Becca The LDS adventure at Hope Lutheran Church

So today, Hannah and I went to the Hope Lutheran Church. Going into the service, I did not have any expectations, as I am not familiar with the Lutheran faith. When we first arrived, it did not appear that there would be many people there, and there wasn’t. This was kind of a nice change though, it makes it more comfortable and more of a one-on-one kind of thing. When we got to the “Sanctuary” (the room in which they hold the worship service) we were promptly greeted by the Pastor of the church. He was a very nice man and was very welcoming. He introduced us to another man who proceeded to get us a paper that gave information on what to expect during a church service; it was very helpful. The view from the bay windows gave a beautiful lookout to Departure Bay and the surrounding area: it was quite breathtaking, especially at such an early hour.

There were only about 12 people there, as this was the early morning church service. This service differs from the late morning in a couple of ways. Firstly, there was no music. I thought it was different, but it helped with the aesthetic of the service, which was nice. The early service is also more of a time to come and talk with people while having a sermon and Eucharist (their word for communion, I believe) at the same time.

The service started by two candles on a table being lit. Then there was a prayer, which was outlined in the program that was on the chair. Some scriptures were read by some members of the congregation, which is good because it lets everyone get involved. For me, it was a bit weird not to have a song, even though I just said that not having a song added to the aesthetic of the meeting, which was good. For me and my beliefs, it is nice to have a song when opening because it helps to invite the spirit into the lesson for the day. Without a song, it feels just a little bit off. One thing that did confuse me throughout the whole time was that there were some callbacks that Hannah and I did not know. It would have been nice if someone had told us, “Hey, when the Pastor says this, you say this.” But no one did, so we just stayed silent, kind of awkwardly at times.

More prayers were read and then the Pastor started to give a lesson. The lesson was on love; a topic I do enjoy. The main message I got from it was to love anyone who is standing in front of you, no matter what their age, race or religion might be. As a way to illustrate this, the Pastor told us of when he was a Pastor in a jail. I thought that was pretty awesome. It was a nice lesson. Oh, and I call it a lesson, but it may have a different name that I don’t know about. There was time for the people in the congregation to speak about things that were important to them, which happened to tie in with our lesson theme. At this point, I was still super tired and was trying to pay attention, but my mind wandered a bit a couple of times.

It was now time for Eucharist (if I am using that phrase correctly). They said the Lord’s Prayer as a prayer on their bread and wine. Hannah and I were fortunate to know it, so we could join in. The wording was different from the traditional theme though. Instead of using the word “thy” they used “your”. I do prefer the “thy” as I think it gives more of a respectful tone to it. Plus, when you have it translated as close as possible from the original language that the bible was written in, “thy” was used. I don’t get why people change it. Do people not understand the language enough? It’s not that difficult. When you have someone, namely a “scholar” that goes through the bible and writes what he thinks the verses means in “modern day language”, then you are only getting his opinion from those scriptures. You are supposed to take your own meaning out of the scriptures, which is harder to do in this case. That is the biggest annoyance I have with the New Revised Standard Version. Why does it have to be revised? That’s something I don’t understand. My belief is that we should all be using the King James Version because it is the closest possible literal translation from Hebrew. Now, that was a bit off topic. Getting back to Eucharist. So Hannah and I said the Lord’s Prayer, except where we got confused at the end because they had changed it.

As Hannah already stated, we didn’t plan on taking Eucharist, but ended up doing so because we felt bad if we were to deny the Pastor. I remembered that he said they had grape juice for people that couldn’t drink alcohol so I know I would have to have that. Luckily Hannah had a sip first because I looked at her and asked if it had alcohol. She then told the Pastor I couldn’t have alcohol, so I got grape juice. I thank Hannah for saying that I couldn’t drink it!

After Eucharist, everyone shakes each others hand and says “Peace be with you.” I thought that was quite nice. It makes people have contact with everyone in the group, which creates a sense of unity towards your church group. When it was time to go, the Pastor moved his hand in the shape of the cross and said, “May the peace of the Lord be with you” and we were dismissed.

All in all, it was quite a nice experience. I had a good time and felt very welcomed by everyone. The Pastor seemed like a pretty cool dude. Next time Hannah and I need to try the later service. That was way too early.

