Category: church visits

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Church #35, Unionville Reformed Church

Date: 6/30/13

Church name/type: Unionville Reformed Church (sign out from reads: Union Dutch Reformed Church), RCA

Pastor: Tom Kendall

Style of worship: Short structured service common to reformed churches- did not seem particularly uptight regarding formalities eg: prayer time was open to congregational intentions

Overall Impression: Good and friendly

Thoughts:
Well, another week, another Reformed Church. As a whole, I’m still very much liking the denomination. This group had a very easy friendliness going on. I felt welcomed as a matter of course. People seemed genuinely happy to be there and happy that I was there.

I thought the message was remarkably cohesive, especially given what I found out later – the pastor is near 90. Because it was so near to the Fourth of July there was some amount of crossover with the sermon. The pastor cited several times how lucky we are. He mentioned all the good things we have access to and the fact that we worship whatever way we like and no one bothers us. He said we thank God that wars are past and we have come through ok on the other side. In this vein he referenced December 7th- I checked that date and it was clear he was referring to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It’s really a much different feel to hear about us victorious in war when it comes from someone of an older set. It removes from now; separates. And WWII has many more implications as compared to our most recent wars. To hear an older person talk about winning a war doesn’t have the same intimidation as the same words coming from a young person who you feel could still actually get up and go fight.

There was alot in the message about ourselves having a covenant with God. Every day, pastor said, we remake this covenant with God. Every day we say yes. That’s a good way to look at commitment. You cannot say ok once and expect matters to see to themselves. You have to remind yourself what you meant to do and them do it. It’s the same way for weight loss, relationships, keeping a secret, or whatever you commit to doing.

I suppose that with a message about committing to God, there is automatically going to be a message about the opposite. There was a quick reference to atheism being on the rise, but no follow up. I’d guess that this was supposed to be taken as an automatic negative. I kind of wanted to engage in some conversation afterwards about this, but wound up mostly describing the blog to someone who doesn’t use the Internet. It does bug me that there are Christians who seem to think atheists are a bunch of bitter, selfish jerks. That’s not my experience. I am however willing to partly forgive the atheists=negative sentiment, because of what it was followed by. The pastor said, “One wonders how so many called Christians use God’s name so indiscriminately.” This is a bit better. Christians aren’t getting automatically lumped into the ‘good’ category based on name alone. We can’t just assume God loves us best and all we do us golden. Citing God’s name doesn’t make us right. We actually have to follow the things Jesus said. Take care of your neighbor. Help the poor and hurting. I can hear all of this in the pastor’s statement. And maybe I’m projecting a bit, but hey, that’s how it speaks to me. I guess I’m starting to see sermons as one might see a more abstract piece of art or film. I’m drawn to the idea that spoken words are no longer yours after you speak them. They are the property of the listener. You can explain what you meant, but the listener hears what they hear. I liked the places this sermon took me because of the way it made me think and what I heard in it.

Go to church, get a plant!: A woman was giving away free baby tomato plants. I took only one (although I was told to take more if I liked) because plants sometimes die in my care. I got home and planted it in a bare spot, where it was promptly destroyed by a chipmunk who likes digging in lightly packed soil. Oh well.

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Church #34, True Witness Apostolic Faith Church

Date: 6/23/13

Church name/type: True Witness Apostolic Faith Church, belongs to a denomination called TCAF (True Church Apostolic Faith), a group with Pentecostal origins

Pastor: Evangelist Euthia Benson

Style of worship:Umm…shouty. Very shouty. Loose format otherwise.

Overall Impression:Wow, this church defies description. I’ll try anyway!

Thoughts:
So, where to start? They don’t keep careful track of time at this place. When I arrived at the advertised time of 2:45pm something was already happening. In fact I believe I caught the end if their afternoon bible study spilling into the actual service. Advertised ending time was supposed to be 4pm, but I was there until 5:30. The church building was the same one used by the ELCA church I attended some months ago, which is why they hold service in the afternoon. There were exactly seven people there including the pastor. All of them were black. I think this was related to the preaching/worship style, which is a type I had never experienced before in person.

Since the preaching was almost the whole show here, I’ll try to describe it. I get the feeling that biblical memorization has a huge presence with this church and perhaps denomination as well. The way the speaker was rattling off lines and passages from the bible made it clear she knew it all pretty well. The style of preaching was very unusual to my experience. For one thing, much of it was simply reiteration of parts of the biblical narrative. We heard about God’s creation of Adam and his disobedient nature, all the way up to Abraham and the near-sacrifice of Isaac. Then in terms of New Testament we got a synopsis of Jesus, Mary’s divine conception and her interacting with her cousin Elizabeth, up through Jesus as an adult. We heard how he was baptized followed by the dove/spirit falling on him, and his subsequent temptation by Satan. All this is pretty standard knowledge. The weirdest part, however was the volume and tone of delivery. The church leader started off talking and then slowly began to raise her voice as if in great excitement. Actually now I think about it, it was more like she thought she was being pushed backwards away from us and had to keep getting louder so we could hear her. I called it ‘shouting’ but the term ‘hollering’ might be more appropriate. It was nearly melodic at times, like a loud chant. And she rose to such a fevered pitch at one point I actually feared her ability to go on. Seriously, I wrote in my notes ‘Is this woman about to hyperventilate?’ She was panting hard and I really wanted to just get her a glass of water and tell her to take a break already. I honestly have never seen anything quite like it among all the churches I’ve ever been to ever. This woman preached for a whole hour, maintaining high volume for at least 30 minutes of that. Frankly, I am astonished that she manages this once a week every week.

