Week Seven: Grace Episcopal Church

On June 10th I attended an Episcopal church for the first time. Grace Episcopal is an adorable small church in downtown Cedar Rapids.

The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, an association of churches in communion with the Church of England. It's hard for me to get a good grasp on what Episcopalians believe. Some seem to have beliefs that are nearly identical to Catholics while others seem to be more Protestant or evangelical in nature. They accept the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds, and the Protestant canon of the Bible (although I think some may make use in the Deuterocanon?). Historically the Thirty-Nine Articles were used, but I have no idea how closely those are followed by each of the churches in the Anglican Communion today or how uniform the interpretation of them is. If any Anglican or Episcopalian reads this and has corrections or wants to share their own experiences please be my guest.

Grace Episcopal Church

Grace Episcopal is downtown, kitty corner from the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple. (ETA) Grace has a medical lending closet, which fulfills a vital need in the Cedar Rapids community. People in the community can borrow things like wheelchairs when emergencies occur. I remember my mother making use of the closet when she hurt her leg. I really appreciate how they serve a need not usually met by other churches or organizations.

I didn't see a sign anywhere that said which door to go through, so I just went straight through the front red doors. This is the first church I've been to that didn't have a greeter of some sort, although there could have been someone I didn't see at a different door. 

The church itself had a lot of lovely elements, but due to its size everything seemed close together and somewhat constricting. Although you can't see it in the picture, there were some pews removed from the left to make room for an organ. A few things stood out to me-

• In the front left of the church there was a statue of Mary, but I noticed that there were curtains that were pulled to cover statue. I know some communities have the tradition of veiling statues and other images during all or part of Lent, so maybe that's why the curtain was there? It was odd to see a built in curtain for a statue.
• What looked like small brown cubbies were on the back wall of the left and right of the sanctuary, many with names engraved on them. I'm nearly positive it's a columbarium. I've never seen one in a sanctuary before, but upon reflection it seems like the perfect place for one. 
• One of my pet peeves is having the national flag in the church. I suppose it makes sense to have one when the church itself is associated with a specific nationality, but it still rubs me the wrong way.
• Finally, the chairs for the presider and the deacon were against the wall facing towards the altar, which I appreciated. Nearly every Catholic church I've been in has the presider facing towards the congregation, which I always felt puts too much focus on the priest and detracts from actual worship.

The Service

Apologies if this is long. Liturgical services have a lot of parts which make describing them quickly difficult. 

Coming from a Catholic background, many of the prayers and motions of the liturgy felt familiar. A few of the prayers were so close to the version I have memorized that I would get too confident in reciting them without reading, only to flub when coming to a point when the versions differ.

The service was led by a female priest and deacon, with an acolyte assisting, and I counted about 35 people in the congregation. The priest reminded everyone that for the summer they would be using services from different parts of the Anglican Communion (this week from the Church of Nigeria), so everyone should pay close attention as some things may be slightly different to what they were used to.

As in most modern Catholic churches, there were four readings from Scripture. It appears they were using the Revised Common Lectionary, which on many Sundays is identical to the lectionary that Catholics use.

The first reading was from Genesis, detailing how Adam and Eve hid from God after eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The psalm was recited antiphonally instead of as a responsorial, which is what I'm used to. I actually liked this better as it reminded me of the Liturgy of the Hours. I didn't pay close enough attention to remember the Epistle reading, but it looks like it was from 2 Corinthians. 

Before the deacon read the Gospel, he processed with it behind the acolyte into the middle of the nave (place with the pews where the congregation sits). He read the Gospel standing there amidst the congregation. I thought that showed a nice bit of symbolism.

The Sermon

The sermon was fine, nothing really enlightening or even inspiring. It was based off of the Gospel reading and the pictured quote from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, which I actually quite like. It was basically a sermon on loving your neighbor. Don't get me wrong, it would be great if all Christians actually lived out the command to love their neighbor. Speaking from my own experience, the subject is preached on and taught about a lot but generally not done well. It's essentially feels like we're just constantly telling be people to be nice without telling them what that means or what it looks like. Very easy to tune out a sermon like this when you feel like you've heard it a hundred times before. Maybe it would have been different if she had gone into how we should love people we have political disagreements with, etc., but I don't recall her actually doing that.

Following the sermon was the Nicene creed and the intercessions. My goodness there were a lot of intercessions. I've been to churches where there were regularly around 10 intercessions, which felt like too many, but there were at least 20 here.

Around this time I started to notice that people didn't seem to know what they were supposed to be doing at any one time. People tended to take whatever posture they wanted to in the pews unless the presider specifically said to sit or stand. Only about a quarter of the people knelt for the communion prayer when the booklet said to. I remember there being a point when part of the congregation stood and the others sat. It was very strange. It could be that the liturgy from the Church of Nigeria was just different enough to throw people off from what they were used to, but I really have no idea.

Before the Eucharistic prayer there was a sign of peace, which was definitely the highlight of the service. I'm pretty sure I ended up shaking everyone's hand. Everyone got up and moved around and some had small conversations. Honestly, it was kind of nice to have fellowship as a formal part of the service. 

The announcements actually followed the sign of peace, which was shocking to me. The presider gave some announcements, and the deacon shared that he would be ordained soon and invited everyone to come to the cathedral to take part. Members of the congregation were then invited to share any announcements they had. Even though the placing of the announcements felt odd, it's definitely a way to make sure everyone actually hears them.

Communion

The Eucharist Prayer was similar to the Catholic prayers I was used to. Ushers let each row now when they could go up to kneel at the altar rail. The priest went down the rail giving people the bread, saying "The Body of Christ in the bread" with the deacon following with the wine. One thing that was very interesting to me was that although everyone knelt at the altar rail to receive communion, it looked like they were still receiving in the hand instead of on the tongue.

Also, the communion hymn was the only hymn sung that familiar to me (It Is Well with My Soul). Unfortunately, both the three loudest singers and the pianist failed to notice that half the hymn was printed on the back of the paper, which made for some very choppy verses and a confused congregation.

The Lord's Prayer/Our Father was said after communion, followed by a few more prayers and a closing hymn. Not much happened after the service. One person stopped to thank me for coming, but that was pretty much it. 

Final Thoughts

This service felt very "meh." No one really seemed to know what was going on, which was odd. I could tell that this was a very tight knit community, which is admirable. The worship booklet had birthdays and anniversaries listed in it, and everyone seemed pretty warm and welcoming to each other. I kind of felt like an outsider looking in, which I suppose I was. Don't get me wrong, people were very pleasant to me during the sign of peace and no one was hostile or looked like they didn't want me there. Maybe I've just been spoiled by the last several churches I've gone to which actively seem to seek out and welcome newcomers and visitors.