I visited a different church yesterday. I went to one of the churches of my field trip from last April, St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral.
In the summer time, attendance drops a little, so they had everyone sit in the front of the church. Being a visitor who didn’t know what I was doing, I sat in the actual front row. I took a picture before the service started:
The service was nice. It was similar to Lutheran worship. I knew all the hymns. But they had some different “choreography” for the priests, and they used incense. It smelled nice.
I wanted to say hi to the man who led the tour for our field trip, but he wasn’t there. Dang. Still, it was really fun to worship with other kinds of Christians, and fun to be in a different part of town.
Later in the day, I was doing some reorganization of my garage and stumbled across this picture. Look! It’s Beth in Moscow!
That church is just stunning! I wish I could have gone along to see what the service was like. Super cool!
Awww…. it’s little Beth! I went down a little rabbit hole about that cathedral. I think I may have to reserve ‘stunning’ for that one. Wow!
Your post today brings this topic to mind: since his retirement, Thurman and I have enjoyed visiting the variety of Lutheran congregations in our area. No two LCMS churches are identical, it would seem. Some use screens; some, printed bulletins. Some receive an offering during worship (like in the BC days), while others have a common plate somewhere in the sanctuary (another fun game: How Does This Group Accept Our Money?, second only to How Do We Receive Communion Here – move to the center of the railing first? Stand or kneel at the altar? Etc.). Some never went back to common cup communion after CoVid; others make me happier by offering the chalice. It’s been an adventure, and we have thoroughly enjoyed worshiping with different faces most weeks…though this being Smalltimore, there is always at least one face we recognize wherever we are at the time. Sort of like being home while “on the road”…
Carol, I like your observations. I would hope one thing those Lutheran churches have in common is Lutheran preaching. The sermon I heard this Sunday wasn’t Lutheran.
Law and Gospel – the heart and sole of Lutheran preaching. SO important!
Back in the old days, no one posed for pictures. We just stood there and smiled.
circa 1993