There were several interesting bits I scribbled down which my phone has now lost. From memory: 1) Our speaker mentioned it never rained at all on earth until God brought the flood rains down on Noah. 2) Heavy emphasis on our ‘burial’ during baptism and how the Adam nature stays buried so we can rise up again in Christ leaving it behind 3) I’ve been reading about the evolution of Christology in the first couple centuries and how they reconciled Jesus as both God and man, and so found this bit particularly interesting -she said Christ was born a man and upon the descent of that dovelike spirit was filled with God. 4) I asked the preacher about who lied to Eve. Remember how I maintain the God lied when he said Adam and Eve would die upon eating the forbidden fruit? I was told their death was a metaphorical one in which they lost access to God. Convenient that.

During the break between the bible lesson the the actual service I talked with the Pastor. The most annoying thing about this conversation was the lack of normal English; I’m talking about heavy Christianese. When she first came up to me she said something about whether I knew about the rebirth in water and the spirit. I said, “Um, you mean being a Christian??” Seriously, if you suspect someone doesn’t know about Jesus, what a weird way to ask if they’ve heard. Trying to be polite, I just let her mostly ramble. She got talking about familiar spirits and the Ten Commandments and whatever. I still don’t really know if she had a point for me. I did get another interesting bit out of her though. I mentioned the small number of congregants and asked if it was usual. She replied that it was the normal amount and that this was because many will be called but very few will stay. I guess this is like a vague reference to a chosen few who make it into God’s kingdom in the end? If that’s what she meant, she was saying the church is supposed to be small and that’s how they know they are getting it right. I didn’t stay very long after the service because it was already so late. One woman asked me if I might come back again. Not wanting to lie, I said, “Probably not.” She seemed concerned about this, but I didn’t change my answer. This stuff is really not my style, and the project beckons.

Website?: None that I can find. And it’s ridiculous trying to search the web for good information on TCAF as a denomination. Pentecostal groups in general seem to be extremely fractured and reunited, making their twists and turns hard to follow. This church needs to move into the future already. All I can find is one other church using the acronym. They refer to a wider group called PCAF (Pentecostal Church Apostolic Faith). The PCAF website is rather more informative, and mentions in their history the church springing from a group called PAW (Pentecostal Assemblies of the World). So at least I now know the basic evolution of the denomination. PAW -> PCAF -> TCAF

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Church #33, Cathedral of All Saints

Date: 6/16/13

Church name/type:
Cathedral of All Saints, Episcopal Church USA

Pastor:The person preaching referred to himself as Dean. This appears to be his title, his full name being David Collum.

Style of worship:formal and structured with informal bits for the kids and during announcements

Overall Impression:Seems good

Thoughts:
As with the other cathedral in Albany, the building steals the show a bit. In fact it looks much bigger once you are inside it. I think it’s probably an optical illusion due to the other relatively tall buildings around. I think I like the Cathedral of All Saints better than Immaculate Conception actually. It has almost a more ancient flavor, like Disney animated Notre Dame. It appears to be all stone (minus chairs and wall hangings) inside, in lots of arches with carved flourishes at the ceiling. There are also a couple of large metal gates separating parts of the cathedral. The altar is behind such a gate, but really nothing was done at that altar. The gospel was actually read at the center of the church. And there were some touches that made it feel like an older style service; formalities like genuflecting, swinging incense, and even some chanting. One of the few negatives was the Lord’s Prayer as a chant- it’s difficult for a first timer to follow along.

I liked the sermon. It felt very well-thought out and balanced. Dean started off by saying, “Today I will preach on sin.” Then he said that sin was not a favorite topic of his because it can easily sound like “me judging you”. The readings we got were: 1) King David and the Ducky Bathsheba 2) The sinning woman who washes Jesus’ feet. In both we have a story within a story illustrating a point. Since I’ve talked before about David, I’ll review the second story.

Jesus is at the house of a Pharisee eating. A woman who is a sinner hears about the dinner date and shows up to see Jesus. She walks right in and proceeds to wash His feet with her tears and then rubs them with expensive oil. The Pharisee must have been giving her a weird look- maybe because of her ‘sinning’ background, maybe because she waltzed right in without saying anything. Jesus answers his look with a story. Jesus describes several men with debts. One has a very large debt and one has a very little debt. Their loan shark decides to wipe the slate clean and forgive both debts. Which man will be happier? Clearly the man who had the biggest debt. The Pharisee thinks so too. Jesus goes on to say that the woman washing and anointing his feet does so out of love for him. Then he forgives her sins. The idea here is, if she has sinned so much, clearly she has the most to be grateful for and the Pharisee should cut her a little slack. Especially since he himself was remiss as a host in not washing Jesus’ feet.

The culmination of the sermon was an entreaty to us that we reflect on our own sin. We were cautioned not to simply decide for ourselves what sin is, but to consult God, the bible, and the Holy Spirit. I like how this adds an element of accountability, while still being self directed. I don’t think most people decide in a vacuum what is right or wrong. We do take advice and read scripture thoughtfully. And we listen to our hearts, where God is, as well as the experiences of others who guide us. One of the reasons I come to church is to be reminded of the things I need to work on. My anger, my negativity, and hurtful word choices are all things I can explain away as a bad mood or a cranky day. But that’s partly a cop-out. God wants me to do better and I have to keep remembering this. Another important bit from the sermon was the speed of forgiveness. Forgiveness is immediate. You ask and God forgives. He expects you to do better in the future, but leave past sins in the past. In other words, we don’t have to make ourselves suffer to be holy again. It is enough to seek forgiveness. There isn’t a need for drawn out suffering. That message is a good one I think.

