Well. I can still be surprised. I just got back from an  party with friends for the Olympic opening ceremonies.
I have a few favorite moments.
What were yours?
We are More Shane Koyczan
k.d. lang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah 2005 You can see a clip from the ceremonies here.
Truthfully, as someone who believes that Jesus Christ came to rescue us from the futility and deception of pagan worship, and the terrible snares that come with it, I find it hard to enjoy a huge event that is an obvious throw-back and pays ceremonial homage to ancient Greek pagan deities. It is a pleasure to witness human excellence in action, athletic or any other sphere, but I think that glory should be given to the true and Living God who created and sustains us. I’m even more uncomfortable when someone sings “hallelujah” and have to wonder what god are they praising, when it is the God of Abrahm, Isaac and Jacob who is the only one worthy to be praised, and who went so far in His love for the human race as to send His Son to die a sacrifice to cleanse us from the filth of our sins, so that we could be reconciled to Him, like an unfaithful wandering wife used and abused by her false lovers, Greek or otherwise, being forgiven and received back into the arms of her true Husband, who, after all, doesn’t have to. But thankfully… He so loved the world…
There are several biblical references in Cohen’s song which takes it’s influence from waltzes and gospel music. It is a song which lends itself to different emotional interpretations by performers.
While Christians use hallelujah as an interjection it can also be used as a noun.
The opening and closing ceremonies will cost around 50 million dollars and VANOC wasn’t going to the technical wizardry of Bejiing. Instead they incorporated art, dance, music, lighting and visuals.
Loved the opening, the snowboarder video leading to the jump through the rings.
Loved how they compromised on the lighting of the flame.
I think the way the IOC, and Vanoc didn’t shirk from the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili was handled well. The Georgian black arm bands, the spontaneous ovation, the opportunity for the crowd and athletes to show respect with silence and the lowering of the flags…
Pageantry has it’s place. This was lyrical, lively, theatrical, grand, elemental; all that Canada is.
And hey, how often do you see Bryan Adams in a suit?:^)
Therese
Yes, it is good to look into the History of Greece and the Olympics, that would include the Deities to get to the very roots of what we are observing today through our own eyes.
Not just the Olympics but what Mother’s Day is based on and how Father’s Day came out of that too.
One article I’d read on-line mentioned how Mother’s Day’s origins is found in Greek History.
A newer Magazine in the display rack I read another day,but is not there today, had an article about the Olympics; The writer was a person who’s not in favor of the Olympics.
He feels the Olympic Torch is not rooted in Greek History but rooted in the History of the Nazis and how they went from area to area carrying a Torch.
That’s hard to say.
I’ve never heard of this theory before.
The Swastika was a symbol of peace from India that was reversed
theory is food for thought.
If the Nazis also used a torch, from where did they get it from or were they the inventors of it.
The present Olympics in the Cultural/Historical Buttress of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada can have a wide & broad latitudes of things from all over the world.
In and amongst this can be oxymorons of contradictions of beliefs of different backgrounds in such a large gathering.
Your comment on the person singing “Hallelujah”
Well, that has become a somewhat popular song to sing, so many different kinds of persons can and would sing it.
Look at what happens at Christmas where there can be all sorts of persons singing Christmas Carols.
But your comment, “I’m even more uncomfortable when someone sings “hallelujah” and have to wonder (what God are they praising)…”
The singer looked to me like K.D. Lang
She might’ve been asked or had chosed on her own to sing that song.
Looks like there had been a good amount of planning for all of the events and how they blend together.
Not too often do I hear the term nor do I think that way myself ‘What God do you worship?’
Some people can have what they feel is a more liberal or a more conservative approach to Christianity
At a meeting at my Anglican church, where a good amount of members are Lawyers, one Lawyer said, “You get seven Lawyers, you can get seven different opinions”
Down the street is an Evangelical Lutheran Church where I know a very nice couple who are my customers.
As you probably might know, the Anglican Church is working on the Church Canon Laws for same-sex marriage. There have been changes in the past too.
1968 Anglican Church of Canada now remarries divorcees so they don’t have to go over to the United Church of Canada anymore.
This was the same year that Canadian Law made it easier to remarry divorcees.
2002 Canadian Law makes Gay Marriage legal
2002 Bishop Michael Ingham, says, “Yes” to a request from 53 out of our 80 Priests in the Diocese of New Westminister to Bless same-sex unions.
The Anglican Church of Canada is now in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada.
The fellow from the Lutheran church said to me, “The minister says ‘May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be amongst you all, Amen’, he puts a blessing on us all, so you can -bless anything”
That was his opinion.
He’s a layperson.
