How extensive is your Church's sign of peace?

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Episcopalian Masses are literally a mirror image of Catholic ones, prior to the translation changes that went down a couple years ago.

With my experience in Catholic Masses, the sign of peace is a 20 second affair, you make a slow circle in place and shake the surrounding hands saying “peace be with you.”.

Imagine my surprise that when during the Episcopalian sign of peace, everyone jumps out of their pews starts hugging, chit chatting, shaking hands, wandering throughout the sanctuary wishing peace to everyone, holding up the peace sign (a “V” with index and middle finger), etc. The whole thing takes several minutes.

Its happened at every Episcopalian Mass I’ve attended, regardless of whether it was in a city or suburb.

Is this unique to Episcopalianism or was my Catholic experience a little too stoic?
 
There are a tiny handful of Catholic Masses that have a sign of peace where people hug, wander through the sanctuary greeting each other, etc. These are generally Masses for a group of people who know each other very well, such as a school group or charismatic group, so everybody is comfortable with this type of expression.

At a normal Mass, and even at most Masses involving groups who know each other well, a long social “sign of peace” is frowned upon. First of all, the sign of peace is not supposed to stop the Mass for minutes on end and people aren’t supposed to be leaving their seats to go find their friends, etc. At most, the priest might go up and down the aisle shaking hands, but even a lot of priests frown on that. Second of all, many Catholics are not comfortable with long signs of peace or with doing the sign of peace at all; some of them come from cultures where people are not effusive, some of them don’t want to be touching a lot of strangers or touching their hands, some of them think it’s non-traditional and/or disrespectful to God to be walking around in Mass having social time.

For all these reasons, the Catholic sign of peace tends to be under 1 minute, during which you may hug and kiss your family sitting around you, shake hands or wave to the people around you in the pews, or just do an upraised hand (some do the “peace sign” V) to the whole church around you, especially if you’re not sitting near anybody. And a number of priests skip the Sign of Peace entirely, which is fine with me. The people in my life that I need to be making peace with in my life in order to go receive Holy Communion are generally not the ones sitting around me at Mass. They aren’t even Catholic, don’t live near me, etc. Therefore, the gesture has kind of lost its meaning and become empty social time.
 
There is no set rule. I’ve been to Episcopal parishes that either did not do the sign of peace at all, or barely turned and shook a neighbor’s hand. Ditto for Catholic parishes. It depends on the priest and custom of the parish.
 
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The “sign of peace” is, to an extent, dependent on local customs and not necessarily rubrics.

And, the duration, depends on, I guess, on the execution of the Order of the Mass.

At my parish (although it often spills over) the execution of the Sign of Peace ends with the beginning of the Agnus Dei.

And of course there is the never ending argument about what “can” be said, and what physical actions “can” be exercised.

I myself prefer the “kiss of peace”, but understand this is extremely off putting, especially to Americans who want a personal space that is not “invaded”.

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, like everything else, if reasonable judgment is used, it is the intent of one’s actions, and not some rigid choreography that matters. This falls into the same category of argument that hands should not be held during the Our Father, or those not receiving the Blessed Sacrament should not approach the table with arms crossed for a blessing while abstaining.

But, that’s just me.
 
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YourNameHere said:
Christians seem to check their Christianity at the door as they leave the church. Like they are punching a time clock and getting ready to go out into the world.
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This is a HUGE overgeneralization, and it gets a bit tiring to hear it.
Some Christians do what you said, some try to practice their Christianity all week long, and some generally practice their Christianity but have one or two issues or people that they actively struggle with.
Some Christians also differ on how Christianity is supposed to be practiced in daily life, for example with respect to political policy.

Please don’t make blanket generalizations and please stay on the topic of the thread.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
some generally practice their Christianity but have one or two issues or people that they actively struggle with.
Some Christians also differ on how Christianity is supposed to be practiced in daily life, for example with respect to political policy.
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I think these things would cover the most observant and devout of American Catholics.

For a just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again: but the wicked shall fall down into evil. Proverbs 24:16

Surely there is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
Ecclesiastes 7:20

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 3:23
 
In the Episcopal church, I believe it is known as a communion service, not a Mass.
 
It depends how “High Church” it is.

I regularly attend a High Church Episcopal Parish styled as “Anglo-Catholic”. They have High Masses every Sunday at 11, which has all the “smells and bells” akin to a bishops visit on a High Holy Day.

Their Low Mass at 9 is the standard Catholic pre-Vatican II style.

I’ve also attended more Broad Church Episcopal parishes, where they label their Sunday worship anywhere between: Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist, Worship Service with Holy Communion, etc.

Low Church Episcopal parishes are pretty rare. I have yet to find one, tbh!
 
Episcopalian said:
How extensive is your Church’s sign of peace?
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You might try running a poll here, with three answers to choose from:
  1. Too extensive, too noisy, too gushing
  2. Just right
  3. Not extensive enough, too reserved, not enough warmth
My hunch is that #1 would score at least 75 percent, maybe 80 percent or higher.
 
  • Too extensive, too noisy, too gushing
  • Just right
  • Not extensive enough, too reserved, not enough warmth
0 voters
 
I voted not extensive enough. Here in the frozen north we are passive-aggressive laconic Nordic/German types. Unless they are family members sitting with each other, most people don’t even shake, they just nod and grimace. 🙂
 
In my parish it’s not too bad. Most people stay in their pew and shake hands with those around them. At a weekday Mass you see more movement because people generally sit several pews apart so have to move to shake hands with anyone.
 
Ours is under a minute. The slow circle approach.

I have, several years ago, attended a Church Service of the American Catholics (Old Catholic, not in communion with the pope) where every person greeted every other person in attendance. Including the Celebrant(s). Took perhaps 5 or so minutes for the 30 or so people there.
 
I can’t vote the poll because I attend too many churches for a consistent answer.

I prefer when they just leave it out. It’s hard to keep up with all the different church’s customs and determine whether you should wave or shake hands.
 
At our parish – not very extensive; for the most part, only those in the immediate vicinity are involved. There is no crossing of aisles, unless the person on the other side happens to be a family member or close friend. It’s all under control and over in less than a minute.

D
 
What the OP describes is very similar to my experience of the sign of peace at Catholic Masses in the Dominican Republic. People leave their pews and hug and kiss… some parishes even have music playing as people make the rounds.

Here in Vancouver it is very subdued. At many parishes, including the cathedral, a bow of the head usually takes precedence over hand shaking, probably due to the massive Asian influence.
 
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