After the service there were snacks at one end of the church. The kids had balloons because of the final day of Sunday school and a few of those balloons wound up in the rafters, but nobody cried about it. I was greeted by a couple members and the Dean, but he moved quickly to a new family that was visiting. I can’t really judge this one harshly, because it was probably simply a matter of order: I was first, he greeted me and moved on so as not to miss them. I chatted briefly with one of the helpers at the service- a deacon I think. We didn’t talk long; I suppose it’s possible she didn’t know what to say to me. I dressed in a tee shirt and shorts again. I probably looked like a kid.

Perhaps there’s another aspect going on here too. The church website describes a very laid back attitude towards newcomers. The tag line is “come and see”. It seems like a low-key approach is highly encouraged, perhaps even to the point of advising greeters to let visitors just absorb what they see. This can be a really great approach, especially if a church congregation is reserved. Reading the church website statement makes this even more clear. Folks wanting to visit are encouraged to do so, and (if they like) stay a few Sundays as they determine if it’s a place they can belong. The entire statement is written in a positive, realistic manner. Many churches do claim to be the ‘right’ one, but that’s something that should be up to the church goer.

Vocab examination: I’ve been pondering how I feel about the term ‘visitor’. I think there’s some subtle problems with the word when used for newcomers to a church. ‘Visitor’ implies someone who is leaving after a time. It carries a sense of otherness with it. One cannot belong if one is simply a visitor. I suggest instead using the term ‘guest’. A guest is someone special. A guest gets clean sheets and fresh flowers and the flatware sings and dances for them. (I really have Disney on the brain today.) A guest is just a couple afternoons away from becoming a friend. A visitor is someone who is always getting ready to leave. Is this distinction a major deal breaker? No. Is terminology something a church should be thinking about? Yes, absolutely. Every piece of information a newcomer gets contributes to his or her first impression of a place. What a church calls its first-time non-members should at least be part of the thought process.

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Church #33, Cathedral of All Saints

Date: 6/16/13

Church name/type:
Cathedral of All Saints, Episcopal Church USA

Pastor:The person preaching referred to himself as Dean. This appears to be his title, his full name being David Collum.

Style of worship:formal and structured with informal bits for the kids and during announcements

Overall Impression:Seems good

Thoughts:
As with the other cathedral in Albany, the building steals the show a bit. In fact it looks much bigger once you are inside it. I think it’s probably an optical illusion due to the other relatively tall buildings around. I think I like the Cathedral of All Saints better than Immaculate Conception actually. It has almost a more ancient flavor, like Disney animated Notre Dame. It appears to be all stone (minus chairs and wall hangings) inside, in lots of arches with carved flourishes at the ceiling. There are also a couple of large metal gates separating parts of the cathedral. The altar is behind such a gate, but really nothing was done at that altar. The gospel was actually read at the center of the church. And there were some touches that made it feel like an older style service; formalities like genuflecting, swinging incense, and even some chanting. One of the few negatives was the Lord’s Prayer as a chant- it’s difficult for a first timer to follow along.

I liked the sermon. It felt very well-thought out and balanced. Dean started off by saying, “Today I will preach on sin.” Then he said that sin was not a favorite topic of his because it can easily sound like “me judging you”. The readings we got were: 1) King David and the Ducky Bathsheba 2) The sinning woman who washes Jesus’ feet. In both we have a story within a story illustrating a point. Since I’ve talked before about David, I’ll review the second story.

Jesus is at the house of a Pharisee eating. A woman who is a sinner hears about the dinner date and shows up to see Jesus. She walks right in and proceeds to wash His feet with her tears and then rubs them with expensive oil. The Pharisee must have been giving her a weird look- maybe because of her ‘sinning’ background, maybe because she waltzed right in without saying anything. Jesus answers his look with a story. Jesus describes several men with debts. One has a very large debt and one has a very little debt. Their loan shark decides to wipe the slate clean and forgive both debts. Which man will be happier? Clearly the man who had the biggest debt. The Pharisee thinks so too. Jesus goes on to say that the woman washing and anointing his feet does so out of love for him. Then he forgives her sins. The idea here is, if she has sinned so much, clearly she has the most to be grateful for and the Pharisee should cut her a little slack. Especially since he himself was remiss as a host in not washing Jesus’ feet.

The culmination of the sermon was an entreaty to us that we reflect on our own sin. We were cautioned not to simply decide for ourselves what sin is, but to consult God, the bible, and the Holy Spirit. I like how this adds an element of accountability, while still being self directed. I don’t think most people decide in a vacuum what is right or wrong. We do take advice and read scripture thoughtfully. And we listen to our hearts, where God is, as well as the experiences of others who guide us. One of the reasons I come to church is to be reminded of the things I need to work on. My anger, my negativity, and hurtful word choices are all things I can explain away as a bad mood or a cranky day. But that’s partly a cop-out. God wants me to do better and I have to keep remembering this. Another important bit from the sermon was the speed of forgiveness. Forgiveness is immediate. You ask and God forgives. He expects you to do better in the future, but leave past sins in the past. In other words, we don’t have to make ourselves suffer to be holy again. It is enough to seek forgiveness. There isn’t a need for drawn out suffering. That message is a good one I think.