I was talking about this at the Tues Prayer Book Society dinner and one person, she said to me, “(What God does he worship)”
In this case, the two persons are probably worshiping the same God but what seems to be going on here is differences of opinions and perhaps Theological beliefs that can range towards Liberal and Conservative.
Anglican & Lutheran Churches are both Christian Reformed and influenced by Martin Luther.
Faytene Kryskow of The Cry at Lumbermens’ Arch in Stanley Park, Vancouver 2009 said to me, “(What God do you Worship?)”
This was over a prayer that I didn’t type word for word as I prayed it but summarized not typing the prayer starting with “Our Father”
At the same time Faytene Kryskow has had critisizm of involvement with the New Apostolic Reformation which believes there are Apostles & Prophets on te earth today to reoccupy the long vacant offices on earth of the Apostles & Prophets.
John, were you able to watch the opening or were you working?
I’ve watched a good amount of it on TV and enjoyed it
As well, many of my customers are 1st Nations & one of them is doing Native Dancing there
So, I’ve seen it on TV and know some of the performers
Shane Koyczan’s speech/poem was excellent; much of what he shared about the Canadian spirit was universal, or should be. If I can say this without him taking offense, it was very American as well, or American with a bit less bravado.
Bene Diction
Yes, I’ve watched it on TV and I liked it
Maybe it’s just that I can’t count that high, or am ever likely to need to ;o) however, $50 million seems like an obscene amount of money to spend on pageantry. Even for decadent, hedonistic North America. To quote a well-used phrase that, come to think of it, I haven’t heard in a long, long time, “money doesn’t grow on trees”.
To ‘sacrifice’ that much money, you have to think there must in truth be some meaning behind it that is very important to people: could it be mankind’s self-worship? Because, that is in effect what pagan worship is – the worship of gods that were invented by man out of his own fallen imagination, gods made in the image of man. Self-worship ultimately, self-glorification. If that’s what’s really at the bottom of things with the Olympics, then those ‘hallelujah’s’ were an ode to man in all his fallen glory, and no wonder I’m troubled by the idea of it being sung there. (In Hebrew, hallelujah means “praise the Lord”. The Lord’s name is Yah (Jah), from Yahweh.) Singing it at an event like this seems to me like taking the precious and holy name of the Lord in vain in a very big way.
I wonder if I am the only one who feels this way, but the Cohen song hallelujah seems to be dragged out for every occassion deemed to have a even a passing link with the “spiritual” or “profound”. Has anyone ever really LISTENED to this song and twigged to its actual meaning, that being the link between sexuality and God and the different contexts which bring people to the point where they praise god.
Why did the organizer of the ceremonies or even Lang herself think this song was germaine?
As to the cost, well yes, should we not question the morality of spending obscene amount of money during a recession when many are going without.
FYI from Wikipedia :
“The Olympic Flame or Olympic Torch is a symbol of the Olympic Games.[1] Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics[citation needed]. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. The torch relay of modern times which transports the flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the games had no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem at the controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The Olympic Torch today is ignited several months before the opening celebration of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. Eleven women, representing the Vestal Virgins, perform a ceremony in which the torch is kindled by the light of the Sun, its rays concentrated by a parabolic mirror.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame
I can but admire the dedication of those taking part to ‘reach that ‘place of perfection’ they constantly seek and then attain its rewards.
I can but be amazed at the dispalys of the creative minds that have presented us with the spectacle and spectacular.
Whoever ‘raised the anti’ in terms of ‘the competition between nations to Host ‘in the most spectacular needs to understand that we are losing to a greater god the simplicity that our Lord walks with.
China’s hosting left its own people with a grievance at its cost. No doubt London will do the same.
Do we constantly need to keep paying the price to and for those who need a Grand Showplace for their creative ‘juices’ when the simplicity of that ego is really what WE ALL NEED as those who train barefoot in the Africas have shown us.
With a divided line in the poor and wealth of us all a little more sensitivity would not go amiss.
Therese: Do you have a Christmas tree every Christmas? Pagan symbolism. Do you paint Easter eggs? Pagan symbol. Even crosses worn as jewellery was pagan in nature (before Jesus). Yes, there is pagan symbolism in the games. If that’s your problem with it, fine, but try to remember that Christianity co-opts the symbols of other religions regularly.
Hit submit too early.
I am very anti-olympic. 9 *Billion* dollars. How decadent are we? How arrogant and self-righteous! That we could throw 9 BILLION dollars down the tube to put on a show of what? How good we are? There are people starving to death, suffering from preventable illnesses, don’t have drinking water. And we spend 9 billion dollars on showing off how well we play sports?! It’s utterly appalling.
