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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2005-11-04 - 7:52 a.m. From Frankinsense to fish A short lesson from Theo's personal comparitive religions course: I am a Methodist, a Southern one. I have more Catholic leanings than my mother understands, mostly because of my interest in history and, yo, no Methodists in it until much later than the Middle Ages. I don't think the medieval times were organized enough for Methodists. We had to wait into the 18th century, when clocks were more widely avaialble. Southern Methodism had to wait until the 19th, when covered dish technology matured. I had never been to an All Soul's Service, till Elee and I went Wednesday night, lured by the promise of a beautiful Requiem. After a randomly splendid dinner of Mexican with respectably sangria, we slid into the choir just ahead of, well, the choir. The National Cathedral is run by the Episcopal Chruch, a denomination I've heard jokingly refered to as Catholic lite. What I don't understand about both types of services is the exercise routine. I really have no idea why the congregation ends up standing through half the service. Methodists, being very practical people, stand up to sing cause it works better that way, but we tend to sit when the choir sings. Also, the incense - not so much a thing. Lots of frankinsense or myrrh involved in a rememberance service. There's always these small distractions in an unfamiliar order of worship. But the service and the music were sweet and strong. The priest (do they call them priests or preachers?) did a fabulous homily. (and why homily versus sermon?) (The first time I heard it referred to as a homily I thought of grits. You know, hominy grits? Nevermind.) The communion wine tasted just a bit like the sangria. Organized religion is full of idiosyncarcies. Like the ladies needing to wear hats at Easter, yet the men must remove their headcoverings year round in a sanctuary. In a mosque, the ladies have to have a head covering; the men, a yamaka. Oh, and in Italy, women may not wear tank tops in churches. Clevage is okay, but no bare shoulders before God. They'll chase you around until you put on a blue paper poncho. God certainly is regionally picky about which naked body parts he doesn't like. Now, Shinto services, I both enjoy and do not understand. Wisely, our Japanese translator simply said I don't think it can be translated. when we asked why fish, fruit and beer were involved in forming an altar. Some things, you can only understand if you were born to them. � � � 
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