After the service there were snacks at one end of the church. The kids had balloons because of the final day of Sunday school and a few of those balloons wound up in the rafters, but nobody cried about it. I was greeted by a couple members and the Dean, but he moved quickly to a new family that was visiting. I can’t really judge this one harshly, because it was probably simply a matter of order: I was first, he greeted me and moved on so as not to miss them. I chatted briefly with one of the helpers at the service- a deacon I think. We didn’t talk long; I suppose it’s possible she didn’t know what to say to me. I dressed in a tee shirt and shorts again. I probably looked like a kid.

Perhaps there’s another aspect going on here too. The church website describes a very laid back attitude towards newcomers. The tag line is “come and see”. It seems like a low-key approach is highly encouraged, perhaps even to the point of advising greeters to let visitors just absorb what they see. This can be a really great approach, especially if a church congregation is reserved. Reading the church website statement makes this even more clear. Folks wanting to visit are encouraged to do so, and (if they like) stay a few Sundays as they determine if it’s a place they can belong. The entire statement is written in a positive, realistic manner. Many churches do claim to be the ‘right’ one, but that’s something that should be up to the church goer.

Vocab examination: I’ve been pondering how I feel about the term ‘visitor’. I think there’s some subtle problems with the word when used for newcomers to a church. ‘Visitor’ implies someone who is leaving after a time. It carries a sense of otherness with it. One cannot belong if one is simply a visitor. I suggest instead using the term ‘guest’. A guest is someone special. A guest gets clean sheets and fresh flowers and the flatware sings and dances for them. (I really have Disney on the brain today.) A guest is just a couple afternoons away from becoming a friend. A visitor is someone who is always getting ready to leave. Is this distinction a major deal breaker? No. Is terminology something a church should be thinking about? Yes, absolutely. Every piece of information a newcomer gets contributes to his or her first impression of a place. What a church calls its first-time non-members should at least be part of the thought process.

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Church #32, St Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Albany

Date: 6/2/13

Church name/type: St Andrew’s Episcopal, Episcopal Church USA

Pastor:Reverend Mary White

Style of worship: tight format reminiscent of Catholic masses I’ve experienced, with moderate traveling during the passing of the peace

Overall Impression: Nice!

Thoughts:
This is another church I have actually experienced before; I’m sure I visited at least once during my college days. I can’t remember what reason I never made it ‘my’ church- it could have been that I was simply looking for a better fit or that I was still holding onto the notion of a permanent Catholic Church for me. In any case, this visit showed me almost no negatives and much to like.

Inside the church looks rather Cathedral-y, with prominent stone arches and stained glass windows. The windows are actually low enough to be touched and (more importantly) this enables one to wander the church and read the names of the saints depicted. Stylistically old though it is, the church appears to be in good shape. I was on-call this past weekend, so I took a seat near the far back, in case work called me. Speakers and pastor were mic’d so the sound was good even in the back. Age wise, the church seems reasonably mixed. Ethnically there was not a huge amount of diversity. Both these factors of course change when people are missing, and this was the best and sunniest Sunday of the year so far.

The service was easy to follow, with all the parts written in a large bulletin. My only complain was the size. It was a tad difficult leafing through pages and setting them down when directed to either the hymn book or prayer book, then picking them back up again afterwards. Since most of the worship was already printed in the bulletin, seems like all of it could be. The sermon had some interesting bits. We heard from the pastor about those in the Old Testament worshipping a false god called Baal. This term apparently stood for not just one god, but several. It also could mean an official for that god. The other two readings were also about rejecting false teachings. Pastor Mary tied them all together related to our life today by asking us to remember the false gospels we face today. One example was the gospel of prosperity. The gospel of prosperity is basically the notion that the rich have been blessed by god and therefore deserve their wealth. This implies a second idea; that the poor are abandoned by god as undeserving. Dan and I actually talk about this one often. It annoys us that so many Christians take this bizarre view. To us it seems silly to imagine wealth as directly proportional to goodness/closeness to god. Pastor Mary called this idea a distraction.

She named two other distractive gospels: the gospel of works leading to salvation and the gospel of worshipping Jesus over his message. Works leading to salvation is a longer point I want to make in a later post. In any case it’s a pretty standard point for Protestants to stress, often seen as a counter to misunderstood/misused Catholic teaching. The gospel of worshipping Jesus was an interesting one to cite I think. This is another thing Dan and I (and several friends) have talked about before. Jesus as the central figure seems fine, until you make it so that his teachings are ignored and his person venerated. That’s throwing out much of the New Testament. In the New Testament we get messages to believe in Jesus, yes. But we also get messages of healing others, of helping the poor, of condemning the rich, of sharing what we have, and on and on. Those that forget these bits and focus solely on belief in Jesus are rather like someone claiming to adore Lincoln and being pro-slavery and pro-confederacy. It just doesn’t work. Pastor Mary described what Jesus taught as ‘immanent changes’; ‘the kingdom of heaven’ on the way. There would be many good things and people would be healed and happy. We see that Jesus does some work towards this. By extension she told us we are to go out and make this a reality. To me that sounds just about exactly right.

