Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod

Today we continued our odyssey by visiting a Lutheran church that some of our relatives attend every week. We have attended special services in honor of some of our cousins’ confirmations, but have never been to an “ordinary” Lutheran service. We learned quite a lot there today, and would like to share some of the differences between our own Catholic church and this Lutheran church.

One of the first things we noticed as we walked into the chapel was that there was no crucifix—only a cross, at the front of the chapel. This is because Protestants don’t believe in reproducing an image of God. However, other than the cross, the front of the chapel was set up basically the same way that our church is set up—candles around the altar, a chair for the pastor, and a “stand” where the pastor delivers his sermon.

The service also was very similar to a Catholic Mass—there were three readings, (although two of them were from the New Testament and only one was from the Old Testament) including a reading from the Gospel. However, the sermon was structured around one of Paul’s epistles to the Ephesians, instead of being structured around the Gospel reading, as it is in a Catholic church. Two of us especially liked the written program that we followed during the service because it told us when you stand, sit, and sing. At our church, if you are new to the service, you have to just copy what other people are doing because there is no written guide.

Our relatives explained to us that at their church, they take Communion on the first and third Sundays of the month. This is a difference from the Catholic tradition of taking it any time there is a Mass—since Communion is served at daily Mass as well as on Sundays.

When we read on the official Lutheran website that “Lutherans believe that Christ's body and blood are truly present in the Lord's Supper, but they do not believe, with Catholics, that the bread and wine, are permanently "changed into" Christ's body and blood,” we were very confused. After all, didn’t this mean the same thing? We decided to ask the pastor of the church after the service. We asked our question, and after giving his answer some thought, he told us that Lutherans believe Christ’s body and blood are inside the bread and wine, but they do not literally become the body and blood of Christ. In comparison, Catholics believe that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ—that there is no element of bread or wine in the substance after the bread and wine has been blessed. This was a very interesting concept, since most Protestant churches believe that the bread and wine is only a symbol of the body and blood of Christ, and nothing more. The pastor explained that the Lutheran beliefs about communion are much closer to Catholic beliefs than other Protestant faiths.

We are very glad that we visited this Lutheran church today, because we truly uncovered many similarities—and some differences—between the Catholic and Lutheran churches. 

-Soklabi

Oplatek: Polish Tradition

In eastern and central European countries (particularly Poland), "oplatek" is a Catholic tradition practiced at Christmas time. Oplatek (pronounced "oh-pwa-teck" is a wafer, always made of wheat flour and water. It looks like a Catholic communion wafer but it is embossed with scenes from the Bible, usually nativity scenes. People started the oplatek tradition because they wanted to have something like communion (the body of Christ) to share in their homes on Christmas eve. While oplatek wafers look a lot like communion wafers, they aren't blessed in the same way as communion wafers, so anybody can offer or eat them (not just Catholics and not just during Mass).

On Christmas eve, during dinner, people have two members of the family break off a piece of the wafer and offer each other good wishes usually related to good health or good luck. They start their supper with the wafer, breaking it and wishing another person good luck.

Many Catholic churches in the United States provide the congregation with oplatek wafers to take home and enjoy for Christmas. Today was the fourth and final Sunday of Advent (the waiting period before Christmas) and our church distributed them at the end of Mass.

There are so many Christmas traditions that different Christian denominations have. Some religions that do acknowledge Jesus do not celebrate Christmas at all. One religion that we will be learning about next week is Jehovah's Witnesses. We will interview a woman who is a practicing Jehovah's Witness. We have heard very little about their beliefs up until now but we have heard that Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas and we are interested in learning more about the beliefs of this religion. We will be sharing what we learn on this blog. If you have any questions you'd like us to ask, please let us know!

Catholic New Year

Today, we decided to go to Mass--but do something slightly different. We visited a different Catholic parish in our neighborhood. This visit showed us that although the main structure of the Mass is the same, each church is slightly different.

 

For example, we knelt at different times, the congregation welcomed three new members to the church, and we noticed that instead of drinking the wine from a chalice at communion time, most people just dipped their wafers in the wine. At this church, after the Gospel reading, a woman gave a speech that seemed to be the homily. Usually the priest or the deacon gives the homily, but apparently a woman  was permitted in this church. It also used to be that only boys could be alter servers. We wonder why. Our church has boys and girls as altar servers. The church we visited today had adult altar servers, both men and women.

