diary of a church hopper, pt. 15 or 16 or 17

The moment you've all been waiting for: my visit to St. George's. (Episcopal)

The trip started with a couple of bad omens:
1) Couldn't find the church (looking for the wrong street)
2) Couldn't get into the church (the whole push/pull dilemma)

And then I was late as ususal.
But only good things followed.

The congregation was very small - much smaller than I expected. When I finally got in, the first person I saw was Kugler. He saw a person (me) walk in and looked around immediately, in the middle of a hymn, to make sure I could find a hymnal and prayer book and knew which page we were on. So, friendliness, right away. The woman next to me in the pew smiled. (I always think she's Joan Anderson but she's Margo Vanderhill.)

Settled in, I looked around at the building. The church is old, a registered building, but it wasn't as "beautiful" as St. Thomas's. It did look extremely friendly, though. I could picture myself becoming familiar with the nooks and crannies and bizarre architectural intricacies of a church, like when I was little. There were old iron heating registers in the floor, and they made me feel very much at home. (We lived in an old Victorian house when I was little, and we'd fight over who got to stand on top of it, or dry our mittens and scarves on it. And we had a porch swing, but that's beside the point.)

The pastor was a woman. That was new to me, and, looking back, in a really good way. As with all things I am highly skeptical of pastors. This may sound bad, but because I wasn't expecting her to be perfect, I liked her more. I think her role is different than my master and commander picture of pastoral care. But, St. George's isn't your typical congregation.

For it seemed at least 1/3 of the parishioners were NW professors/staff. And most of the rest were their families, or their students. Indeed, it seemed highly logical to transport the whole building to Orange City, where it would be more convenient for almost everyone. On the other hand, the travel to worship, setting aside everyday life, makes it more appealing. And, if it was in OC, more people would know about it, and there would probably be a need for stronger leadership, and then there would be dissension and crowds and maybe less community...anyway.

Back to the parishioners -- because it must be given at least one criticism, I would point out that all the parishioners have IQs of at least...something really high. Not that that's a bad thing, but it could maybe possibly someday somehow be an obstacle to those less gifted. And, because everyone does live in OC, I wonder if the church has much of a life except Sundays, or even beyond the service.

But, away from the required criticisms, St. George's was one of the "best" services I have been to in...I don't even know how long. We may be talking decades. It had a huge advantage, though, in that it 1) was not contemporary, 2) was comprised of only people I deeply respected and admired prior to the service; and 3) I wanted to like it.

Other random things I enjoyed:
1) The discussion of the sermon and/or theology in general immediately following the sermon, right in the middle of the service.
2) Communion wine. Seriously -- the burn of the blood of Christ down your throat for a minute after you've drank helps you to remember.
3) Everyone clearly wanted to be there, with maybe the exception of a sixth grade boy. But you could hardly blame him.
4) The pastor commenting to Prof. Anderson while she's breaking up the body of Christ.
5) The statuette of St. George slaying a dragon.
6) People looking me in the eye while they said "peace be with you."
7) Big, big hugs (from friends) instead of handshakes.
8) Seeing and saying the text of the service. Seeing the words especially is a big thing for me.
9) The overall old country church feel.
10) Some people had their own prayer books.
11) Kneeling and holding out my hands to receive the body. I felt like a British beggar child begging the pastor to let me have some of the body. But in a good way.

So, now there are these problems. And I anticipated them. I think that's why it took me so long to visit.
1) I liked the service a lot. Anything else will pale in comparison, esp. going back to P&W and PowerPoint.
2) The church is there and I am here. (However, when you get down to it, it's not that much farther than the RCA megachurch because it's so irritatingly tricky to get there.)
3) Going there regularly strikes me as cheating, like sneaking back into chapel after you've graduated. It is an extension of NW, really, and if I'm going to it because of NW, then in a sense I do not belong there now. Try to make sense of that one.
4) Going there regularly would not aid my problem of not knowing anyone here.
5) Repeat 1-4.

So, survey says: You all were right. St. George's is a great place!