After worship:
I hung around as usual and had snacks with members of the congregation. I engaged several in conversation and mentioned my project to most of those. Everyone was really interested and I talked a bit about what I’ve seen so far and what I’m looking for. And they talked too, like they are really invested in church matters and wanting to think about such things, rather than simply having them on rote memory. I think the people at this church made the fewest assumptions about me of any church so far. You know, usually there’s questions about college or mention of single girls for me to befriend should I return. And actually after I mentioned my project and was clear that I traveled around, no one bugged me to just stay here. That was really nice. It seems to be the rule that churches want you to ‘join up’ and that can feel very like new pressure. Every. Single. Sunday…

And one more thing:
The church was described as ‘liberal’ and ‘open to all’ by two different people I spoke with. I couldn’t be exactly sure what this meant, but I have a pretty good idea. It sounds like veiled invitation to talk about LGBTQ or at least LG. I wasn’t sure exactly how to ask without being awkward. I’ve mentioned before that I grew up believing homosexuality was wrong and have since changed my views. Still it’s difficult to talk about a thing when you used to use it as a synonym for ‘bad’. So I did not ask. In the literature I took home, however, was another clue. Announcements in the bulletin included one for an Interfaith Pride Service sponsored by AWC. The announcement goes on to state that AWC (Advocates for Welcoming Congregations) encourages the full participation of LGBT persons. This event would not be advocated if the church had a problem with LGBT. Moreover the church’s website states that this church welcomes all religious seekers, then includes a list to make it clear gender identity and sexuality are among traits this church has no restrictions over. Which is pretty sweet.

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Church #31, New Hope Ministries, South Campus

Date: 5/26/13

Church name/type: New Hope Ministries South Campus- based on something the pastor said during the sermon, I believe this church is either Pentecostal or following a Pentecostal tradition.
9/22/13 Update: This church is a part of a Pentecostal denomination called The Assemblies of God.

Pastor:
Tag team of pastor/elders includes:
Keith Davey
Joel Schaperjahn
Randy Hall
Doreen Harding
Christopher Brantigan

Style of worship: Jam band style worship followed by sermon

Overall Impression: Mixed

Thoughts:
I’ve had a long break from the new places, and surprisingly this doesn’t get much easier. I was nervous. The church is small; several rooms together including worship space and childcare but apparently little or nothing more. As a ‘south campus’ it’s clearly part of another church which may be bigger. Walking inside I was greeted cheerfully by several youngish people. The entire demographic was rather on the young side. I tend to like that, as it gives exuberance and life to a place. I also noticed that I’m suddenly part of a Caucasian minority inside a church full of Latinos and African Americans. It was kind of nice to see such variety. It’s not like anyone there made me feel out of place. I had a couple of the leaders wander over to greet me, having seen that I was new. They welcomed me and asked a question or two then left me alone. If you follow my blog then you know I’m a big fan of an appropriately short welcome. I like to be noticed, talked to briefly, then let alone. This way I know the church pays attention to its members and recognizes newcomers, but doesn’t become clingy and desperate after meeting you. So the welcome was right on target.

I don’t normally comment about the jam style music anymore because it’s so similar from place to place. In this case I liked what the keyboardist was doing. He had the keyboard set to a very convincing synthetic ‘string section’ and was using it to fill out the sound a bit. Other than this, it was your standard praise session. There were lots of claps and shouts, but no speaking in tongues that I detected. I’ve never been entirely comfortable with all that shoutiness, but I know it works for some people, so I guess that’s good.

After singing and praying for a while, we got to the sermon. It was also somewhat shouty. It was an examination of Genesis 20. Abraham and Sarah meet a king named Abimelech. Abraham claims he and Sarah are just siblings and as a result Abimelech decides to marry Sarah. Before he can consummate the marriage, God shows up in his dreams and tells him to back off. Abimelech says, ‘But God, I didn’t know she was married.’ And God says, ‘Yeah, I know. You still have integrity in your heart. But didn’t you wonder why you hesitated having intimate relations with her? I stopped you. Now go hand her back to Abraham.’ And he does.

So the pastor had several takes on various parts of this story. Integrity was a major theme. It was often equated with honesty. Integrity is important but hard to keep. You have to get everything right and build up a great reputation. There was also a focus on taking responsibility for sins we didn’t intend. Some of the laws in Leviticus also support this. Actually the idea of unintended sins or mistakes was one I touched on a while back in my post on repentance. I think it’s hard to admit mistakes, and perhaps more so if we are aware that we only meant for good. But we still should try to fix things when they are bad. Dunno what Abraham’s deal is in this story- lying and whatnot. Or God’s deal. He didn’t just use his supernatural powers to protect Sarah. For some reason he also made all Abimelech’s household barren for the duration of the sham marriage. Seems a bit jerk-like.

Early in the sermon before the stuff from Genesis, something else strange happened. The pastor spoke about God being ill-pleased with our worship. Something about exalting God with only half a heart was the problem. This criticism confused me. We weren’t exalting hard enough? To reiterate the importance of exalting, the pastor gave us instructions on when to exalt God. (Hint: it’s all the time) Exalt God when we are sad. Exalt God when we are lonely and heavy. Exalt God when we aren’t sure he even exists…ok so this one seemed odd to me, more and more as I thought about it yesterday. On one level it sounds stupid to exalt someone who might not be there. But what else does this instruction imply? Was it how the pastor himself was feeling on Sunday? And is it sanctioned as allowable for church members to feel this way? I would think yes, if its worked into a sermon. This church is saying it’s ok if you aren’t sure. It’s ok to have less than 100% certainty God is out there. It may even be the case that salvation is extended to those who don’t know if they can believe. Because who can believe this stuff all the time? Some of it is pretty wild after all.

