Saturday of the First Week of Lent Service- The Cathedral Church of Saint Mark - Salt Lake City, UT - March 15th, 2014

        My visit to the Cathedral Church of Saint Mark was for me a chance to see a lot of what I like about organized religion, mixed with the reason on why I don't see myself ever becoming a complete believer in a Deity, and why I consider myself Agnostic.

     What I like about religion is social action and involvement with helping surrounding area and community, the quiet place for thought it can give as well as a place to think on ethics and in many cases provide good ethics as well as social justice in regards to helping the poor and equal rights and treatment of women and members of the LBGTQ community.

     First to describe the location. The church is old, dating back to the late 1800's and has two buildings connected to it. The Episcopal Center of Utah, which is their headquarters and the Hildegarde's food pantry, which provides food to homeless in the area.
   

    The pantry is somewhere I could see myself volunteering because of the direct action and help it gives in peoples lives. It also doesn't discriminate like some religious agencies and groups do in regards to who they help and serve. This living love and treating all with fairness and equality is what I look for in any group, especially one that ties so much of its identity into something greater than itself.

         The main building has a gate and garden, as well as a bell at the very top. Inside the Cathedral is the main area with the altar and on the other side a beautiful organ, much like Cathedral of the Madeleine's, the Catholic Cathedral that is the street behind Saint Mark's. The area where we had the service was in a tiny chapel that was right next to the main altar. It was here that the Eucharist was kept and candles covered another altar.

          Now for the service. At the service there were four people present, including the priest. The priest was a kind older man from Tennessee. The service began with the Confession of Sin and after Trisagion, which reads:

Holy God,

Holy and Mighty,

Holly Immortal One,

Have Mercy Upon us.

   After were the readings, which were Genesis, when Abram is blessed by God and goes out, followed up by Paul's Letter to the Romans about how Spirit can only beget Spirit and Flesh can only beget flesh, and ending with Jesus's famous quote from that day's reading from John about "No one can come through the Father except through me," and that the "Son did not come to condemn, but to save."

 

        The homily described faith as the main thing that Grace is something so beyond us that we can never understand it, but that it gives us more than we know. I understand the idea theologically of Grace but find that I can't fully believe in it or really anything like it...whatever comes from something that I cannot see or know I can only doubt. This is a major reason I don't think I could join most organized religions. I may think there is something greater simple due to probability for the complexity of life and possibilities of the universe. But I cannot know. There is no way for me to test, so I continue to explore and learn and grow. It is in these halls that the ethics of Christ's life are an inspiration to me and the social action in the community of truly living with love towards all. 

    It was a great service and I enjoyed talking to the priest and two of the colder congregants afterword. We mostly talked about how much Salt Lake City has changed and a bit more of the community of Saint Mark's. Who I look forward to visiting again.