What are your religious services like?

[jazzy_987]

If you aren’t Catholic, please explain as well as you can what they are like, I’m curious to see and compare them with the Catholic Mass.

Thanks!!

 

[Publisher]

We meet in expectation of the Living Presence in our midst.

We meet before worship for singing…then move into the Meeting for Worship…as we wait in the Living Silence and join with one another in the Light we center into the Presence. As one is moved to bring vocal ministry they do so. They stand and give ministry to those assembled in Meeting. Some may read a scripture passage or a passage from a book or offer a prayer or give a short homily as the Spirt moves among us.

We share with one another the Living Bread and Wine of the Presence…“communion after the manner of Friends”.

At the Clerk or one of the Elders discretion…Meeting is ended by everyone shaking hands…then announcements are made and Meeting is closed.

 

[strngrnrth]

Evangelical Friends: 10:40ish: start coming in through fellowship area. Have coffee or herbal tea, maybe a donated donut or homegrown fruit, etc. Enter sanctuary. Greeter gives you a bulletin and shakes your hand or, if familiar, a one-armed embrace. Usher points you to a pew. You sit and read announcements in bulletin. Wave and smile at friends coming in. Music committee starts playing contemporary worship music. A few modern songs, in which most people clap and sing or just sing. Most stand for this part. Then an old hymn from the hymnal or two. Thenyou sit. The pastor sits or stands and gives a fairly informal sermon, with Bible references. Using mostly pew Bibles (on this coast the NIV is the favorite by a wide margin), you read along with the Scripture reading. Then a time of “quiet” or “open worship” This isn’t usually very long. Pastor says, “Are all hearts clear?” Meaning are they all through with silent prayer, or with waiting for guidance or just letting turbulent thoughts settle. If it seems they are clear, pastor gives another short talk, perhaps, then some more music, announcements, guest speches, or holiday dramas. Collection is taken sometime in there. Then he dismisses you and you go wherever you’re going or just hang out in church and have fellowship.
Foursquare service: About 10:15: many people come in and have a freeform group prayer time, walking around, giving one another any insights and revelations they have for one another, touching objects that symbolize other people’s prayer requests. Greeters at the door hug you on your way in and give you a bulletin. At 10:30, the band is set up and plays several mostly uptempo songs, some original, and most people clap and sing. some dance. Then the pastor steps onto the platform and greets everyone. he asks you to “touch three/five/two people and say____” It always changes but usually it’s a greeting or uplifting phrase or a point of doctrine.Most but not all do this. These requests occur here and there through the service. Announcements which we are to read along with in our bulletins, usually come from another speaker. Then the musical reprise, baby dedications if any, and the offering. Offering buckets are passed through the pews, after a rousing, music-accompanied urging to give and an assurace we will be blessed if we do. Then pastor invites us to sit. He gives a sermon, perhaps half an hour to an hour long. We are referred to our Bibles to read along, sometimes aloud. It ends with a prayer invitation or an altar call. The band may play a reprise while we leave, but not normally when we have an altar call. On the wy in and out we have fellowship, usually without refreshments, and we can buy recorded sermons and music, religious books and other things. There is a table for newcomers to give and get info, one for the missionaries’ news and recruitment, and one for any fiund drives, etc. In both types of chuches, the children may go to a day care room or join the adults.
Does this help?

 

[jazzy_987]

Does this help?

Yes!!! Thanks to everyone who posted and will post later on.

 

[wynd]

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

 

[BrianH]

firstwichita.org/Worship/2007%20Services/05-20-2007%20Service/05-20-07%20bulletin.pdf

Methodist

 

[Syele]

If you aren’t Catholic, please explain as well as you can what they are like, I’m curious to see and compare them with the Catholic Mass.

Thanks!!

I used to attend an Episcopal church and it was very much like the Mass.

My current church is a very very small Assembly of God. the feeling is like a close Family getting ready to have dinner around the table. Of course there are no tables set up in the Sanctuary it’s just how it feels.

When we arrive there are greeters who hand us bulletins and a copy of tpe Magazine (Today’s Pentecostal Evangelical).

We gather in singing Praise and Worship songs. After the singing there are announcements and the children are dismissed to Children’s church.

Then the pastor opens up the floor for prayer requests. People just say what they are. People are polite and do not interrupt when another is speaking. It’s kind of an unspoken rule not to go on for a long time with explanations. If there is a serious need they go up front and they are anointed with oil and the elders of the church gather around them, lay hands on them and pray, Otherwise the Pastor says a prayer for all and reminds us to pray for each other during the week. Usually there is then more singing and the offering is taken.

It is not unheard of for us to get very involved in praise and worship and prayer time and end up skipping the sermon. But most services there is a sermon.

The sermon is after the offering. During the sermon the pastor reads whatever scripture readings he has chosen for that day, often it is entire chapters. Occasionally, people are invited up front for more prayer after the sermon. This is a response to what was preached.

We sing one more song, there is a closing prayer and are dismissed.

Once we are dismissed everyone stays there and spends time with our church family. There is usually lots of hugging and chatting going on. Sometimes they forget to leave a path out the door and I have trouble getting out. LOL

We only have Communion once a month.

 

[Verisimilitude]

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

How long is that service?

