After my experience in the morning at Woodstock Road Baptist, I went Sunday evening to Christ Church Cathedral and participated in Evensong (a very high church Anglican service—for the first time in my life, I prayed for the queen). If I were a car, my transmission would have been dropped in the road behind me as the gears changed between the two services.
Gone was the casual and welcoming atmosphere. In was the rigid and formal stone. Gone was the spontaneity. In was the formal liturgy. If I had not been reared in the church, I think it might have been difficult to see them as worship in the same religion.
That being said, each service seemed a pertinent reminder of one of the characteristics of God. Woodstock reminded me that we are called to an intimate relationship with a God who reached out to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ Church, on the other hand, emphasizes the mystery, majesty and transcendence of God.
There is only a small sign on the massive wall to tell you that Evensong is held. The solemn porter in the bowler with the watch chain stands at the door of the college as if he is guarding the royal jewels or the ark of the covenant. I told him I was there for Evensong, and he pointed me across the lush grass of the quad to what he called the “double doors”—which were not what we would call doors at all, but side by side stone archways.
The mood was broken, for just a moment, as the path through the arches led to familiar modern glass doors. But walking through them, the hush of the immense and cavernous sanctuary quickly returned the feeling of being a pilgrim in a strange and unknown land. Past the entrance, yet another Keeper of the Mystery offered a program and silently waved me in with his hand. Still another of the wardens then gestured me up into what I would consider the choir beyond the pulpit towards the magnificent altar.
The ancient wooden two tiered rows of seats face another just like them. Above, one can see the vaulting stone domes and arches. There are heads and busts everywhere. Many obvious historical figures, others oddly strange and misshapen, with one even featuring a skull with a crown upon its head.
When worship began, the ministers processed in followed by the youth choir that has seats near the glass doors. Each of the singers has a lit candle on a stand before them--whether to help them see the music or to remind them of the presence of God, I do not know.
There was no message only songs, prayers and readings. Several times we were invited to kneel, which seemed especially meaningful to me since I am rarely in a service where this is asked.
It was beautiful and powerful and worshipful and entirely different than what I had participated in at Woodstock Road.
It seemed to me that God was right at home in both places.
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