Ok, fine. I can't get that dumb machine to work, I can't open my disk and therefore I can't do any of my paper or writings cause the dumb computer won't read it and I can't figure out why cause it's all in Hungarian and it's suppose to work cause it did yesterday. Drat. Well, then here's a JOURNAL ENTRY:

Today is the second Sunday we have actually been around Budapest to attend a church service. After the very comtemporary International Baptist Church, I wanted to find a more traditional (never thought I would say the word) church, and the Scottish Presbyterian Church, i.e. St Columbo's, was the only other address I had handy. The word "Scottish' catch my eye. Going to one of their churches is the enxt best thing if I can't go to the actual country itself. The reverend (pastor?) was definately Schootish, he reminded me of the way Jony talks...the mixture of a little British and Scottish accents. The church was undergoing renovation and it was a very small church in terms of numbers. The Calvin group, all 17 of us made up about half of the adults. I saw a struggling to grow but generally happy church. The place echoed due to the bare cement (wanting to be carpetted) floors so it was difficult to capture the reverend's words. What stood out to me was the seeming emphasis the church placed on decorative artifacts. I do not know how much was renoveted, but the obvious was that the walls had been repainted and the floors redone. I suppose it is the tradition, the "what churches are" in Hungary, perhaps in all Central Europe and Romania/Translyvania: the feeling of granduer made by its arts within (and without, in larger churches). The pulpit was clearly the focus of the congregation hall. While the rest of the church laid rather bare, as mentioned before, awaiting renovation work, the sermon pulpit was made up: the dark blue cloth draping the wall behind the laquered wooden table (alter?) that functioned as the pulpit itself. This reminded me again of how much symbolism in the church (using physical objects) can be a burden on smaller churches that cannot afford to pay for figurines, craved alters and the like. Nate said that it is not so much what it looks like but the connection one places on the obect. For example, a plain dining table, as long as it is recogniyed as an alter, will do. But I wonder how much of this thought will transfer adn last in the minds of the people. I do agree with Nate, but do not tink it is very do-able. This is seen in almost any country where some form of Christianity is practised (i suppose with other religions as well, but cannot say for them): for what is most familiar to me, the Protestant churches in Malaysia do call the table in the front of the main room the alter, but it is not reverred and treated as holy as the ones found in the Catolic churches, very much similar to the ones found in Central Europe churches, Protestant or not. What I see in that Scottish church was a struggle to do what is right for the physical building of the church that is right, or the norm in their culture, and even with the decorated (I DO NEED TO FIND A BETTER WORD--DECORATED NOT) pulpit and the wide staircases and plaques and yellow rising Renaissance-stlye columns, they are not enough to evoke the awe of God's Holy place to help promote a sense of worship--and to me, nothing from the physical world will ever be enough for this, it must come from the inward being of each person to long to worship and meet God. It is the inward attitude. Yes, we do have the music, the objects, the banners to facilitate us, but in the end, it is what we desire in the deepest place of our being.