Jon Gibson - Church Visit #3

St. Francis of Assisi Parish
1501 W. Boughton Rd. Bolingbrook, IL 60490
9/21/14
Significantly More Liturgical

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

     The service I attended was both similar to and different from my regular church context.  It was similar to my church context in the sense that the proceedings were very formal.  College Church has a very formal environment.  People dress up and the proceedings of the service are prompt, organized, and carried out in a no-nonsense kind of way.  I experienced these same things at this church.  It was different because of the amount of liturgy that went into the service.  College Church is structured, but not nearly as structured as this church was.  I'd be interested to go back next week and see how similar the service would be compared to the week before.  I bet there would be a lot of overlap including such things as recitations, such as the Nicene Creed.  Also, I noticed that this church was much more racially diverse than College Church, but this could just be attributed to the different geographic areas and not the classification of the church.
   
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

     I found the architecture to be the most appealing thing about the service.  My friend and I both expressed excitement about this as we entered the church building.  Catholic architecture has always appealed to me and I wasn't disappointed.  The sanctuary was very large and had a very high ceiling.  Comparing myself to the size of this room made me feel quite small and insignificant.  The echoes caused by the shape and size of the room seemed to add a sense of reverence to the proceedings that is hard to explain.  The many voices of the congregation would bounce off of each other and end on a low hum as the leader of the service would lead us in recitations such as the Nicene Creed.  These affects, caused by the building's architectural configuration, were appealing to me.  I'm tempted to explore more places of worship just to experience different architecture.

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

     The thing I found most disorienting about the service were the unspoken commands to action that people would follow throughout the service.  For example, there would be times when the leader would say something and everyone would cross themselves.  I didn't pick up the cue and would would just sit there as everyone else crossed themselves.  I'm not sure if its proper for a Protestant to cross themselves anyway, but I still felt really awkward and out of place.  This happened again when everyone else kneeled but my friend and me.  On the one hand I thought it was unique to have unspoken commands to action like that, but if you're not familiar with these commands it can be kind of embarrassing.  It seems that first time visitors might experience this problem and be scared off as a result.  Perhaps adding some etiquette education to the proceedings would solve this issue.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

     The aspect of Scripture and theology that was illuminated most for me by the service was importance of the sacrament of communion.  When the leader of the service called everyone to come forward to receive the bread and wine, a sort of hush fell over the sanctuary.  This reverence was maintained until everyone had sat down again, and the leader went on with the service.  Although I didn't fully experience the process because I didn't partake, there just seemed to be something different about the way this church approached communion that differed from the approach at College Church.  I appreciated this immensely as I think the sacrament of communion is one of the most important observed practices of the church.  I think this sort of reverence when it comes to communion should be more present in my regular context at College Church.  Remembering what Jesus did for us through the sacrament of communion is very important and should be a significant event in the life of a church.