Steve (DOS) and I attended Collins Street Baptist Church in Adelaide for the 10:30am Palm Sunday services. Collins Street Baptist Church was just down the street from our hotel, the Grand Hyatt, and was much more progressive than the Southern Baptist Churches back home In Virginia I grew up with, no doubt to the changing times, and downtown location. (I checked their website before we went.)
The Church in fact was right next to a theater which was playing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Wicked” was playing directly across the street. The Church was adorned with beautiful columns in the front, and resembled a mini-Supreme Court building a bit, with the grand staircase leading up to it.
I always liked Palm Sunday as most Churches provide palm tree leaves for waving at the processional or other hymns during the service. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, and for people of Faith, it’s a remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice Jesus paid on the cross over 2, 000 years ago.
I took a couple photos before the service of the sanctuary, which was uniquely configured with U-shaped congregational seating. The architecture was simplistic compared to many churches, but it was done in a symmetrical design, and was quite beautiful. We spoke with one of the Deacons after the service (who was an architect by occupation) and he pointed out some of the structural details, which was very interesting.
The pipe organ in the front was gorgeous, and we thought about my brother Andy who is a Church organist, and how much he would like to see that.
After the service we had coffee in the narthex area of the Church and spoke with several of the other parishioners. Collins Street Baptist was very welcoming and inclusive, and I’m so glad we had an opportunity to go there on Palm Sunday.
For the afternoon, DOS and I relaxed a bit, as we were attending the show “Wicked” at the Regent Theater, directly across the street from Collins Baptist Church, that evening.
We met Ian and Rosemary at 6pm in the lobby for the 6:30pm show, and walked the two short blocks to the Regent Theater for the “Wicked” show.
While we couldn’t take photos during the show obviously, we did take a few photos before the show, and also from our front row, center seats.
The Regent Theatre was gorgeous, and sat over 2,000 people.
We were concerned that we would be too close to the stage from the front row, but these in my opinion were some of the best seats in the house! We were directly behind the orchestra pit, which we could see down into if we stood up before or after the show, and the actors were so close we could see their facial expressions.
The show was absolutely awesome, and flawlessly performed! Bravo, and a standing ovation from us and the audience!
