Melinda J. Irvine

Men in t-shirts hosing

plastic pews and altarpieces.

Wall-less church reveal.

Hidden behind a pocket of rainforest trees and the local gym plaza is the shell of an old church under repair. Early this morning (Sunday) is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone in it.

I greatly enjoyed the music and bustling activity spilling out through the open wall-frames as I practiced my Tai Chi forms.

Churches are usually places of reverence, formality, and sacred rituals and the missing walls could not help but reveal the human-side of Sunday worship.

I giggled as I watched men in morning t-shirts hosing the floors and arranging plastic chairs, knowing that in just a few hours they would be dressed in solemn robes and dispensing holy water.