My Visit to an Episcopalian Church
This one, to be precise. You can't really tell from that picture, but the church is mostly build around a square shaped garden. I went to the 7 p.m. service last Wednesday. I wasn't sure which door to go in, but it wasn't hard to figure out - it was the one that wasn't locked.
I was a few minutes early, so I went to the sanctuary in looked through the Book of Common Prayer and their hymnal which seemed to have a lot of songs from the 16th and 17th centuries that I didn't know. The pews in the sanctuary faced a kneeling altar and a stage that had a table on it, which held the communion things. A big cross (with a circle window which you can see in the picture in the above link) was on the wall behind the table. The neat thing about the pews was that they had a fold down padded thing in the back that you're supposed to kneel on, thus using the pew in front of you like an altar.
There were about 16 people in the sanctuary, none of which were talking. From my experience with liturgical churches (some of which is detailed here), talking before the service seems to be something you don't do. The Episcopalians proved they are like everyone else by starting the service late.
The service mostly consisted of reading things from the Book of Common Prayer, including: the Ten Commandments, the Apostle's Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and Psalm 89 (a few people were surprisingly bad at reading out loud together). I only got really lost once when I apparently heard the wrong page number for a reading. In addition, there were a few places were people were supposed to say, without prompting, phrases that weren't in the Book of Common Prayer, so that was a bit confusing.
Unsurprisingly, the high point of the service was communion, which I think they called the Eucharist. The priest placed a wafer in the mouth of people kneeling at the altar, and then he served wine from a common cup to the still kneeling people. There wasn't any singing in this service; on Sunday mornings they have both a singing and non-singing service. There wasn't any preaching either, although I think the have some of that on Sundays. Overall, I'd think that such a worship style would get rather monotonous, but I guess a lot of people like it.
Technorati tags: Episcopalian Anglican Church Visit
I was a few minutes early, so I went to the sanctuary in looked through the Book of Common Prayer and their hymnal which seemed to have a lot of songs from the 16th and 17th centuries that I didn't know. The pews in the sanctuary faced a kneeling altar and a stage that had a table on it, which held the communion things. A big cross (with a circle window which you can see in the picture in the above link) was on the wall behind the table. The neat thing about the pews was that they had a fold down padded thing in the back that you're supposed to kneel on, thus using the pew in front of you like an altar.
There were about 16 people in the sanctuary, none of which were talking. From my experience with liturgical churches (some of which is detailed here), talking before the service seems to be something you don't do. The Episcopalians proved they are like everyone else by starting the service late.
The service mostly consisted of reading things from the Book of Common Prayer, including: the Ten Commandments, the Apostle's Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and Psalm 89 (a few people were surprisingly bad at reading out loud together). I only got really lost once when I apparently heard the wrong page number for a reading. In addition, there were a few places were people were supposed to say, without prompting, phrases that weren't in the Book of Common Prayer, so that was a bit confusing.
Unsurprisingly, the high point of the service was communion, which I think they called the Eucharist. The priest placed a wafer in the mouth of people kneeling at the altar, and then he served wine from a common cup to the still kneeling people. There wasn't any singing in this service; on Sunday mornings they have both a singing and non-singing service. There wasn't any preaching either, although I think the have some of that on Sundays. Overall, I'd think that such a worship style would get rather monotonous, but I guess a lot of people like it.
Technorati tags: Episcopalian Anglican Church Visit
posted by Freethinker at 6:40:00 PM
4 Comments:
The Lord be with you.
Peace be unto you.
I remember going to St. Michael's in Longview a couple times. Having the Catholic background, it wasn't too different for me, but the part that amused me the most was how they said "Amen" with a short "a" sound instead of like "a" in "ape." It was like, "ooo, sophisticated...or something..."
Ha! That reminds me, if this isn't too indelicate, of when I was giving birth. The doctor kept talking about 3 "sanameters" dialated--for some reason the word "centimeters" had to be pronounced in that fashion in the birthing context. I asked him later why that was--he had no reason.
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