Just like at our church, when we sat down, we noticed the four Advent candles--which told us that there were only four weeks until Christmas. The picture above shows the four candles, three of them purple, one of them pink. The first two purple candles show us that we are waiting hopefully for the birth of our Savior. The third candle, the pink one, is a sign of celebration, since that is the last week before Catholics light the final candle, the Christmas one, on Christmas Eve. Catholic churches all over the world have wreaths such as this one at the time of Advent--and, like the Mass, each is slightly different. 

Another cause for celebration this week at Mass was the Catholic New Year. The Catholic Church's New Year is celebrated on the first week of Advent, which is, of course, a different date than the January 1st New Year. Catholics celebrate the new liturgical year on the first week of Advent because the start of a new Christmas season begins the new liturgical cycle.

All over the world, Christians are beginning to prepare for Christmas. Churches are lighting their Advent wreaths, families might be setting up their Nativity sets and perhaps even lighting their own wreaths as well. Different Christian denominations might have different traditions. What do you and your family do in order to prepare for Christmas? Comment on this post and let us know. 

"We ask all alike to think, not all to think alike"

As we mentioned in our last post, on Sunday we took a visit to a Universal Unitarian church. This was the first different place of worship that we visited since we started our religion project, and it was very interesting to point out differences and similarities between Universal Unitarianism and Catholicism.

For those of our readers who do not know much about this religion, it is a religion that welcomes all people and celebrates holidays and festivals of many religious traditions. Beliefs are based on questions and proof, rather than faith. There were many similarities between their service and a Catholic Mass (for instance there were hymns, a choir, a Sunday School, a lecture, and a sharing of sorrows and joys) but the beliefs are very different. Our youngest sister said it seemed like "a relaxed religion." We noticed that instead of displaying a cross or crucifix, the symbol of Unitarian Universalism is a lighted chalice, which symbolizes universal wisdom and a thirst for knowledge as well as the power of questions. We drew the chalice in the photo above.


Before the service started, people were very friendly and chatty. We noticed greeters at the door of the church, as well as greeters at the sanctuary (or chapel) entrance. Everyone seemed to be in a very good mood!

When the service started, announcements were read, and joys and sorrows were shared. We noticed a similarity in this from our own religion, since we have prayers offered during Mass. (although it is closer to the end, not beginning.) In addition, a lot of singing was done—there was a very good choir who sang in parts, along with a very good pianist, who played Schuman and Debussy at the beginning and end, among others.

The sermon, or perhaps lecture, was given by a woman, which of course is very different from our church. Only men are allowed to become priests in Catholic churches and lead the weekly service. Other differences we noticed: there was no communion, which for us was very odd because we are used to taking communion every week. When we've visited other churches in the past, we've noticed that some take communion and some don't.

The lecture we heard was perfect for visitors, since the preacher explained that Universal Unitarianism is not about getting answers—it is about asking questions. She told us that she had been raised by a fundamental Christian family in a fundamental Christian town, and that she had never been satisfied by the religion of her family—she asked too many questions for her own good. Instead of asking questions, she was told she had to have faith—and that is why she became a Universal Unitarian. UUs believe in "the never-ending search for Truth." We learned about this and other UU beliefs from a small printed card that is also pictured about with our drawing.

After the lecture, there was a quiet time of prayer, or meditation. Then a hymn was sung, and the service was over. Afterward, we went out to eat with our UU friends to interview them. The next blog post will contain excerpts of our interview with them. Look for it later in the week!

Again, if you yourself are a Universal Unitarian, please contact us and tell us about your church! We would love to hear from UUs all over the country, if not all over the world.

We have an upcoming visit planned with a practicing Druid, who is going to introduce us to a member of her grove (Druid groups are called "groves, just like church members are known as "congregations") and show us her altar.  We are really excited to share that visit with our readers, as well.

What we see every week

This is a lamp that hangs from the ceiling of our church. It is enormous and it looks like a spaceship. It is very unusual. We wonder why it is there. Around the lamp there are windows and curved beams of wood. Since we've been looking at this all our lives, to us it just looks like church. We wonder what other people might think it looks like.

We also wonder what other people would think if they went to our church. Here are some things Catholics do: they sing hymns, they kneel and pray, they listen to the priest talk and pray, and they take communion. In case you didn't know, communion is blessed bread that Catholics believe turns in to the body of Christ.

We recently took the US Religious Knowledge Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (you can take it, too: Religion Quiz). After getting 13 out of 15 correct, we discovered that not only were we did better than 94% of people who took the quiz, but that Atheists, Agnostics, Jews, and Mormons were also among the top scoring groups. Despite being pleased with our score, we couldn't help wondering why these particular groups were so good at the quiz. We encourage you to take the quiz and find out how much you know about religion.

-Soklabi