Differences in protestant services -- how many use some ceremony?

The_Reginator

The_Reginator

Active member
I know that there is no such thing as "The Protestant Church", unlike "The Catholic Church", BUT I'm curious about the varieties of protestant services.

MY ACTUAL QUESTION:
How many protestant churches practice some degree of ritual or ceremony in their Sunday services?

I know that Anglicans use a lot of ceremony in their "Matins" and "Eucharistic" services. I'm GUESSING that Lutherans do as well. After having access to the Internet I found some talk about the Methodists possibly leaning more toward the Catholic side rather than the evangelical ways of worship. I really know nothing about them though.

The following is just some of my background ... not REALLY necessary in answering my inquiry, but POSSIBLY of use in understanding where I'm coming from:
I grew up as a "low church" Anglican. In university, although surrounded by many evangelical-type protestants, I was becoming more and more Catholic in my beliefs. When my Catholic wife-to-be had to tell her father what religion I was, I made up what I thought was a new "designation": I told her to say that I was an "Anglo-Catholic'. (After attending Sunday Mass with her for almost 15 years I finally came home to the Catholic Church when I was 38 years old.)

As a Cub Scout, around about the age of 8-10, we went to a United Church as a group one Sunday. It was all very confusing to me. There was no "order of service" as they called it in the Anglican church back then (at least). A decade or more later I found that the nearest church to my university was a Pentecostal church, so I went there for a bit. Now THAT was a shock.

- Reg
 
Anglicans are all over the place in their relative resemblance to Catholicism. Some Anglican liturgies are very close to the TLM if it were in English. Their 1928 BCP contains a Eucharistic liturgy that has a very stern warning about receiving the Body and Blood unworthily. If there had to be any changes made to the Catholic Mass, I would welcome something such as this.

I can't speak so much for Lutherans, but from what I understand, they are fairly conservative in their liturgies.

Methodists are probably more similar to "low church" Anglicans, indeed, that is kind of how they started out. There is a definite order of service. I was surprised to learn not too long ago, that they believe in a kind of "real presence" for their Eucharist, though obviously they do not possess it, as they lack both valid orders and a priesthood. IOW, it is more to them than merely a symbol.
 
It is nowhere near liturgy as I know it, but the various flavors of Pentecostal churches in my area always follow the same pattern.
  • First they have Sunday School.
  • Then they have some kind of song service
  • Then they take up some kind of collection. The children are encouraged here to do some kind of 'penny march' to try and collect spare change from people.
  • Then they have the message from the pastor or some guest preacher.
    • NOTE - this message can and often is interrupted by various acts of God, (healing, prayer in tongues, general excitement)
    • Also note that the more charismatic the preacher is, the more often the crowd sees these interruptions. Not certain if it is a causal relationship or a corollary.
  • And this is followed by some kind of social function (potluck dinner).

The entirety takes a few hours.

I am amazed at their preachers. The pressure must be enormous to have an hours long message upwards of three times a week.
 
vz71 said:
It is nowhere near liturgy as I know it, but the various flavors of Pentecostal churches in my area always follow the same pattern.
  • First they have Sunday School.
  • Then they have some kind of song service
  • Then they take up some kind of collection. The children are encouraged here to do some kind of 'penny march' to try and collect spare change from people.
  • Then they have the message from the pastor or some guest preacher.
    • NOTE - this message can and often is interrupted by various acts of God, (healing, prayer in tongues, general excitement)
    • Also note that the more charismatic the preacher is, the more often the crowd sees these interruptions. Not certain if it is a causal relationship or a corollary.
  • And this is followed by some kind of social function (potluck dinner).

The entirety takes a few hours.

I am amazed at their preachers. The pressure must be enormous to have an hours long message upwards of three times a week.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is my experience from decades of Pentecostal and Baptist worship. There is a liturgical form, and you probably dasn't step in and try to mess with it.

Dxx
 
vz71 said:
It is nowhere near liturgy as I know it, but the various flavors of Pentecostal churches in my area always follow the same pattern.
  • First they have Sunday School.
  • Then they have some kind of song service
  • Then they take up some kind of collection. The children are encouraged here to do some kind of 'penny march' to try and collect spare change from people.
  • Then they have the message from the pastor or some guest preacher.
    • NOTE - this message can and often is interrupted by various acts of God, (healing, prayer in tongues, general excitement)
    • Also note that the more charismatic the preacher is, the more often the crowd sees these interruptions. Not certain if it is a causal relationship or a corollary.
  • And this is followed by some kind of social function (potluck dinner).

