Southminster United Church...

I just came back from a memorial service for Sheila's mother.

It was interesting for several reasons. The first was the unusual nature of the service - the MInister said it was a first in Canada, and it turns out to have been the idea of Sheila's parents - that they should have a memorial service that is part of the regular weekly Sunday service. It made for an interesting ambience. Oddly, the sermon was not so much about Sheila's mother (as you would expect from a memorial service) but was about the family's relationship to the Church - not really to the United Church of Canada, but to that particular building, Southminster, which Sheila's father saw being built in the 1920s when he was a boy.

I used to go to that church. Not that I ever considered myself Christian or went to any church regularly, but it was the church my parents went to when they lived in the area in the 1970s and I used to go with them sometimes. By 1980 or so my mother had become a Spiritualist and stopped going to Southminster. Somehow I have a sentimental attachment to the building, if not to the religion is was built to honour. I always loved the building: large, airy, traditional, lots of carved wood and clean spaces. I can't imagine a church more to my liking, at least along conventional Christian lines.

Back in those days, I must have met Sheila's mother. I wouldn't have known her well, but I'm sure we exchanged a few comments at Church teas or functions of one sort or another. I don't remember her specifically but I vaguely remember her name - her existence.

I don't think I've been back to that church since my mother died. The minister is different, but the building and the style of service is the same. There seemed to be a very large number of people there, more than I remember eer attending a Sunday service back in the 1970s. Most of the people there were old - by which I mean, older than I am. I noticed a headline in the paper today saying that church attenance in Canada has risen. This gives me mixed feelings of various sorts.

I was very glad I went. Afterwards I got to chat with friends and see Sheila's grandchildren (incredibly cute, one aged 4 months, one two years old).

The Lion in Winter...

The Lion in Winter with Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn is one of my favourite movies of all time. Finally I got to see the remake tonight, the 2003 Hallmark movie with Patrick Stewart as Henry II (the Peter O'Toole role) and Glenn Close as Queen Eleanor or Aquitaine.

As I had anticipated, Stewart and Close were terrific. I'm not generally a Glenn Close fan, though I like her acting, and I think she was better than I've ever seen her. The other magnificent role was Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Philip of France. In the first movie it was played by a young Timothy Dalton - and he's hard to beat, but I think Rhys-Meyers managed it. His Philip changed from moment to moment - a schemer and manipulator, by turns weak, smirking, proud, angry, seductive, flirtatious, demanding, bland, coy. Playing it minute by minute to get the effect he wanted.

The sets were fun, but odd - they had the biggest stairway I've ever seen in a castle. Odd textures of clothing, bright colours, silver ewers that made me think 18th century juxtaposed with details that were more like 10th century. Shiny fabrics - that seemed odd. John wore the ugliest hat I've ever seen.

The script was as witty as ever, but there were a few changes. In the original Henry, enumerating his lovers to Alais, says he's known "contessas, milkmaids, courtesans and novices, whores, gypsies, jades and little boys" - they cut the "little boys" out of this movie. I noticed a few other such changes, none of them serious. Some of the intgerpretations and action were different and new. All of it fun. I did wonder why Alais had a French accent and Philip didn't.

I want to see it again. And I want to see the original movie again. And I think I've overdue to see Becket - it's been years since I've seen it. (Peter O'Toole plays Henry II there, with Richard Burton as Thomas Becket.) I wonder if it's available on DVD?