Friday, April 06, 2007

Flavours of worship

This morning I went to church, and Lauralea went to church, to mark Good Friday. The unique thing was that we went to different churches.

We have had a growing desire among our church friends for a different option to theƂ  rah rah, couple of churches gather together in the city to Celebrate Good Friday.

I am all about the "churches gathering together" thing, but more and more the joint service has been more of a "Celebration," than anything else. A big worship party, somewhat overshadowing the whole day of death thing.

And my heart struggles to be in it. And I feel guilty about that too.

So we give the people a couple of joint church options. There are a couple of other community churches doing group services too. Some are much more reflective and take the time to consider Christ's death.
I go to the one, and Lauralea goes to the other one, so that our bases are kind of covered.

But more and more I find the service I attend, just a struggle to attend. And again, I feel guilty for feeling that way.

I hope I'm not becoming an old fart. An old judgemental fart who boycotts the service just because it isn't done the way I like it. There are already too many of those out there I'm afraid.

But, I have a year to think some of those things through now.

We'll see what next year brings.

8 comments:

  1. I hear you. For the first half of the service I was wondering if there was going to be any mention about the suffering and death of Jesus. It's sad that so many people seem to feel the need to skip Good Friday and go directly to Easter Morning. However on the positive side, I did think that Pastor Ron's message was good, and during one scripture reading the pianist played "Alas and Did my Saviour Bleed". And the guy who read Luke 7:36-50 was great. :-)

    Any reports on the service that Lauralea attended?

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  2. The service at St George's was very small. About one third Covenanters.

    I like that service - the liturgy seems fitting for the day.

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  3. I was at the St. George's service last year and I loved it. Would have loved to go this year, but wasn't feeling up to it.

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  4. hey randall. I am with you man, the day Jesus died doesn't seem like much of a worship party to me. I think it is good and right to reflect upon such sacrifice.

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  5. I was where Linea was, and I have also been appreciating the liturgy and reflection that makes up the Anglican Good Friday service. It was a very small (in numbers) service, but I SO like that I can just walk down the block and be there. Part of the joy of this service for me is in getting there. There was no celebration, no Yippee Ha, Ha, no Rah! Rah!... the lights were off, so it was a little dim, lit only by a few candles and the windows; the organ played accompaniment, the songs we sang were old hymns, there were the Old Testament, New Testament and Gospel readings... and we prayed out of the Prayer Book. Somehow, going back to the very basics, and the beginning of the English Protestant worship experience seems very right for the Easter/ Lenten season. It was reflective, meditative and solemn. And I thought of, and was reminded of things I've been forgetting.

    It was very good.

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  6. ya... i didn't have a ride to church today and the buses weren't running so i slept in and then spent an hour reading through John and going through the last days of Jesus' life. i've never done that so it was good to just sit and spend time with God and the word, though i kinda missed church and all the people there. ah well... maybe the buses will be running on sunday.

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  7. Went to the rah rah service as it is called. Might not have minded the singing if I could have seen the words even a little or known the songs. It always surprises me to go to a really different worship like this. I know that the people used to that type of worship might find ours the annoying one and I know that someone was reached with it and God was lifted up, but what do we do with that irritated feeling during the service? I struggle with that.

    I really appreciated the message and was glad they chose who they did to deliver it. The song Victory in Jesus was one that all the grandchildren sang at my Grandma's funeral, so it was nice to hear it again and think of her.

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  8. I was at the same service as you and I really enjoyed it. Some moments of reflection/remembrance would have been a good addition. If you want to see something different done, maybe you could help plan it next year; I'm always interested in how other churches do things. I felt glad that we could unite to remember Christ's sacrifice. I was encouraged by the whole thing.

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