I've been in the UK for 3 weeks now. That's the longest I've been in any one place since January!! And now that I'm finally mostly settled, the church search has begun in earnest.
3 weeks, 3 churches.
Because I'm in the UK, I thought I would start with all of the C of E (Church of England) churches in town. (I am told that C of E does NOT equal Anglican. This needs more research which I will dutifully report back to you.)
The first church I tried was Parish Church on High Street. All C of E churches are part of a parish, so I'm not sure what makes this church more belonging to the Parish than the ones I attended subsequently, but that's another question as well. There were about 30 congregants, mostly elderly and female. The acoustics were beautiful, and the people friendly, but I had trouble being enthusiastic about the service in general. Parish Church also has a famous painting on one of the walls that is a minor tourist attraction.
The second church I stumbled upon by accident. I was running late and wasn't entirely sure where my target church was, so when I found Holy Trinity, I stopped there for their family service. Because I arrived late, I tried to slip quietly into the back row, but I was spotted by a nice elderly lady who came back and handed me a hymn book and invited me to move forward and "join them". The family service involves a guitar, but only runs about 30 minutes, so most of my time was spent drinking coffee with the nice elderly lady and her friends and listening to a presentation on how the church attendance has stabilized (at about 30), and they're going to run out of money soon (2-3 years) if they don't do something. The interior of Holy Trinity is absolutely gorgeous and I felt inclined to go back, just to wander around and look at it.
Church three was my intended destination on week 2 and historically is a "sister" church to Parish Church from the days when Parish Church would be full up on a Sunday. This was the youngest crowd I've been among yet. More children and several people who looked in their 30's. I stayed for several minutes after the service to drink coffee and chat with people. People my own age being a primary factor in my church search, Saint's Church seems to be the mostly likely choice.
There are several more C of E churches in town, but I think I'm going to try the Baptist church next. Old habits die hard.
Peace of Christ,
~~LeAn
3 weeks, 3 churches.
Because I'm in the UK, I thought I would start with all of the C of E (Church of England) churches in town. (I am told that C of E does NOT equal Anglican. This needs more research which I will dutifully report back to you.)
The first church I tried was Parish Church on High Street. All C of E churches are part of a parish, so I'm not sure what makes this church more belonging to the Parish than the ones I attended subsequently, but that's another question as well. There were about 30 congregants, mostly elderly and female. The acoustics were beautiful, and the people friendly, but I had trouble being enthusiastic about the service in general. Parish Church also has a famous painting on one of the walls that is a minor tourist attraction.
The second church I stumbled upon by accident. I was running late and wasn't entirely sure where my target church was, so when I found Holy Trinity, I stopped there for their family service. Because I arrived late, I tried to slip quietly into the back row, but I was spotted by a nice elderly lady who came back and handed me a hymn book and invited me to move forward and "join them". The family service involves a guitar, but only runs about 30 minutes, so most of my time was spent drinking coffee with the nice elderly lady and her friends and listening to a presentation on how the church attendance has stabilized (at about 30), and they're going to run out of money soon (2-3 years) if they don't do something. The interior of Holy Trinity is absolutely gorgeous and I felt inclined to go back, just to wander around and look at it.
Church three was my intended destination on week 2 and historically is a "sister" church to Parish Church from the days when Parish Church would be full up on a Sunday. This was the youngest crowd I've been among yet. More children and several people who looked in their 30's. I stayed for several minutes after the service to drink coffee and chat with people. People my own age being a primary factor in my church search, Saint's Church seems to be the mostly likely choice.
There are several more C of E churches in town, but I think I'm going to try the Baptist church next. Old habits die hard.
Peace of Christ,
~~LeAn
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