The last thing I noticed was a lack of after-service fellowship time. They seem to have weekly activities which perhaps take the place of this custom, however, I still feel it’s lack whenever I find it missing. I might have stayed longer to chat if there had been food, somewhere to stand, something to do with my hands, something to compliment, etc.

What are you doing for the community?: Several things actually. They are trying to set up a men’s home- presumably for men who might otherwise be homeless. There is a women’s program providing emotional support and skills training. They also have teen and kid programs that include activities and food. It sounds like they try to involve themselves where the need is.

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Eastern Easter!

May 5th (2013) is Easter (Pascha) according to the calendar used by Eastern Orthodox Churches. May 4th into the 5th was the Easter celebration St George Antiochian Orthodox Church. And I was there. As with my other experiences, the start time was only kinda important. A few people even showed up two hours in; total time was three hours if you can believe that.

At first it was just one guy chanting, the same way Orthodox worship usually begins. Several of the references escaped me but I caught the name Habakkuk, reference to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and Jonah. I guess maybe this was following a central theme of righteous Old Testament folks? Or it could have been explanation of the prophecy and precursors leading up to Jesus- like how this prophet said he would come and that person was saved from death in a similar way. Christian traditions are really reflexive sometimes, making comparisons from one biblical personage to another. I often hear Jesus referred to as a second and almost opposite Adam. Adam arrived and brought sin into the world. Jesus arrived and took it away.

Anyways, back to Pascha. The church was darkened by the extinguishing of the lit candles and all the small glowy electric lights embedded in the icons up front. Then we waited in the dark. It was exciting and I tried to guess what this darkness might be referencing. Was this how the apostles felt after Jesus died? Left in total darkness alone? We don’t know what’s going to happen next, just as the disciples didn’t know. The story of Jesus’ discovery by the women at the tomb happened in the early morning. It probably was still dark then. And there’s also the literal darkness that swept over the land at the moment of Jesus’ death. Dark often represents uncertainty and the unknown. Nobody had a clue that Jesus was anything but plain old dead. Until he came back.

At last something happened; the priest invited us all to take candles and get light from the one large candle he brought forth from the enclosed area around the altar. Remember what I said about the high formality, low uptightness? Well, the candles weren’t out and someone had to go get them. No big deal. I love the comfort level at this place. Almost like they’re saying yeah it’s church but it’s just church. It’s important and all, but you’re allowed to calm down if there’s a snag.

So we went on, candles lit, and walked in a procession right out the front door. We made a little circle walking around the area in front of the church. When the wind wasn’t blowing our candles out it was very pretty. At the door of the church we stopped. There was song and lines to recite and repeat. Finally there was this exchange in which the priest pounded on the church door asking to be let in repeatedly. Someone who stayed inside asked repeatedly who was at the door so that the priest had to name Jesus The Lord and we could all go inside.

Once inside the lights were all on and we ditched the candles in a box. There was more chanting, reciting and singing. This one song in particular we sing over and over again. I wouldn’t be surprised if we sang it a hundred times. I’m not joking, we sang it alot.

Christ is risen from the dead! Trampling down death by death, And on those in the tombs bestowww-iiing life.

Also repeated each time in Arabic which I was actually pretty good at by the end. We sang and prayed and repeated. We said the Lord’s Prayer quite a few times and in several languages. A church I used to attend often said it in Urdu and I do like hearing it in other languages. We also frequently did a prayer I would have called the Glory Be in my Catholic days. Not sure what they call it here. Eventually it was clear they were setting up to share communion. I know I’m not on the list to receive it so I was going to remain in my seat. Then someone who’d greeted me at the start of the night told me I’d be ok coming forward to get a blessing, which I did. This same guy was extremely helpful at the start of this whole long repetitive adventure by having loaned me a book of the parts of the service. It also had the words to my new favorite song about Christ trampling death. So I’m really happy he came up to me.

After communion and wrapping up, we all filled into the adjoining hall to eat food and chat. There were lots of hard boiled eggs, but lots of other good food too. I imagine it’s especially nice for those members of the Orthodox Church who have been fasting both meat and dairy for weeks now. I had some talk with a few of the members of the church who I hadn’t seen my first time. In general everyone was especially friendly and I liked my second visit despite the whole three hours long thing. I may go back next year for Easter. It’s nice that it really doesn’t interfere with my parents’ celebration of Easter.

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Church #30, Third Reformed Church Albany

Date: 4/7/13

Church name/type: Third Reformed Church, Albany, RCA

Pastor: The sermon was given by a Preaching Elder named Pete Pagerey. He was visiting from First Church in Albany. Not sure who the usual pastor is.

Style of worship: Formal worship structure, mildly casual

Overall Impression: Um, old vibe? Otherwise not much impression at all.

