Day 15- Last Day

Today was our last full day in Rome… :-( It is hard to fathom going back to Chicago.

This morning we went to the English speaking Methodist Church right across the river from Castel Sant' Angelo. Rev. Trevor preached on 2 Chronicles 20:2-25 and it struck home for everyone. It was a wonderful sermon about trusting in God and learning when to listen and just "do nothing." After the service we joined the congregation for a potluck lunch. It was delicious! (and of course free, which was comforting).

From there we headed back to the hotel and spent some of the afternoon packing for leaving. Then at about 3:30 we headed over to Santa Sabina (on the Aventine) because we missed it the other day to some movie filming.

Santa Sabina was built in the 4th or 5th Century. The wooden doors to the church are from the original building and have the very first depiction of Jesus' crucifixion. The columns inside the church are from the temple to Juno (possibly the same one we saw under San Nicholas but we're not sure). The church was redecorated in the Baroque era but those decorations have been removed and the church is very plain in comparison to many of the other churches. However, the fresco in the apse gives the church a lot of warmth due to the bright colors. Strangely, we noted that the church does not have any major depictions of the crucifixion other than the door and a very small crucifix that is a modern addition.

After Santa Sabina, we walked to the park around the back to look over Rome one more time. Then we headed back to the Circus Maximus and we took the Metro up towards Piazza di Spagna and met with the council called Churches Together in Rome, which is an ecumenical council of the English speaking clergy in Rome. It was really cool to hear about the ecumenical dialogue going on in Rome. This week is the week of prayer for church unity and so the council hosted an ecumenical service in honor of it. The preacher for the service was the Scottish Presbyterian Pastor of Geneva, Switzerland. He spoke about John Calvin's desire to keep church unity.

After the service and refreshments, we asked the clergy on the council to join us for dinner. What a wonderful experience!? We all enjoyed ourselves and had a great time talking to the clergy. I was sitting between Willie (from the Scottish Presbyterian Church in Rome) and Dave from the American Baptist Church in Rome. It was a great way to end our last day in Rome.

Then I headed over to La Botticella and caught the first half of the Vikings game to finish off the night.