Hannah's Exprience at Hope Lutheran Church

So Becca and I had a full day planned ahead of us this Sunday, so we thought we would catch an early service. With the help of three alarm clocks we managed to get up, get ready, and make it to the Hope Lutheran Church on the south side of town before 8:30. We arrived to a group of mostly seniors, all mingling in the lobby. The pastor was very friendly to us and shook our hands then asked us for our names, all before handing us a laminated sheet outlining the events. An elderly man, who eventually read out the scriptures for the service, told us we must sit in the first row and that there would be no one sitting near the back. Becca and I were a bit apprehensive, and entered the sanctuary and sat beside some elderly women. We were handed a programme with the bible verses that were used for the service. After reading some psalms, there was a quiet prayer and then the sermon began. The pastor was not standing behind the podium as one might be used to; instead, he was on the far side of a semicircle of chairs that were formed around the altar. This added to the already very inclusive and comforting mood of the service.

The sermon was very focused on love, and how it relates to spirituality, that god is in the interconnectedness of people. I think I will take this opportunity to outline my beliefs (or lack thereof) as an atheist. I do not believe there is a god, no I cannot prove that there isn’t a god, however I feel as if it is very unlikely. The evidence that is given in holy books, in my opinion is not valid for they were written thousands of years ago by an ancient desert people, and scriptures have been changed throughout history to fit the political and ideological goals of the people in power at the time. This being said, though I am not overly so, I am spiritual to a certain extent and I understand why people feel as though their perception of god is what holds the universe together, and that love is a manifestation of that. I am not an atheist who believes that religion must be destroyed in the name of social and scientific progress. As the pastor talked about love to all people and mankind, even about helping reintegrate sex offenders in to society as an exercise in loving all people, I reassure my belief that some people need religion to justify and to strengthen their sense of humanity.

That being said, I find the assertion that god is loving to be... incongruent. If anyone has ever read the Old Testament, they will know what I mean when I see the god described there hardly...loves. Furthermore how can one say good is merciful and loving when thousands of children are without parents because of an AIDS pandemic that has killed millions? Please do not think that I mean to demonize or frown upon these Lutherans in any way for saying their god loves, it is both a noble and wonderful to have enough faith to share the love of your god with others, and I just find it a wee bit hard to swallow is all. My belief is that one must be honorable and help others whether or not you do it for god, either way the outcome is positive and makes the world a better place.

There was a group discussion, where the congregation spoke a lot about isolation and loneliness. There was talk about the pros and cons of isolation, that occasionally isolation is good to help figure things out for yourself, however this tied in with the sermon about how god is in love between people, and how loneliness can be spiritually draining. I do not think that loneliness can be as much spiritually draining as just draining in general, from an evolutionary stand point this makes sense for human beings are social animals that must stay in groups to survive. Love, in my opinion, is a reward through endorphins that is given to us for fulfilling biological imperatives. This I understand is a very... not poetic and dry way of phrasing things. However I believe strongly that just because something is not supernatural doesn’t mean it lacks beauty. The beautiful uniformity of the universe does not necessarily equal god in my opinion. I think events like the big bang are awe inspiring and beautiful because we don’t fully understand them yet and the shear complexness and enormity of the universe is what I call my version of “spirituality”

 Becca and I both had no intentions of taking communion. However... when the time came and the pastor was in front of me with the communion wafer I couldn’t bring myself to turn down his smiley face. When the wine came to Becca, I could tell she was having issues denying him the alcoholic wine so I interjected “Becca can’t drink alcohol” he smiled politely and grabbed some grape juice. Communion is just so sacred to so many, that it didn’t feel appropriate to take it. After that, Our Father was said, Becca and I were okay aside from saying “thy” instead of “your” and fumbling at the last few lines which neither of us had heard before, it might be a continuation of psalm, either way we struggled.

The service was very interesting, and much different from the LDS one I attended last week, the people were welcoming, the sermon and scripture readings were interesting, and it was a different take on Christianity than I had seen before.

