Saskatoon church throws open doors to celebrate bats and Batman

If you're into Batman, or just bats, a Saskatoon church is where you want to be Friday night.

Christ Church Anglicanon Avenue E and 28th Street is hostingBat Night abat celebration that will feature the natural, as well as the fantastical.

"It's where pop culture meets ecology," says Christ Church Anglicanpastor MarkKleiner.

On the"ecology" side, Saskatoon's own "Batwoman" environmental educatorMelanie Elliott, who rescues bats will be there with her two bats, Elizabat and Batrick.

For pop-culture fans, Jody Cason from Amazing Stories Comics will lead a symposium on Batman, and Saskatoon movie critic Craig Silliphant will give a presentation on the Batman movie franchise.

Even the Caped Crusader will make an appearance.

Kleiner told Saskatoon Morning's Bridget Yard the church is often visited by the winged creatures seeking warmth.

And he's had to call Elliott to remove them.

Kleineris also friends with Cason, so his mind started spinning about how he could bring the two bat worlds together.

"The more we kind of spit-balled this idea, it was like, well, why not have the ecology piece and then have the Batman obsessive piece," he said.

Silliphant will discusswho he thinks are the top five on-screen portrayals ofBatman.

"There's been a lot of people since the 1940s that have worn the cape and cowl," Silliphant said.

"Some of them [were] on the campier side, like Adam West, and some on the serious side, like Christian Bale and we are going to look all those Batmen and see which one is my favourite."

Since lists are made to argue about, it should make for an entertaining talk, he said.

"Not everyone is going to agree with me, and that's sort of the fun part of it."

Even one of Kleiner's colleagues, the VenerableDan Hughes, is getting in on the action.

"I thought Dan was like the rest of us priests he went home and listened to Gregorian chants," Kleiner joked. "It turns out Dan is an obsessed mid-'60s Adam West Batman fan."

Kleiner said Hughes has a framed autographed picture ofWest that he's bringing to the event, along with his bat-phone.

The event begins at 7 p.m. and admission is free, though donations will be accepted.

All proceeds will go to Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation and Christ Church's roof fund.