St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

I'm not even sure where to start with this one. Since Jill and Avery were out of town this weekend for a birthday bash in Dallas, we thought it would be a good chance for me to explore something unique church wise. This time of transition means we don't have church responsibilities right now and what a great opportunity to explore different aspects of Christian faith expressions! I've always been a little curious about the high church side of Christian worship experience. My first dabbling in this came during one of our trips between Kenya and Texas. I (and several other family members, but we were so tired I'm not even sure who they were anymore!) participated, or attended might be more accurate, Evensong at Westminster Cathedral in London. It was VERY HIGH church - with a boys choir, liturgy and such. Honestly, that is the only time I ever remember falling asleep while standing up (and singing to boot)! I said we were tired, remember?! The service was interesting, but my sleep deprivation prevented me from having an honest experience.

My next experience with high church comes from our dear friend Heidi in Kenya. She is from Britain and was raised in the Anglican church, of which Westminster Cathedral is a part. While not very high churchy herself, Heidi and I had many discussions about her Anglican faith and her appreciation of, and dependence on, liturgical worship. What I found so interesting about Heidi's faith is the juxtaposition of her life - she is by far one of the most spiritual persons I have ever known, and that just didn't jive with my view of people who practice liturgical worship. If you are unfamiliar with what liturgical worship is, here is a definition I stole from the internet (http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0097724.html):

Liturgical Worship
In the Christian religion, acts of public worship set out in an authorized liturgy, or pattern of service. Liturgies are often very formal, elaborate, and colourful, and include many rituals. The same prayers will be said on each occasion, although there may be time set aside for free or private prayer. Worshippers become familiar with the services and learn to recite long prayers. Some of the prayers are very old, and Christians feel that by repeating them they are continuing a long and devout tradition.
The Acts of the Apostles describes how the very first Christians worshipped, devoting themselves to the apostles' teachings, prayer, fellowship, and the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42).
Liturgical worship is used in Christian denominations that have a high regard for the sacraments, such as the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox churches. Worship regarded as ‘sacramental’ uses outward signs, actions, and symbols to express deep religious feelings and belief – a sacrament is an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace. The sacrament of the Eucharist, the most important act of worship for Christians, has been celebrated with the same liturgy since the time of the Early Church.

The Anglican church uses the Book of Common Prayer as guidance for its worship services. You can look here for a PDF copy: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/ . The BCP was written in the 1500's and has served as the main guide for Anglican worship services since then. All Anglican (which are Episcopal churches in America) use this book for their service every Sunday. It is calendar based, so the service is different and progresses through the calendar year accordingly. The neat thing about this is that Christians around the world are reading the same Scriptures and praying the same prayers you are on a given Sunday. It provides a very deep sense of connectedness to world Christians, or so Heidi assures me. I asked Heidi if it didn't seem impersonal or distant to pray written prayers all the time - prayers that were someone else's and not your own. Her reply astounded me. She said that the prayers become your own in time and there is something to be said about being led on a spiritual prayer journey throughout the calendar year. She assured me the guidance of liturgy meant you stayed rooted in faith and that your feelings didn't control your allegiance to God. She said often that she doesn't feel like praying, or doesn't have the words to express herself to God on the dark days of disbelief or complacency. Having written prayers, she said, gives her words to pray when she didn't feel like talking to God. It kept her connected to him, inspite of her feelings. She also related how it kept her spiritually healthy to move through a progression of seasons - to have a well rounded faith that moved her from one spot to another. I often thought liturgy would keep one stuck in a rut, but her view is quite the opposite. The progression through the year keeps faith and prayer new and yet connected to the whole of Christendom, or at least Anglican Christendom. Very intriguing stuff and VERY different from my history of praying whatever felt good or approriate at the time - usually with long times of little prayer in between.

All that to lead into my church experience today at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. I arrived about 10 minutes early and sat in the truck nerving myself up to go in. I was very nervous - nervous that it would be weird, nervous that I wouldn't know what to do, nervous that there wouldn't be many people there since this was the 8:00 service. I went in what appeared to be the front door and was greeted by a friendly man with a smile. He handed me the program for today and welcomed me to the service. I stopped briefly in the Nave (what I would call a foyer) and looked through the brochures there - selecting a couple to review later. It was very quiet in the worship area. I'm not sure what they called it, but it had a center aisle and about 20 pews on either side. People were scattered about and I choose a seat toward the back so I could observe what others were doing and not be too obviously out of place. There was a rail around the front podium and a table decorated with bright green cloths on the podium. There were two lecterns and lots of imagery all on the walls - wooden cross hanging from the ceiling, other icons carved in wood at the front, calligraphy Scriptures and passages framed on the side walls. The room was white with mostly natural lighting from some small windows along the top of the walls. There were large exposed beams on the ceiling and it sort of had a "mission" type look and feel.

