What an amazing way to spend Easter day, and it wasn't even purposeful. I had meant to take a bus downtown to catch First Presbyterian Church and First United Methodist Church in downtown Salt Lake City, but it turns out the busses aren't running today. I did manage to get back to my car before 11am though and looked up a service that would be occurring around that time from a Church I hadn't attended (or denomination I hadn't visited yet for Holy Week).
Community of Grace Presbyterian Church is a medium sized congregation who has a lot of energy. One of the first things I noticed when the service began was how common call and responses were...it was the most outward passion I've seen in a Christian community in a long time.
As for the look of the church, the theme today was purple. Which is ironic a bit since Purple was the royalty of Rome but Christianity came to adopt as the nobility for Jesus. As far as I know it has no historical basis in Judaism, it comes directly from the world that ended up adopting the religion from the small sect of Jews who founded Christianity.
The sermon itself had aspects of the High Church (which is shown in the colors throughout the Church too...I've never seen High Church symbolism adopted by the newer Christian sects only those that came out of the Reformation). The big difference that separated it, since the hymns were traditional hymns that are in any Traditional service with some modern hymns thrown in for good measure was the call and response. After the confession of sins and was the forgiveness of sins spoken by the pastor in Jesus's name. The beginning was beautiful since through the music and confession there were moments of silence taken which allowed great time for reflection. It didn't feel rushed.
The sermon itself was "Rejoicing in the Graveyard" which was the story of Mary in John and how Jesus found her when she was mourning for him missing from the tomb. This was tied into the Christian theme of God finding us. He told the story of a baby his friend a fellow pastor had found who the mother had entrusted to the church since she was an addict. It was a powerful story but chance and the action or lack of action in regards to love...and our desire to be loved and safe.
Given that I have no idea of Jesus was/is literal God for me the power in the story was that by being present with ourselves where we are the good and right action will come to us. When we allow ourselves to not be consumed but aware...our mind will lead us to right action if we give it the chance.
The story of Easter reminds me of the power those who have died has on us too. I've heard stories of people seeing or hearing loved ones who have died. Whether it actually happened or not is beside the point, but many times it inspires the person to action. Just like it did with Mary and Apostles. Sadly, many times it takes someone dieing to realize how significant they were in our lives. I don't believe in any person or persons as God(s) but I do believe in the power we have to inspire one another and the power that sacrafice has in peoples' lives.
The service ended with collection, three prayers...one beautifully sung by the pastor, one silent prayer and one where people called out communities and people in their thoughts. Finally it ended with the Lord's prayer and all the congregation holding hands with a call to live Christlike. It was powerful, and I do think I'll visit here again.
So far, I must say I have had overwhelming positive experiences with Presbyterian Churches and the Presbyterian community. I attribute this largely to having friends who are like family and mentors to me as being a big part of this. This visit was a nice break after a long day and waking up early in the morning sick...it was here where I saw people using their faith in intention and action.
At the evening prayer there was the head of Tent City 4, the homeless community that looks after those in transition and those without. The Eastshore Unitarian Church has hosted them before as have a few communities in the U-District too. It was there the pastor got in touch with him after the service as did I to shoot some contacts who I knew his way to help with making sure they have a space and money for getting a van.
It was at the prayer I saw the inspiration of where that came from. All 3 of the members referenced the new testament and how Jesus praised the poor and how riches did not matter. They talked about how an incarnate God was most at him helping and being with those who had less. There were many powerful prayers, even for me as a non-believer. They also prayed for my teaching in Taiwan in January, which really matters very little in compared with Tent City 4 and the homeless.
It was there that at least in that small group the chance for virtue in action was apparent and where for them that virtue was inspired from. The only downside was one guy went on about the Devil and false Christians which for me again, has always been a red flag. Usually when people talk about a character of malice it is as it is giving them permission to act the same towards strangers and speak generally about people they haven't met and do not know.
Suffice to say it was a great visit and in coming days I'm going to do what I can with connecting people to the Tent City and helping as I can before I leave to Taiwan.
In my experience with looking for Churches and faith communities to visit, one thing I have noticed is among many of the Protestant Denominations...there don't tend to be that many church worship services. Most churches usually meet once for worship on Sunday and that's the extent of the community all together honoring God as a congregation. This has lead to me sadly missing a lot of churches. I haven't been good at waking up early at all, which means I'd only be able to catch evening services. This in turn has limited my visits to a few faith communities in the Seattle and Issaquah areas.