The entirety takes a few hours.

I am amazed at their preachers. The pressure must be enormous to have an hours long message upwards of three times a week.
Click to expand...
Yes, lacking the Eucharistic sacrifice and the Real Presence, music and preaching is about all they have. Their churches rise and fall upon how good both of these are perceived as being. OTOH, in the Catholic Church, the music could be awful and the sermon could be utterly uninspiring, but it wouldn't make any difference. The important things remain intact.

I once accompanied a friend of mine to a Pentecostal-style service with what they called "the Lord's Supper". (Don't worry, I didn't partake.) The deacon, or whatever he was, said words to the effect of "we really don't understand why we do this", and I just sat there thinking "oh, I could help you out with that part!". Outside of the unbloody sacrifice by the priest, and the Real Presence of Our Lord, it makes little sense. In this respect, it is the Catholics who are the biblical literalists.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
Yes, lacking the Eucharistic sacrifice and the Real Presence, music and preaching is about all they have.
Click to expand...
And that is why they say we worship saints, Mary, etc.
Without a true form of worship, they mistakenly believe simple petition and prayer is worship.
HomeschoolDad said:
The deacon, or whatever he was, said words to the effect of "we really don't understand why we do this", and I just sat there thinking "oh, I could help you out with that part!".
Click to expand...
Agreed, we know why we do this.
We have the liturgy, a real priest, tradition, scripture, and sacrament.
I have no idea why they are doing anything...without liturgy, real priesthood, real Eucharist...they are just pretending.
I imagine an adult would feel kind of foolish, having grown past childish pretend games.

I did have occasion to watch a "Lord's Supper" celebration at my wife's church.
Wanting me to participate, several people (a particularly alarming number of former Catholics) tried to convince me that they had transubstantiation.
They all tried to convince themselves that God was present in the saltines and grape juice they were serving up.

Then I watched as their celebration ended, and the leftover saltines were tossed into the dog's dish and the leftover juice was poured down the drain.
 
vz71 said:
Agreed, we know why we do this.
We have the liturgy, a real priest, tradition, scripture, and sacrament.
I have no idea why they are doing anything...without liturgy, real priesthood, real Eucharist...they are just pretending.
I imagine an adult would feel kind of foolish, having grown past childish pretend games.

I did have occasion to watch a "Lord's Supper" celebration at my wife's church.
Wanting me to participate, several people (a particularly alarming number of former Catholics) tried to convince me that they had transubstantiation.
They all tried to convince themselves that God was present in the saltines and grape juice they were serving up.

Then I watched as their celebration ended, and the leftover saltines were tossed into the dog's dish and the leftover juice was poured down the drain.
Click to expand...

In their defense, they perform the "Lord's Supper" because Christ said to, "do this in memory of Me". St Paul also warns against receiving the Body of Christ unworthily, which implies that this ordinance is to be done time and again among Christians. Denominations vary widely as to how often they do it.

Belief in a kind of "real presence" breaks out like this:

  • Anglicans - Christ is truly present, the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, but they do not sharply define how this happens. Traditional Anglicans (i.e., those using the 1928 BCP) have a piscina in the sacristy just as we do. I cannot speak for more contemporary-oriented Anglicans. Traditional Anglicans also have what they call "reserved sacrament" in a tabernacle, basically identical to Catholic practice.
  • Lutherans - Christ is truly present, in a kind of "sacramental union". I have heard of Lutherans having reserved sacrament, but I do not know how widespread this is. I don't know how they dispose of elements such as water used to rinse the chalice and so on.
  • Methodists - Christ is truly present, though they define it no further than that. Likewise, I don't know how they handle "leftovers", crumbs, and so on.
  • All other denominations treat it as more or less a symbolic supper.
What denomination was your wife's church?
 
vz71 said:
Pentecostal.
Her particular variety was founded either 30 years ago or 100 years ago depending on who you talk to.
Click to expand...

It's hard to imagine how Pentecostals would even know about transubstantiation, let alone try to get a Catholic to think their "Lord's Supper" possesses it. So far as I am aware, they treat it solely as a memorial, and are simply obeying Scripture as they perceive it.
 
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