 

[Verisimilitude]

We meet in expectation of the Living Presence in our midst.

We meet before worship for singing…then move into the Meeting for Worship…as we wait in the Living Silence and join with one another in the Light we center into the Presence. As one is moved to bring vocal ministry they do so. They stand and give ministry to those assembled in Meeting. Some may read a scripture passage or a passage from a book or offer a prayer or give a short homily as the Spirt moves among us.

We share with one another the Living Bread and Wine of the Presence…“communion after the manner of Friends”.

At the Clerk or one of the Elders discretion…Meeting is ended by everyone shaking hands…then announcements are made and Meeting is closed.

Interesting answer, thanks.

Interesting thread.

 

[IanCorrigan]

If you aren’t Catholic, please explain as well as you can what they are like, I’m curious to see and compare them with the Catholic Mass.

Thanks!!

I’m a Pagan, and our ritual worship is pretty liturgical. We have ‘ordinary’ sections which are largely the same from rite to rite, and then the specific works done for each holy day or occasion.

Our work begins by sort-of creating a symbolic model of our cosmic order - we bless the elements of the rite, and ourselves, as we prepare to approach the Gods. We make a special effort to open ourselves to the Divine, and call the divine to us.

We worship through offering and sacrifice in our sect. We have completely rejected any sacrifice of blood or life, but we do make burnt or placed offerings of grain, oil, incense, flowers, and the like. We recite invocations and sing hymns of praise, making offerings as we go, and feel the presence of the deities in return.

When we have brought ourselves near the Gods (and vice versa) we ask the Gods to bless us in turn. Usually we bless a cup of drink, as most all cultures have done. Sometimes we have other blessing customs for holidays - ritual meals, passing between fires, etc.

Our rites combine poetry, visual art, song and a reverent heart to bring us in closer tune to the divine.

If you promise to be kind, and not harrass us Pagans, you can have a look at some instructional (and therefore very staged) videos of our worship at
adf.org/rituals/videos/

More ADF ritual is available on youtube as well.
Ian

 

[uforever]

Peaceful and prayerful; but sometimes the speaker talks to much.
(as do many men)

 

[wynd]

How long is that service?

It varies, but usually around an hour and a half. On Sundays during Lent and a few other days, the Liturgy of St. Basil is used, which is somewhat longer. It is mostly the same, but many of the priest’s prayers are longer and there are some different congregational responses.

 

[PatienceAndLove]

I’m a Pagan, and our ritual worship is pretty liturgical. We have ‘ordinary’ sections which are largely the same from rite to rite, and then the specific works done for each holy day or occasion.

Sounds different than when I was pagan. But that may because the group I belonged to was very eclectic, so we used mostly Wiccan practices so there would be continuity.

When I was Pagan-
Each person representing the specific element would take their directional spot within the circle (north- earth, south- fire, east- air, west- water or something, I forgot most of it).
Someone would come around and smudge each person in the circle to remove negativity.
Then each elemental representative would begin an invocation and circle the circle, clockwise, with something representing their element in order to invoke the power and protection of the element. Who began was based on why the circle was created. Once the circle was created, the ritual work would begin, or the ritual to celebrate the Sabbat would begin. At the end, we would share cakes and ale, offering some of the cakes and ale to the Gods in offering.
The elemental representatives would then walk counter-clockwise around the circle dismissing the specific element.

If energy was being raised, those in the circle would hold hands and dance clockwise faster and faster, sometimes running, until a signal was given and everyone would stop and cast the energy into the universe (before the elements were dismissed)

Now, I am your run of the mill neo-Trad Catholic.

 

[Singinbeauty]

In the past few weeks I have come out of the church service with tears on my eyes. To boil it down to sections of what we do when only humanizes what is being done internally.

We start out by singing… obviously you can know how much I love doing this by my name. Sometimes the words catch in my throat because saying them outloud makes them so real.

Then, the offering is made. I always take this time to pray. To thank God for giving me the opportunity to come before Him in worship and that I may be open to learn from the message.

The pastor comes to the front, prays, and begins his message. We are just finishing up a study on Esther. Kind of interesting to hear the name Xerxes after recently watching ‘The 300’… It made it so real because this IS history!

The pastor says the prayer and we go home

I cry because everytime anyone during the service says ‘God loves YOU’ my soul just cries back WHY. I can’t even bring myself to say that He is worthy of my praise because I am not worthy enough to say it. For the past weeks I don’t think I have left dry eyed ONCE… It is such a personal experience.

You want to know the differences between a catholic mass and a protestant service? Why ask for differences instead of what makes us the same? Why break down the Body of Christ instead of building it up?

 

[KarenNC]

Sounds different than when I was pagan. But that may because the group I belonged to was very eclectic, so we used mostly Wiccan practices so there would be continuity.

ADF worship is very different than Wiccan and both may differ from the worship styles of other Neopagan religions. Given that they are separate religions with very separate cosmologies and goals for worship, not surprising. This is a good illustration of my point in mnay threads that there is not a single Pagan or Neopagan religion. Those are umbrella terms covering a number of very different religions.

 

[jazzy_987]

Why ask for differences instead of what makes us the same?

I’m just curious and want to learn about other religions/ denominations, thats all. I’ve never been to other churches except Catholic ones, and I’m just wondering.