I found out today that University Presbyterian has evening services though! This was nice considering the only other Church besides the Newman Center near the University of Washington, Generation Church, and the U-District Mars Hill...I was lacking in places to visit for the first time.
The first thing I noticed about University Presbyterian was it's size. The outside architecture was like a Cathedral and this carried into the worship hall which had stained glass windows telling the story of the life of Jesus.
The Church was alive and had more then just youth and old people (in the U-District most churches are either people 40 years old and plus (with 1 or 2 families) or full of people in their 20's and younger (Generation Church and Mars Hill). This Church had the happy medium between that age divide that makes up the U-District churches.
The service itself was a mixture of christian rock for devotional (the music sounded Coldplayish and the female lead sounded like the lead singer from Pomplamoose). It was great and again I noticed the similarity between romantic verse religious music in relationship to love songs, a person letting go everything for the one they love.
The sermon was good, it was general and could pretty much be tied to any sort of goal or journey in life, in which the journey matters as much as the destination...and that in the suffering of the journey happiness can be found. Psalm 126 was used as the example. During the service a woman talked about serving people in South Africa and service to AIDS victims in the organization she helped found that has been growing. Jesus was used as the inspiration in both in how the senior pastor posed his questions, "How has God through Jesus changed your life in unexpected ways?" as an example.
I think we as people do get so lost trying to get the destination or goal that we can lose sight of everything learned upon the way. We can miss out on living and being whole right now, as we work towards growth and goals. This was actually something College taught me really well, and I have experienced it in other ways upon my journey and have seen it in other people's lives whether it's a faith journey or any other goal in life.
After I was invited to a dinner that's thrown after every evening service and was treated to a delicious salad and pizza. The church certianly knows how to look after it's community, and after seeing the different organizations they're connected to saw how they were involved with helping the mentally ill, sick or homeless here in Washington.
It was a rewarding experience, and I must say, I'm quite grateful for the evening church service of past days and today.
The First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue. How to describe it? This was my third time visiting this church. The first time was with my friend Anna and her family, who I've adopted as another family, and the second time was to hear the amazing Bel Canto choir performance. Mr. Lund, my friend's Anna's father, also offered for me to interview him if I wasn't able to interview the reverend. I don't remember the services from those visits, so I paid close attention to the service today.
Before we get into the visit. What do Presbyterians believe? Presbyterianism came out of the reformation movement, specifically John Calvin. His beliefs are similar to those of Martin Luther in how all believers are called to the priesthood, the core authority of scriptures, salvation through faith alone and original sin. John Calvin was more extreme on certain tenants in some cases.
Next was John Knox of Scotland who brought Democracy to how the Church was run, while following Calvinistic principles. The Presbyterian Church later made it's mark early in America's history, split during the Civil War and then reunited during 1983. It became the official Church of Scotland in 1690. Here is more on the history of the church: http://christianity.about.com/od/presbyteriandenomination/a/presbyhistory.htm
As can be expected from a Christian faith, Jesus was the main theme. The service began with a woman playing the xylophone and another woman on the piano. The large building was almost empty due to it being summer, but slowly filled up completely as the song ended. Then two psalms were read, with a song inbetween, that focused on the glory of heaven and it's beauty: psalm 84 (Open now thy gates of beauty) and psalm 118 (I love thy Kingdom, Lord).
I felt a bit off initially. The focus on Jesus felt as if mattered more then being a good person, and that it was the only way to be a good person in the church's eyes. Knowing good atheists and agnostics, and myself being an agnostic theist perpetuated the feeling of separateness and judgment. That changed when the prayer was said, though.
The prayer said by the Reverend was one of the most beautiful prayers I've heard. He didn't call for people to come to God, or even special treatment for his faith community. His prayer was for everyone. For all who were suffering, for all who needed help, for all students, and for God to be there for people in their trails and embrace them in His love. It was a beautiful prayer that I only sensed genuineness from.
Then came the sermon on Luke 5:1-11. The passage is about the miracle of the fishes, in which Jesus is preaching and has Simon Peter cast off of shore so he can preach from the boat. After he finishes preaching he tells Simon Peter to cast in deep water for fish, even though no fish had been caught that day. Simon Peter does catch fish though, because Jesus says so. The boats get filled with fish and he falls on his knees saying, "Lord I am a sinner, leave me." Then Jesus says he will make him a fisher of men, and Peter joins him.