A big bell had rung as I entered the church and I read in the program that this was a signal to cease conversation and turn off your cell phone. We all waited quietly for the service to start and when the bell rang again, the 4 "worship leaders" entered the room from a door on the podium. We all stood up as they entered and got situated on the podium and sat down after the Reverend Margaret S. Austin, Rector greeted us. The early service is without music, which is one reason I chose it. There were two parts to the service. Part 1 is called "The Word of God." It consisted of several recitations from the BCP and several readings from Scripture - the "Old Testament Lesson" from Amos 8, the "Gradual" from Psalm 138 (which we participated in by congregationally reading every other verse), the "Epistle" from 1 Timothy 2:1-8, and the "Gospel" from Luke 16:1-13, which was to be the topic of the Sermon thereafter the reading. The Rector did a good job of applying a very difficult parable of Jesus and her sermon lasted about 10, maybe 15 minutes. After the sermon we recited the Nicene Creed together and "Prayers of the People IV" from the BCP. This was a series of directed prayers led by one of the ladies on the podium - I don't know her title - in which we offered responses per the BCP. We then read a "Confession of Sin" together from the BCP and then "The Peace" was offered. At this point, everyone started greeting each other and saying "Peace Be with You" or "God's Peace go with you". Several people around me offered me the greeting and then introduced themselves.

After this, the Rector gave a long list of announcements and updates on the goings-on of the church. When she was done with this, we began the second part of the service, "The Holy Communion." I had been nervous about this ever since reading this script in the program:

"All baptized persons are welcome at our Lord's table.

Please receive the bread in open, outstretched hands, then take the chalice firmly and guide it to your lips.

To receive by intinction, leave the bread in your outstretched hand and the calice bearer will dip it in the wine for you.

To receive a blessing instead of the bread and wine, please cross you arms on your chest when you come to the rail."

I determined that this would be a very special communion experience and decided to just do what everyone else around me did. The Rector gave a blessing and reading from the BCP, prayed for the bread and cup and then broke the single loaf at the table. At that time, we all filed to the front and kneeled at the rail to receive communion. One of the attendants come along the rail and pinched off a piece of the freshly baked wheat bread and placed it in our outstretched, cupped hands while telling us something to the effect of "the body of Christ, broken for you" - I wasn't really listening, but trying to make sure my body performed correctly. I should have really concentrated on what was happening and absorbed the moment, but social pressure is often strong and I didn't want to offend anyone by messing up. Next came the chalice, and a chalice it was - not a cup. It was silver and ornate. After drinking from it, the bearer wiped it clean with a white linen cloth and then gave it to the next person. The taste of sour wine instantly transported me to Africa where we often used Catholic altar wine for communion for lack of grape juice. It was the same stuff and tasted just as bad mixed with clean Lubbock water as it did mixed with dirty African water. It was, however, a very sensory experience and was profoundly moving in its own way.

After communion, they had the "Beyond the Altar Commissioning" in which a man came to the front and received a wooden box. I'm assuming there was communion inside to be taken to folks who weren't able to attend, but I'm not really sure about that. There was a blessing, a doxology and we were dismissed to pass down the center aisle and be received by the Rector. Since I was in the back, and didn't immediately jump in line, almost every single person in the church introduced themselves to me. They were genuinely happy to meet me and this was by far the friendliest church I've visited - not exactly what I expected. I talked to the Rector for a while and was given a mug and encouraged to return. She was interested in my family situation and assured me that there were lots of young families like ours who attend the 10:30 service, and that the church is very oriented to families like ours. I was very impressed by their friendliness and genuineness and it made me want to come back, even though the worship service was very liturgical and different from anything else I've ever done.

I left the church feeling very surreal. I didn't expect the service to have any sort of spiritual effect on me at all - but it did, a quite profound one that I can't say I've experienced after any of the community type church experiences we've had lately. Even though the service was rote, like a small town church of Christ service on steriods, it was very humbling to think that Christians all around the world are participating in the same service I did - praying the same prayers, reading the same Scripture, studying the same passage. And not only that, but to think that Christians have been having that same service on the 4th Sunday of September since the 1500's is quite humbling and awe-inspiring. What an odd juxtaposition of feelings - the service was very mechanical and distant from God feeling while we did it, and yet I came away feeling like I'd just communed with God in a very significant way. I'm going to have to think about this one for a while.

Well - that's probably more than you wanted to know about this Sunday. It was a very unique experience and one that I would advise anyone from an evangelical Christian background to participate in. I can't say that this worship style would meet our needs long term, but the church sure seems to be vibrant and have a lot on the ball ministry wise. Stay tuned for next week's edition of the Church Search!