Worship

Okay, so I am a presbyterian who finds refuge in the episcopal church. This week I am at a conference about Christian Education for my job. Of course, being a Christian conference, there are worship experiences. For those who have not been to Episcopal worship is it full of standing and sitting, plus if you are lucky more sensory experiences like incense or dancing.

Today for our worship we had the full on episcopal service -

1st there was a 5 minute explaination about the service and several instructions on what will happen during the service that I think confused half of us.

2nd the service went in reverse for two hymns and then we got on track again as the children dressed as angels and stars processed down the aisle of the church.

We were then given bells to ring, but the directions were given 10 minutes ago so there was bell ringing the entire service.

We read the scripture and then the sermon was offered by a good speaker, she just gave a disjointed yet funny message.

Oh and I forgot about the "angel" feathers flying out of the bible during the scripture reading and the priest who said we did not greet enough people during the passing of the peace and to get up and move around. Of course, everyone just sat there and she proceeded to shake everyone's hand in the sanctuary. Episcopals are very welcoming =)

Then we sang a bunch of songs that we really didn't know, then we wedged ourselves up front and took communion. I didn't know you could really feed the 5,000 with one loaf of bread. Unlike everything else we did not get directions on this part so, of course, it was guided by the Holy Spirit.

Afterwords, we were asked to dance in the aisle (of course no one did it) and then left with the joy of Jesus in our hearts.

I have to say it is great to be stretched and yet sometimes stretching is too much for people who like tradition. There is nothing wrong with that. hey, the night before people heard the words "building a worship installation" and got up and left. I am all for tradition. I still like my tradition of presbyterism. We may not be perfect, but who really is?

Do you know what a worship installation is?

Supposedly, they are worship experiences that are created in apartments, barns, churches, etc. and people post them on the internet in Europe for people to find. They leave them up so people can come and worship there. They are themed around scripture. We did one last night around Psalm 23 and someone actually was the cool waters in the greeen pastures (they made a waterfall that ran during the experience). It was cool to hear the water flowing during the scripture reading. Okay, so if you didn't know before I am a church nerd.