Sam Bennett--Church Blog #3

Immanuel Anglican Church

900 W Wilson Ave Chicago, IL 60640

8/21/2016

More or Less Liturgical Than Regular Context

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

The worship service at Immanuel was pretty different from my regular context. The location of the service is in an elementary school in Uptown, so it was not a typical church setting. The service itself included more liturgy than my home church, given that it’s an Anglican church that was to be expected. But, I was not familiar with the rituals and recitations that were customary in this setting. A similarity between my church and Immanuel is that the congregation was made up of primarily white folk with college aged students, families, and children all involved in the service. There was communion, which they take each week, that was different than communion at my home church. And, the Reverend wore a robe, which is different from the suit that my Baptist Pastor typically wears. Another quick little similarity to my church is that there was a coffee station and greeters, which immediately made me feel welcomed, as well as a strong team of leaders for different teams and ministries that the church plugs itself into.

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

The most interesting part of this service was how communal the liturgy reading, prayer, communion, and tithe taking was. The church acted as one body, which felt different to me than my home church where communion is take individually at your seat, prayers are only spoken by the pastor, and there is not much liturgy in the service. What was appealing to me about this type of service is how methodical the service was, it had a rhythm to it that every congregant understood and knew what was expected of them. Also, I enjoyed the atmosphere of the service and the openness of the congregation to embrace and welcome brothers and sisters who clearly did not come from an Anglican background.

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

The most challenging/ disorienting part of this service was feeling lost throughout the program. The feeling of not knowing how a church service goes when everyone else around me is completely with the program and understands what the Reverend is saying and what liturgy to recite. I can understand now to a degree how off-putting it must be for nonbelievers to come into a setting where they feel completely out of their element and confused. In a way, the church can be an incredibly exclusive institution that does welcome outsiders but the outsiders still feel foreign in the midst of a service that has practices they do not know.

4.     What aspects of scripture or theology did the service illuminate that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

At this point, I cannot recall what the sermon was about. Unfortunately, the service was fairly long, almost two hours, compared to the usual church service I attend. Granted, two hours, if formatted in a fluid way does not feel like a long time. However, this service seemed to last longer because of how unaccustomed I am to Anglican practices. What I do remember, though, was scripture reading from a leatherbound book that was in Latin, I believe. The authenticity of Scripture is highly held at this institution. This service felt more like Catholic mass to me, as it was similar in practices and dress.