen within church, she observed.
I told her that I had the bishops permission he is my boss, after all and she nodded and said, Sorry, but it was still all I could do not to fall on the cathedrals floor and die laughing. Huls went on to explain in her blog that she carries a quiet camera and walks softly and does not use a cameras flash in such circumstances.
Im the first to grind my teeth when I see flashes going off in services, Huls said.
With some sarcasm, she said next time for events at the cathedral shell have the staff print this statement for visitors: Please refrain from both the use of flash photography and whacking the bishops communications officer with your order of service.
Thanks for posting this Lawn. The Bishop laughed when he heard about it, but then wondered what might have happened if I had been someone else. If I had been thinking about joining the church that incident might have chased me away. We have to remember that actions speak louder than words.