Around Town: 'Sight' movie screening, Liturgical Textiles, 'Beneath Springhill'

Dr. Ming Wang, the subject of ‘Sight,’ and Leanne Chung, cast member and Tenth pastor, will host the movie screening.

Tenth Church is the place to be next Friday night (February 2) as a celebrated doctor and a local pastor introduce us to a movie screening of Sight, a Christian film shot in Vancouver.

Dr. Ming Wang, the main focus of the film (and one of the producers), will be in town to co-host the gathering, along with Leanne Chung, Associate Pastor at Tenth Church – and a cast member in the film.

Here is a synopsis of the movie:

Sight, starring Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning Greg Kinnear and Terry Chen (Almost Famous, Falling), is based on the true story of Dr. Ming Wang, a poor Chinese immigrant, who defies all odds to become a world-renowned eye surgeon in the United States.

Set in 1970s rural China, a young Ming faces persecution and despair at every turn, but through the support of his dedicated family and his own unwavering determination, he finds his way to America, attends Harvard and MIT, and helps develop an innovative technology that restores sight in millions.

Taking on the seemingly impossible challenge of helping a blind orphan, the resilient Dr. Wang must reconcile with his own traumatic past and face the harsh reality that the strength of his own will can only go so far.

The film is based on Dr. Wang’s autobiography From Darkness to Sight. A Harvard & MIT graduate (MD, magna cum laude), he also holds a doctorate degree in laser physics and is co-founder of the non-profit Common Ground Network. His testimony ‘as a scientist and as a Christian’ can be found on the Wang Foundation site.

This is not the first time Dr. Wang has been featured in a film; he inspired a movie role in God is Not Dead.

The evening runs from 6:15 – 9 pm, and will include complimentary popcorn and refreshments. Go here to register.

There will be another free showing of Sight the next night (February 3, 6 pm), at Evangelical Chinese Bible Church in Burnaby; Dr. Wang and members of the cast will be there as well.

Liturgical Textiles

The Craft of Spirit: BC Liturgical Textiles will be at the Italian Cultural Centre until March 31.

Several local churches are participating in an exhibition which traces the creation of liturgical textile in BC from 1924 to 2024. The Craft of Spirit: BC Liturgical Textiles will be at the Italian Cultural Centre until March 31.

Artists from Christ Church Cathedral, St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, St. Helen’s Catholic Church and St. James Anglican Church are featured.

The organizers say this about the exhibit:

Textile has always served as a metaphor for the intangible and unknown aspects of human existence. Referred to as the veil, it is conceptualized as the gauzy and semi-opaque liminal barrier separating the physical world and the dimension of the spirit.

Whether it is the temple curtain suspiciously torn at the moment of Jesus’ death; the pervasive presence of the veil in dream imagery as described by the father of psychology Carl Jung, or holy relics carefully enshrined in glass preserving scraps of fabrics worn by miracle performing saints’, textile has never been far from the collective unconscious as a symbol of the mysterious.

While spiritual textiles embody our relationship to the ephemeral, this exhibition also seeks to prove that it has the capacity to a keen sensibility of the temporal, representing the immediacy of time and place. This exhibition demonstrates that the imagery, design, and even the very fibers utilized in our spiritual rituals speak to our hopes for society in the future, while continuing to pay respect to geography on which we are grounded.

Museum director at the Italian Cultural Centre, and curator of the exhibit is Angela Clarke; Thomas Roach is spiritual textile consultant. The artists are Karen Brodie, Trish Graham, Alecia Greenfield, Jean Kares, Lyn Longair, Ilona Payne, Thomas Roach, Mae Runions and Judy Villett.

Beneath Springhill

Jeremiah Sparks plays Maurice Ruddick in ‘Beneath Springhill.’ Photo: Moonrider Productions

‘The Singing Miner’ will be onstage for another week or so. The Arts Club Theatre Company has been presenting Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story at various theatres around Metro Vancouver this month. It will continue until February 4.

This is the Arts Club comment about the play, which is based on the October 23, 1958 ‘bump’ (underground seismic event) which killed 75 of the 174 miners working at the No. 2 colliery:

Trapped. 4,000 feet underground. With no food, little air and even less hope of survival. Remarkably and against all odds, the indomitable spirit and song of coal miner Maurice Ruddick served as a lifeline for his fellow miners over nine unimaginable days.

This is the inspiring true story of the African-Canadian “singing miner” that emerged from the 1958 Springhill, Nova Scotia, mining disaster. Journey with this award-winning one-person show that recalls the tense historic events and celebrates hope, courage and community.

The production should include some good gospel/spiritual songs. Writing for Create a Stir about the Vancouver offering, Gail Johnson began:

Jeremiah Sparks grew up singing in church on Sundays in small-town Nova Scotia. He became the venue’s organist at age 16, a position he held for more than two decades, while also acting as the director of the choir. So he comes naturally to his starring role in Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story, which was created by Beau Dixon.

Check out the first few minutes of this old W5 interview with Ruddick in which also includes him and his family members singing gospel music. He said, at about 2:26:

We had [free] trips down to Georgia – which I wouldn’t have gone, because it was segregated, and I’m coloured. The boys said, well, if you won’t go, we won’t go. I figured, no, the boys really need a holiday. They had such an ordeal down there, so who was I to sacrifice? The good Lord sacrificed, so why shouldn’t I?

At 3:45 he added:

I never stop thanking the good Lord for our rescue, not only for me but for all of us.

Beneath Springhill will be at Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam until January 27; Kay Meeks Arts Centre February 1 – 2; and The ACT Arts Centre February 3 – 4.

Jan 2024

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2024 – January 18, 2024 - January 25, 2024 at All Day
Dispossessed but Defiant – January 23, 2024 - January 31, 2024 at 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
January Series 2024 – January 25, 2024 - January 28, 2024 at All Day
Deb Judas: Cultivating Shalom – January 25, 2024 at 9:00 am - 10:00 am
B.C.’s Human Rights Code Educational Sessions – January 25, 2024 at 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Bioethics and Environmental Ethics – January 25, 2024 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Parent Discipleship Sessions (three events) – January 25, 2024 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
The Craft of Spirit: BC Liturgical Textiles: Opening – January 25, 2024 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Prayer & Fasting Gathering: Loving Muslims Together Network – January 26, 2024 at All Day
Paul Dirks: Author Spotlight for 'Deep Discipleship for Dark Days' – January 26, 2024 at 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Firestarter Conference – January 26, 2024 - January 27, 2024 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Jazz Vespers with Linda Szentes and Jazzlinks – January 28, 2024 at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
More Than a Song: Worship Night – January 28, 2024 at 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Hayden Wiseman Violin Concert – January 28, 2024 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Vancouver Bandits and Langley Schools Host 2nd Annual Langley Schools Play Day – January 29, 2024 at All Day
Surrey Christian School: Open House at Fleetwood Campus (three events) – January 30, 2024 at 11:30 am - 7:00 pm
Pastors' Prayer Breakfast – January 31, 2024 at 9:30 am - 10:30 am
A Counter to the Culture of Death: Joseph Ratzinger's Theology of Creation – January 31, 2024 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Celebrating Thomas Merton's Birthday – January 31, 2024 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Night of Worship & Praise with Natasha Zimbaro – January 31, 2024 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Jazz Evensong @ Brentwood: Noah Franche-Nolan & Feven Kadane – January 31, 2024 at 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Feb 2024

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Around Town: ‘Sight’ movie screening, Liturgical Textiles, ‘Beneath Springhill’

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