I am a member of two churches: there is the “home church” which is very large and about as Catholic as an Episcopal Church can get short of acknowledging the Pope. It has very nice, traditional services.
Then there is the church where my wife is doing her internship to be a deacon. The congregation consists of 25 geriatric women and me. There are two younger women: the rector and her partner. This church barely sticks to the script and has just enough orthodoxy to pull off a valid Eucharist. The service is conducted in a mixture of English and Spanish. In fact, when I go back to the home church I find myself responding to some of he prayers in Spanish.
The Peace at each church is a lot different. In the home church, you shake a couple of hands and wave at a few people. It interrupts the service for about a minute. In the small church, it takes about 10 minutes and every person has to hug every other person.
I’ve gotten comfortable with both. I have one particular friend who, even when we meet on the outside, give each other a bear hug: nothing half-hearted about it.
Us Anglo-Saxons tend to be more protective of our personal space than people from, say, the Mediterranean area or other parts of the world.
I am a member of two churches: there is the “home church” which is very large and about as Catholic as an Episcopal Church can get short of acknowledging the Pope. It has very nice, traditional services.
Then there is the church where my wife is doing her internship to be a deacon. The congregation consists of 25 geriatric women and me. There are two younger women: the rector and her partner. This church barely sticks to the script and has just enough orthodoxy to pull off a valid Eucharist. The service is conducted in a mixture of English and Spanish. In fact, when I go back to the home church I find myself responding to some of he prayers in Spanish.
The Peace at each church is a lot different. In the home church, you shake a couple of hands and wave at a few people. It interrupts the service for about a minute. In the small church, it takes about 10 minutes and every person has to hug every other person.
I’ve gotten comfortable with both. I have one particular friend who, even when we meet on the outside, give each other a bear hug: nothing half-hearted about it.
Us Anglo-Saxons tend to be more protective of our personal space than people from, say, the Mediterranean area or other parts of the world.