Things I learned on my weekend business trip to Manhattan:
1) Times Square is not square. You probably know that Manhattan is laid out on a grid, with Avenues that run one way north or south, and streets that run east or west. Broadway cuts diagonally from northwest to southeast. It crosses the avenues at about a 25 degree angle. This makes for some triangular-shaped city blocks, such as the one at Broadway and 5th Avenue occupied by the
Flatiron Building. The area where Broadway crosses 7th Avenue, plus several blocks in either direction on either street, is called Times Square. Several large theatres are on Broadway itself, and several more are on the cross-streets. Shows playing currently include Wicked, The Producers, Chicago, Mama Mia, Jersey Boys, Fela, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, and Promises Promises. I got there around 8:30 on Saturday night, too late to see any of the shows. There were plenty of people around, but it was not packed. I suppose there are more people when the shows are getting in and out. There’s a Toys-R-Us with an indoor Ferris Wheel. Letterman’s theater is on the far north end, next to an empty restaurant. Colony Records is an independent music store there, but the prices were hideous, $25 for a CD. I’ll stick with Amazon. David Wilkerson’s Times Square Church was there, but inactive on Saturday night. They have worship Sunday morning, plus a Friday night gathering for ages 15-29.
2) There are Christians in Manhattan. I thought about going to Redeemer Presbyterian Church, naturally. Tim Keller preaches the 6pm service, but I had to leave town before that. Instead, I got an invitation to join a college friend at an ELCA church started in 1865 and named after Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden. A generation ago the church was all Swedes, but of course Swedes are a tiny fraction of Manhattan now, so the church was mostly empty. Take note, whitebread PCA! There were still 50 people there, though, representing several continents. This church was on the conservative end of the ELCA. For instance, the hymnal gave options of “gender-neutral” hymn texts, but this congregation consistently used the original texts which spoke of God in the masculine. The song selections were standard mid-20th century evangelical choices like “Jesus, What a Friend For Sinners” and “Be Thou My Vision,” plus “In My Life, Lord, Be Glorified.” Being Lutheran, they also had song fragments as part of the order of worship. These were short (four or five notes), in free meter, and did not resolve to the tonic. There was a children’s sermon which tied into the main message, which, following the lectionary, was on the story of Mary and Martha. The sermon (12 minutes long) was a good message on the importance of not letting work for God take the place of direct adoration of God. He referenced the Good Samaritan parable as a counterbalancing illustration of the importance of Christian deeds as well. My main complaint was that the gospel was not made explicit enough. There was a confession of sin, and discussion of how Jesus died for our sins, including a reading from Colossians 1 about Christ’s death making us blameless and reconciled to God. I just like to hear an explicit explanation of penal substitution accompany the basic recounting of the historical elements of the gospel.
3) Manhattan is for walking. Within reason, anyway. It was quite hot, but walking was better than the dingy subways. My visit was circumscribed by the trapezoid of East 44th and 5th (in the NE, my hotel), West 53rd and Broadway ( the upper edge of the Theater district), West 31st and 7th (the conference hotel), and East 22nd and 3rd (church). I didn’t make it to more distant locations like Central Park, though.
4) LaGuardia was not bad. I got in and out of the airport quickly going both directions.
