Jade Kurokawa - Church visit #1

Church name: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Church address:

306 S. Prospect

Park Ridge, IL 60068

Date attended: Sunday, February 2, 2014

Church category: More liturgical than my regular experience

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

This service was different from my regular context in the type of music played. At St. Mary’s there is a big choir who leads the worship with the rest of the congregation. Many famous hymns were sung such as “Angels from the Realms of Glory” and “Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly.” This church also follows a liturgy more closely than my church does using the psalter and the sanctus songs. However, my church also observes communion each week and shares the peace during each service.

St. Mary’s was a lot more formal in the way that people dressed and the way that the service was conducted. At my church, there is a fairly laid back atmosphere. There is a section in the back of my church where we took out some of the pews to add coffee tables for families to sit during the service. People wear casual dress and are encouraged to stay afterwards for coffee hour which is head in the narthex and bleeds into the sanctuary. St. Mary’s, on the other hand, has a more formal atmosphere with pews throughout the church and a  business casual dress code. There is a coffee hour that people were encouraged to go to in a separate space.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

I really enjoyed the choir that were dressed in big white gowns. I thought that they added a lot to the service. In my church context there is a worship rock band and one or two singers who lead worship. They are talented in the genre of music that we do however I think it was cool to hear a fairly talented choir lead worship. There was a fuller sound with really nice harmonies. I enjoyed the antiphonal singing because it seemed more like a service from the early church days.

I also really liked the decor of the church. There were very high ceilings and a lot of stain glass with Bible stories on them. These stain glass windows, the icons on the walls of the church, the beautiful organ, chandeliers, and the dress robes of the clergy all added to the experience. The high ceilings felt like they lifted me upwards which I think is important in a worship space because it makes me feel smaller so that God can take center stage.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

There was a bulletin handed out as you walked into the sanctuary to help you read or sing along during the service. I appreciated this however I can see the danger in simply saying or singing the words and getting lost in your own head without really thinking about what you are stating.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

At St. Mary’s, when the altar is approached the person always precedes stepping onto the next level with a bow as a sign of respect. When the Bible is read, the pastor moves to the middle of the sanctuary accompanied by two acolytes holding candles to signify the importance of the Word of God. I think that this service helped me remember how great God is and how He should be shown the utmost respect from his creation. The church space is a sacred one and should be treated as such.