Hannah The Atheist experience at a Mormon church

Experience 1, My reaction to an LDS church service

So today marks the first day in Becca and I’s adventure. We went to Becca’s church, which is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I do know quite a bit about the Mormon faith for Becca is my one of my best friends, and out of curiosity I read quite a bit about it on the LDS website. So for the most part, I am immune to the stereotypes. Of course my natural apprehension to the conservativeness of the religion made me a bit nervous. I did know the church was very “family values” oriented, that the family unit was definitely one of the main tenants.  My family is not so much what you would call “traditional” and the lifestyle I have lived cannot be characterized as such either. I suppose I was expected a huge emphasis on the nuclear family and demonetization of those who do not confirm, fortunately only the former was proved true. Upon walking in you could see the church was a family church.

We arrived late, and sat at the back were families with young children were seated.  The” talk” ( a.k.a  sermon) was barely audible over the screams and cries of babies and toddlers. In the LDS faith, the talk to said by member of the “ward” (a.k.a congregation) when we arrived a woman, who identified herself as the librarian, was in the middle of talking.  She was using a continual metaphor of a road to describe life, and about her search for faith. She described being on a “bumpy” road, and how her Mormon faith has turn that road into “An even road with a solid red line that leads straight into eternal, celestial paradise”. It is that kind of comfort that religion gives people, you don’t have to deal with life’s troubles or issues head on, believing you have a truth and a father figure looking over you is the kind of comfort most look for and what is most attractive about the LDS faith.  After a hymn was sung, a young woman gave her speech on the topic of “the priesthood”. The most interesting part of the talk was when she spoke about how  fathers carry the priesthood into their own home, that they bring “ a bubble of Christ’s protection over the household”, that they are responsible for keeping the religion in the home. This was interesting to me; I didn’t really see it as misogyny but it certainly reinforcing some amount of gender roles.  The idea that the man is the “head of the household” reminds me of ‘50s sitcoms. In my family my mother is the breadwinner, and my stepfather takes care of us and the home, so this did make me feel a little bit more... apprehensive.  In my opinion the mother, father and children view of the family is old fashioned and just simply unrealistic, however, in the Mormon faith you and your family spend eternity together so emphasis on the traditional family makes sense.   

After the service, it was time for Sunday school. I was Christian at a point in my life so I do know the Bible to a certain extent.  I was quite curious if the bible study would be any different than the bible study I had in the Anglican and Catholic faith, to be honest it really wasn’t. Two girls who were new or visiting the ward were there, and the two of the teenage boys were flirting and showing off as obnoxiously as they could possible manage, making it incredibly hard to pay attention. The lesson itself was very similar to ones I had in the past.  The first verse we read was from Paul , it was about a widow who wanted her husband’s death avenged, she went to a judge who at first denied her but  after she went to again and again he gave in.  The teacher interpreted i it as that you must pray often and sincerely to get your prayer’s answered.   The rest was the same pretty basic stuff I’ve always learned, be inclusive, and pray often. 

 

The last part was “ young women’s” which I suppose would be the equivalent to a youth group in a more mainstream part of Christianity,  however it is  gender segregated and it is more lesson orientated.  This is where the lessons began to greatly differ from what I have learned before. The lesson was on “Temple Marriages”. In the LDS church families are “ sealed” together,  to spend eternity in the afterlife.  These sealing’s can only happen in temples, and when a Mormon couple is married they are sealed.  She read quotes from former Mormon prophets about what will happen in the afterlife if you marry outside of a temple, apparently you become a servant in the afterlife, and separate from your loved ones.  It occurred to me then that this religion is about what happens after you die and less about living for your life now.  If I believed in the doctrines of the faith that idea would be quite frightened by the prospect of being a servant for eternity. I think I enjoy living for my life, I know this is the only life I will get I want to enjoy myself and live for my loved ones and myself as best I can.

  Over all I take from the experience just the shear amount of scarifies one makes by taking part in the church, you need strong faith, commitment and a belief in the reward you will receive after death. It was overall a positive and interesting experience.

The Challenge

Hello All,
We have decided to get together in the spirit of religious tolerance and explore the different belief systems in our hometown. There are many churches and temples to be seen, and much to be learned. After each service we attend, two blogs will be written; each displaying a different perspective. There will be no "bible bashing" or judgmental comments, though some things may be critical, but we will keep it respectful as that is how we would like other's to treat us and our beliefs.
We did not start this with an intent to offend people, rather, as an exploratory experience for ourselves and others. If we offend anyone, we apologize in advance. So we hope you enjoy learning about religions and cultures with us :)

                                                                          -Becca and Hannah