One of the assignments that we have while at training is to attend a church in the area from a tradition that we are not used to. For example, someone who grew up in a contemporary, white, suburban mega-church would have to attend an urban African-American congregation for six weeks. At first it was challenging for Kathi and I to come up with something because both of us have had such a variety of church experiences. But, we noticed that there was an Episcopal church down the road from the center. Since neither of us have had much contact with a liturgical worship service, we decided this would definitely be different.
The church itself is this beautiful old stone building with a wooden arched ceiling and stained-glass windows. It felt like we were in some English hamlet. The service was much as we expected - very high-church. Surprisingly, I found myself worshiping even in ways that I don't normally. The liturgy, which follows the Anglican Common Book of Prayer, is rich and saturated with the Word. Even though the actual sermon was only 10 minutes, the worship was so Christ-focused and Word-centered that I did not feel as if I missed much.
Anyway, we're excited about the experience especially considering that the people we'll ministering to predominately come from a high-church background. On top of that, it was interesting observing how we dealt with a "cross-cultural" environment.