First the reverend gave he historical context of the story, and promoted his "Easy Bible Study" on Wednesdays (both in seriousness and as a joke) before going on about how Simon Peter grew up a fisherman and how that was all he knew, so trusting a man from 'High Rise Galilee' was a big deal.
Then the reverend used the story as an example of how Jesus is always with us, if we just let him on the boat, if we trust like Peter did. He told the story of a poor woman who had gotten an abortion and was feeling guilty. The woman and the reverend improvised a prayer together and both experienced healing and grace. He said that by letting Jesus on the boat, the truth of ourselves is revealed and we are given a chance to be a part of God's plan.
It was a beautiful sermon, and the story was powerful and personal, and I found I could relate to it in the metaphorical sense. I could never be baptized because I don't believe a person can be God, or that salvation can happen through a person or deity. To me the story acts as a metaphor to the light we can hold up within ourselves, to be honest about the good and bad that makes us up, and to forgive ourselves and grow. Basically what being born again is like, minus God. We use the archetype of Jesus in us, I think going off of Jungian philosophy, and we use that part of ourselves to make peace with our mistakes, forgive, love and grow. I've experienced that transformation first hand, both without thinking of a higher power, and with thinking of a higher power. The stories I shall save for another day. The point is that transformation happened though, that light was shown to reveal myself in my entirety, in order for guilt to turn to forgiveness and change and then action; transformation if you will.
After service I talked to the reverend briefly, but he was too busy to interview. So I took up Mr. Lund on his offer. Since he'd been in seminary for a year, while going to college in Chicago, Illinois. The discussion was amazing.
I learned about how his search to make sense of God began in junior high, when he asked himself if he believed or not. He found he did, and from there decided a personal God was the only God that mattered. He also related the core principles of Christianity on why he chose Christianity. The core principles being 1) Love God, 2) love people because God loves people.
We talked about the problem of evil in the world, and Mr. Lund said he couldn't answer why some random evils happen, but discovered within his own life, how trials, pain and suffering became agents growth, new community and change.
We talked mortality, life and death finding that we agreed that there is so much growth that can come out of the pain of losing someone close, and then growing closer to the people you were around, but never knew, and the friendships that come out of that. It was a great way to end the discussion.
What would I say are the pros and cons of Presbyterianism? The pros are you are part of a community that cares about making a difference and is run by a democratic process. Elders are nominated by members of the community and then voted on by the congregation; Deacons are nominated and elected as well. It is then the Elder's role to help the community and church in their specialties (Psychology, finance, etc.) and act as a Board of Trustees. Deacons are there to serve the community in counseling, welcoming and service. They serve three year terms. I wish more churches elected their leaders so that the leaders would be direct accountability to their community. The community members are their for each other in small groups, Elders, Deacons and pastors. The music is also a major pro, there is a modern service with a more rock n' roll feel and a traditional service where the amazing Bel Canto Choir performs. The community is also involved in service worldwide, helping war orphans in Rwanda, and Christians and poor people in Cambodia, as well as the poor at the Jubilee Reach Center in Bellevue.
One of the cons of First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue is it's size. There is something for everyone, but it is hard to form any close bonds after service due to the sheer amount of people. There are four services, and thousands of people attend the church.
The cons if you're not a christian: Let's just say, Jesus saves, no one else. You can question your faith and Presbyterianism believe you should, but I don't think anyone who doesn't take the Bible as fact and Jesus as the messiah would do well in this community. This is a universal con across Christiandom for the most part. If you aren't saved, you're sick, because you are refusing to accept the Good News. This is the darker side to the mission work, since since the greatest way to live love for many in the Christian community is to convert people to the Good News (aka the Gospel), when in fact what the Good News means in it's entirity has been debated for centuries. This has never jived with me, and was one of my reasons for leaving the Mormon Church, since it's one interpretation of the Good News being seen as the only true way.
I was so grateful to visit the First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue again with one of my adopted families and to have discussed mortality, faith, and God with Mr. Lund and learned about how leadership in the Church works from Mrs. Lund. The Faith like any faith community has it's pros and cons, but I believe the Presbyterian Church is doing a lot of good in their community and the world.
