Christian Calisthenics

In the good 'ol Episcopal Church I have often heard the up and down of the liturgy, the standing, kneeling, and sitting referred to as "pew aerobics" or "Christian calisthenics." Well, I have news for those of you who might consider yourselves high church and in love with such exercises. . . you wouldn't last a week in Taiwan.

This past Saturday, Elizabeth and I took part in the National Council of Churches in Taiwan Christian Sports Day (colloquially the NCCTCSD). We arrived a little bit late and walked in right in the middle of the opening ceremonies. Now, Taiwan is no world sports superpower, but they must have paid close attention to the opening ceremonies in Beijing. Each denomination (Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, YMCA, YWCA) was lined up in military precision lines, all wearing denominational uniforms and chanting church slogans in unison (I am totally not making this up). After a few prayers where denominational leaders invoked the competitors to play fair and try to remember some principles such as love and grace, we all did group warm-ups.

When I say warm-ups, I mean they had a team of calisthenic leaders up front with headset microphones leading the entire crowd of 1500 out of shape "athletes" in deep knee bends, stretching, jumping jacks, and about 20 more minutes of intense aerobic exercise.

I for one was extremely thankful for the warm-up. After all, I was signed up to play billiards at 10:30am. And Elizabeth was signed up to play tug of war at 1pm. All I am saying is, I'm sure the stretching paid off.



The rest of the day I believe can best be described as chaos. After calisthenics the churches broke up into teams for basketball, table tennis, billiards, squash, and tug of war. I was the third leg of the Episcopal Church's 9-Ball pool team. Which meant I didn't play because the first two guys lost. Oh well. Victor, Elizabeth, and I played on our own later and I got to show off my concentration face.

The featured sport was table tennis, but the most exciting event of the day was tug of war. The tug of war divisions were split into men, women, and co-ed. Elizabeth and Victor (our friend from the cathedral) were put onto the Episcopal Church co-ed team. Let's just say short and skinny aren't necessarily the best reasons to put someone on a tug of war team. Fortunately, they had a great coach. Daniel, the campus minister at St. John's University is shown here demonstrating proper tug of war technique.

Alas, our intrepid band of Episcopalians were no match for the Catholics. As you can see from the picture, the Catholics (in yellow) were not only far more intense, there team was also entirely made up of farm workers from the southern part of the country. Our two rounds against the Catholics lasted a total of about 1 minute. They were a force to be reckoned with. And as you can see, the rope burns. The Catholics creamed every team they played against, taking the championship of all three divisions. Maybe next time the Episcopalians stick to table tennis. . .











at least this guy looks like he is good:

Well, that's all for now. Elizabeth, Victor, and I are going to the world premiere of an opera on Friday called the Black Bearded Bible Man. It is about George Mackay, the first Presbyterian missionary to Taiwan. It is also the first opera to be written in Taiwanese and English. It is being performed at the National Theater with the National Orchestra, so I hope it will be good. At the very least, it will be in Taiwanese so we don't have to feel bad that we don't understand.

Peace,
Seth