Thoughts: I didn’t get much of a strong vibe from this church. I mean it wasn’t that great, wasn’t that bad. The parking lot is at the back of the church and a fence stops you from walking around to the front door. The back door leads to a hall and rooms attached to the church, but it wasn’t too hard finding the worship space from there. The parishioners seem to have chit-chat time both before and after service in an adjoining room. I didn’t feel like trying the before-service variety, so I just collected my thoughts and waited for things to start. I like the program pamphlet at this place. It gave hymn numbers for each song and even the short responses. If I were a regular member I’m sure I’d have the responses by heart. The fact that they were included makes me feel more welcome as a guest.

The regular pastor was off, so we listened to an Elder (a pastor, I think) borrowed from another church. He did an interesting children’s time about bird calls. We need to learn about different bird’s calls, but god knows our voices without having to look them up in some way. Moving on, the sermon was about Thomas the apostle and his famous reaction to Jesus’ return while Thomas was absent. Thomas so often gets a bad rap. But maybe he shouldn’t. We heard that Thomas was lacking in faith and this was because of ’emotional’ hesitance. Thomas was upset because he couldn’t believe that Jesus would a) leave and then b) come back. So Jesus was nice enough to reappear just for him.

Honestly the message about Thomas lost me somewhere. I think the point was supposed to be -let’s not pick on poor Thomas. I dig that, but the reason was unclear. Are we supposed to see Jesus as someone who indulges us when we don’t believe ’emotionally’? If so, why doesn’t he appear to all of us? What gives Thomas the right to the preferential treatment? Or is Jesus only corporeal for limited time, like he’s running out of…I don’t know, ectoplasm or something? The message confused me enough that I started daydreaming again about the stained glass windows. They are so green and so plain. Why? Don’t stained glass windows usually have pictures? Are we supposed to imagine our own? I don’t mind!

The last thing I will add is the demographic in this church tended older. Those I chatted with after service were probably more than a decade my senior. They assured me their church was diverse, but mostly they looked old and European. The young family was also the black family, so that’s not alot. On the other hand the church was not well filled. One family constitutes a significant chunk if the number is low enough. I guess it’s a bit disappointing either way.

Their website: Needs fixing! There is a link for ‘worship’ that leads to an error message. If I want service times and don’t see them on the main page, I would click the word worship. Having to dig around on a partly broken website for when to show up is not a good first impression.

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Church #29, St George’s Antiochian Orthodox

Date: 3/17/13

Church name/type: St George church, Antiochian Orthodox (liturgy in English)

Pastor: Father Gregory-Francis Des Marais

Style of worship: The liturgy was a unique mix of formal and casual, which I will describe more below.

Overall Impression: Really interesting

Thoughts:
So this is only my second Eastern Orthodox church, and I am still unsure of myself regarding the denomination. I was nervous to stand at the wrong time or insult their traditions somehow. But this place weirdly did NOT meet my expectations for formality. Any Eastern Orthodox Church has a number of formal elements in their service (which is called Divine Liturgy)- however this one seemed to have an added later of casual in the mix. People wore jeans. They trickled in late to very late without anyone acting like it was odd. In many churches, the parent of a noisy child will feel the need to practically run out the door with their kid to assure comparative silence in the church itself. Someone had an unhappy kid and she was simply walked out slowly. So the casual vibe was nice.

The church is very small and box shaped. I was among the first to arrive, but because Matins precedes Liturgy by about an hour, there was some chanting in progress. Because of this constant goings-on, Orthodox Christians don’t have that chatty time where people welcome you seeing you are new. I think that’s ok if one can know to expect it. I didn’t have a prayer book or guide to follow along, but the entire thing was in English with the exception of “Kyrie Eleison” which is two words, so you know…go English!

The homily was about the church season and this Sunday. For most Western Christians, Lent started several weeks ago. For Orthodox Christians it has just started and its called Great Lent. One week previous to Sunday was the call for fasting of meat. This Sunday starts the fasting of cheese and dairy. This Sunday is called CheeseFare Sunday. So now until Easter (Orthodox Easter is May 4th) many in the Orthodox Church will eat only veggies. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, a fast is not considered a mandate, with sin as penalty for skipping it. Part of the sermon reflected on Matthew’s account of the words of Jesus on the topic of fasting. Jesus said when we fast we ought to not look sad, because that’s something Pharisees do to make themselves look holy. Fasting should be none of anyone else’s business; it’s between us and God. We were also reminded that fasting has to have actual meaning to us beyond just declining certain foods, or else it becomes an empty gesture. St Basil called an empty fast the “devil’s fast”. Furthermore, as I pointed out just one post ago, we should not let the money savings from fasting go to waste. Take whatever money you saved by avoiding meat and dairy and donate it to a food bank. I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear this point made in the homily. I hope it gets made a bunch more times in a bunch more churches.

So, near the end of the liturgy was communion. Being unsure, I didn’t go up for this. Somebody did bring me a piece of bread though. I ate it because I figured it would be rude not to. Also I figured they’d know best if I was allowed to have it or not. I’ve since learned that the bread I ate most likely wasn’t the body but plain bread that is to be shared in friendship with anybody, so I would be perfectly allowed to eat it.

Afterwards I was invited by the priest to get some coffee in the adjoining hall. I settled for juice. One man talked to me and asked my name but no one else really did. Many people in this church spoke a second (probably their first) language so maybe they were hesitant to converse with me in English. I waited around for the priest and wound up talking to him for like an hour about Orthodoxy. He was really able to give me some great info on differences between the East and West- that is the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. He has a Catholic background as I do, and this kinda made it that much easier to describe things to me.

