Going to mass at St. Mary of the Angels

I went for sunset mass at St. Marys because today was my Grandma's birthday dinner. I did hear a lot about it from Adrian and Ivan, and they said that it was a 'wow' church, and in many ways, it was!

However, I was actually very dissapointed.
1. The place was so secular looking. There was no sense of the sacred, nothing to focus on. It really did not look like a church to me but perhaps a christian service hall?
2. except for the central statue of jesus, but without a cross and looking very much like something out of the Singapore Art Museum.
3. Where I was sitting, I was facing the batismal fount, which was placed right in the centre of the church. I had to turn to face the alter and the lectern, which I find strange.
4. The choir was quite.. well, they were singing as if just for the sake of singing..
5. and the choice of songs were bad. Unknown to the congregation, and extremely slow, even the recessional.
6. The cantor delivered the psalm like some solo performance, with no hint of regard for the words at all.
7. the priest gave some strange sermon, based on the gospel of the baptism of the lord, about how God said to Jesus 'you are favoured'. His message was that parents must tell their children they love them, but also that disciplining is not the same as punishment. Basically, his point was that parents must discipline their children! With the way he went about it and all, it was very strange to me indeed!
8. The courtyard outside the church was like a marketplace, selling new year goodies.
9. Oh, and the altar is honestly rather insignificant looking. It's a small, square marble table all by itself in front of the lectern. Somehow, it does not look like it should.

Well, it is a new church after all and this is how I see the 'flaws'
1. Without the religious icons and statues around, perhaps we can then turn to the
'everpresence', the 'everywhereness' of God, and to one another in the congregation more. After all, Church is about everyone of us as much as God.
2. The seating arrangements are perhaps just unfortunate.
3. Priests sometimes just give bad homilies. Sometimes some priests always give bad homilies. Some choirs, conductors, hymn choosers and cantors are just bad too. All this, with God's grace, can improve over time. I hope they do.
4. I think people bring God with them to church, and church is not were God 'resides'. I hope that with time, people will bring with them the sacredness, the true worship to their parish of St. Mary of the Angels.