Luna, I agree with you!…about obscene excesses, and about the christian/pagan mixture we see all over ‘christendom’. But I’ll defend to the death, (God granting me the courage), the freedom of people to participate in those things if they want! Not everyone comes to the same awareness of the same things at the same time.
Regarding me personally, the Lord gave me a literal deliverance from “paganism” just last year, by the Holy Spirit, through the reading of His word, so Christmas/Easter, etc, doesn’t have the draw on me that it used to, though my family still likes to celebrate and I don’t bother them about it. I never even realized what a bondage it was, until I was set free of it, praise the Living God, who is so real I could almost touch Him.
Paganism is very expensive, I’ve noticed, and induces temporary financial insanity – Olympics, Christmas… the gods must be greedy.
The Local News on the Television on Ch 9 & 11 are good.
The Skiing and performances are good
There were some 1st Nations dancers and cooks at Robson square ice rink
The morale of almost everybody downtown is quite high spirited
A good amount of persons are enjoying the Olympics
There are a good amount of Police, Undercover Police, Security.
The Protesters seemed to show their faces on the 1st Day blocking off Commercial Dr & Venables. The 20 Downtown Bus I was one was blocked off and we had Police & Protesters around us and the other 20 Downtowns were behind ours.
Fri and the 2nd Day, Sat blocked off the Lions Gate Bridge
When I was going to Church on the 3rd Day, Sunday, my nerves were a little bit on edge
After Church taking the 10 Granville downtown to catch the 20 Victoria is where I ran into a good amount of Olympics enthusiasts and that was refreshing
The News reported they blocked off the Cambie Bridge on the 4th Day, Mon.
It’s good to be carefull as it is more at risk to be in the wrong place at the wrong time
J.P., I caught a little of men’s downhill skiing (from the safety of my living room) – quite exciting! I hope we don’t need to anticipate a major terrorist attack on Canadian soil at this point – while America may be the Great Satan, I think Canada is only the Great Stooge and we are for now useful to their cause. Mind you, they do have that suicidal tendency, but unfortunately so does our nation in a different way which serves their purposes.
To Bene Diction
About the Opening Ceremony
The Vancouver Courier:
Vol 101 No 15 Friday, Feb 19, 2010
pg8
Opening Ceremony lacks colour by Allen Garr
http://www.vancourier.com/
Peter Kwok: SUCCESS
Sukhi Sandhu: anti-racist activist
Both men agree they got the First Nations part right. And there were references to the “founding fathers” French and English and the early waves of European settlers. But that is where it ended.
more than 40% of Vancouverites are visible minorities
At opening:
-Haitian immigrant Michaelle Jean
-New-Brunswick born Afro-Canadian Measha Brueggerosman
Sandhu: “VANOC had seven years to plan this extravaganza”
VANOC board of directors lack the diversity we find in the community as a whole.
18 flag bearers and torch lighters, wasn’t one person of colour.
VANOC CEO John Furlong
VANOC board chair Rusty Goepel
Furlong speaks with an Irish lilt, a recent immigrant
Immigrants from the same place as him were well represented in the opening ceremony.
Sukhi Sandu wrote a letter with no response
With the help of Peter Kwok wrote a second letter with a response
Rusty Goepel said the opening ceremony “did a very good job of showing Canada.”
Sukhi Sandhu:
In fact, it wasn’t a very good job. VANOC blew it.
He should admit it. And he should apologize and fix it for the closing ceremony.
It would be the Canadian thing to do.
Bene Diction
Opening Ceremonies
http://www.vancourier.com/
Vol. 101 No. 15 Friday, Feb. 19, 2010
pg8 Opening Ceremony lacks colour by allen garr
agarr@vancourier.com
Some points
18 flag bearers/torch lighters, not one a person of colour
1 VANOC chair Rusty Goepel an immigrant from Ireland
Immigrants from Ireland were well represented in the opening ceremony
Thanks John:
I think we could make economic and political hay over Canada hosting the winter Olympics. That is not where I was going with this post.
I was surprised, uncynical and even moved with the torch run and the opener.
We have a lot of talent in Canada, and a lot of things that are outstanding about this country, not the least of which is her people.
Bene D
I’ve observed nice Olympic displays and people when downtown around the Central Library at Georgia & Homer.
There’s some good 1st Nations displays at Vancouver Community College downtown had some Teepees and drummers in the open.
The Robson Square Icerink ahd some 1st Nations Cuisine Cooks talking about their dishes and that was very nice.
Yes, I agree with you, seeing the talent all out in the open with the dancers, singers, musicians, drummers and cooks is nice
To see the performers enjoying performing and the audience enjoying themselves is nice to see and hear.
Watching the enthusiastic athletes performing on television is very nice