For example, the leader of the Orthodox Church is called the Patriarch of Constantinople. He is the lead patriarch among a bunch of patriarchs. This differs from the lead bishop of the Western churches who goes by the title Pope, because the Pope is seen as being on a level above other bishops.

Another thing we talked about was the circumstances leading up to the East/West schism- this of course being the first splitting of the early church into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. There were a few reasons for the split and one of them was the Filioque. It translates to and the Son. So, the early Christian churches had conferences called councils every now and then to decide doctrine or fix canon or agree to call someone a heretic or whatever. There was a big inclusive one at Nicea at which the bishops wrote out The Creed. Many refer to it as The Nicean Creed. It is a statement of believe that starts out:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth…

Then there’s this one spot about the Holy Spirit:

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son…

This last little bit, and the Son, was not added until later. It was added by a relatively exclusive council- far fewer bishops were in attendance and I think possibly none from the East were there. This led the Eastern churches to suspect Filioque was snuck in for nefarious purposes, (back in the day, heresy was a nefarious purpose) and they made a big deal out of it. Eventually the church became divided into a Western half led by a Pope and an Eastern half led by a Patriarch. The official split date is 1054, but it was actually dragged out over centuries. I have trouble imagining a bunch of dudes getting all riled up about whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son or not. Then again, in some ways this was a theological excuse for a political move. Anyway I’m getting more knowledgeable about church history and that’s exciting.

Question: Whats up with the icon of Mary drawn surrounded by a red pepper? Or maybe it’s a red picnic blanket? This icon was at both Orthodox churches on my list so far.

Link: Someone stopped at my post on St Sophia’s to post this link. I thought you might enjoy it.
12 Things About Orthodoxy

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Church #28, St Peter’s Episcopal in Albany

Date: 3/10/13

Church name/type: St Peter’s Church, Episcopal Church USA

Pastor: Reverend Paul Hartt

Style of worship: Formal traditional style utilizing forms from a prayer book and hymn book

Overall Impression: surprising!

Thoughts:
The first few noticeables at this church didn’t seem promising. It was rather dark and the organ was playing grumpy sounding music. My opinion went up as the service went forward, so I think I can explain these first two items easily enough: 1) the space seems mainly lit by sunlight 2) it’s lent, and the music is often slow and dreary during lent.

Anyways, I noticed some other things as the service went on. The floor is an interesting mosaic of tiles along the main and side aisles. The front of the church is this kinda multifaceted dome. The children’s time was at the very beginning of the service and I heard a story I don’t remember hearing before. It was about Joshua and the twelve stones. Just before they get to enter the promised land, the Israelites have to cross the Jordan which is parted for them like the Red Sea was. Once they are crossed, Joshua has them gather twelve stones (I guess from the river bed) and set them up nearby. Then Joshua says, “When your kids ask why we are keeping twelve rocks around, tell them they help us remember how God saved us from bondage in Egypt and led us to the promised land.” So that was really cool. I also liked the verses used for the sermon: the story of the prodigal son. The pastor talked about how we might identify with any of five characters in this story- yes five. His descriptions were so detailed I actually found myself daydreaming about them. And yes, that’s a compliment. There are so many ways this story relates to life. Especially if you think beyond the story into the befores and afters.

A son leaving home and living dangerously only to return; there are lots of ways this could play out. We can think about what his journey was like and where he went. Were there people he hurt along the way? Maybe it is up to him to reach out to those people and make amends.

The other son in the story is shocked and angered at the fuss dad makes over wayward son. Have we ever been close to someone who is seemingly rewarded for one tiny good following a string of evils? How can we learn to accept this and be gracious to our brother?

The dad is willing to accept his son back into his life even though he spent through half their money. Can we do the same for another who we love?

There are also servants in this guy’s household who witness the event from the edges. How does it touch us to see this from the outside? Can we learn from what us going on here? Are we able to join in the father’s excitement or are we going to become upset as the other son did?

There is a fifth character element in the unknown of what the son did on his journey while he was off living selfishly. Perhaps he hurt many people. I can think of examples of this from ex-girlfriends to pals he stuck with the bill at the tavern. If we are this fifth person how do we respond? Can we find it in ourselves to forgive him who wronged us? Can we find ways to move on with our lives?

After the service was all done I wandered to the back of the church to say hello to this pastor. So, remember how I’m always saying that the best welcome statement is not one of, “I hope you come back!” (pressure) but instead, “I’m glad you came!” ? Well when I shook his hand he said, “I’m so glad you came today!” In my brain I said “AWESOME!” to this perfect greeting and I smiled. I asked about snacks because I couldn’t remember if we were told ‘fellowship’ or ‘coffee’ was occurring after service and I didn’t want to sound weird. I guess ‘snacks’ sounds a little weird too. But no matter, because immediately after he directed me to the door to the gathering space and woman named Carly came up to me and offered to walk me there. She was nice and chatty and dressed snappy. She reminds me of my awesome chatty aunts. We talked easily about a bunch of things and she introduced me to a number of other church members. We were among the last to leave. I even got to give out my website cards.

Overall this turned out to be a pretty nice Sunday. I like this place- that is I like the people and the atmosphere. Carly basically invited me back to any holiday or Sunday imaginable, so maybe I’ll return for a week at some point.

The choir: Again with the strong choral presence! The choir was great and they comprised a decent chunk of the congregation. Is this a thing with downtown or pipe organs or what?