A couple of weeks ago Amy came to me and asked me what I planned on doing for Lent. Now from time to time she and I will go through the practice of discipline through the time of Lent. But this year she wanted to take it up a notch and experience Ash Wednesday service. I wasn’t too keen on going to a Catholic service, nothing personal just already been there done that, so we decided to go to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. A friend of ours goes there so we decided to give it a go. We began the period of Lent by going to Shrove Tuesday pancake breakfast/dinner at St. Michael’s. Shrove Tuesday, from what I could gather, was their alternative to Fat Tuesday.
So after eating an early dinner with friends we drove on over to experience our rare high church experience. The night began with a priest explaining the purpose of Ash Wednesday. The first thing he said that struck me as interesting was when the priest invited us to participate by saying, “All may, some should, none must.” From here we heard two passages of scripture with a sprinkling of liturgy. Afterwards the same priest that began the service then gave a homily. He took time to explain that Ash Wednesday was not something from God in scripture but something the Church instituted to remind us of our place before God as his creations. The ash represents how we were created from dust and how we will one day return to it. He went on to talk about how it is not something that carries any meaning except in the context of how it reminds us of our relationship with God. I was quite surprised by his explanation and concern for peoples relationship with God. It’s not so much that I didn’t believe him it’s just that for me growing up liturgy and high church practices were stereotyped as empty practices of people that were not very personal in their relationship with God. After this service my attitude and perception had changed and I was very appreciative of the attention given to communion with God through spiritual discipline. In the end I enjoyed it very much and I hope to go back and experience a little more of the high church tradition.
This continues to fuel my experimentation phase of church hopping. I have been for some time now trying out different churches. This is not so much in an effort to find one I like but rather as an educational experience. I grew up in the churches of Christ and have felt very good about many of the practices and beliefs held within that community of faith. I do however want to take the time to see other ways in which the Christian faith is being expressed. This is an exciting experience and one that I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and appreciation. I’m looking forward more new experiences.