After visiting Hope Protestant Reformed Church and writing my paper on the visit, I really reflected back on how I had made presumptions before visiting this church, and after the fact I was able to see how different this church was from any that I had previously visited. This church was actually a lot more traditional than I thought it was going to be. Beforehand, I thought it was going to be a shorter service, with less ritual, and more sermon based. However, the service was very long and had a lot of repetitiveness going on. People were very kind as expected, but I didn’t feel that they were going out of their way to make me feel as if I had belonged, which is completely understandable because people already have their formed connections and “communities” based on their weekly visits, and continued experiences with their congregation. When I typically think of a Protestant Church, I think of very welcoming, and conservative people, yet very fixed on their values and morals, which was indeed correct. But based on the service, it was very similar to a Catholic mass by means of the hymns, eucharist every week, and extremely structured. But based on the teaching, the sermon was read from the Bible and had a specific message that was given and is different every week. The church visit was different from what I had expected but I thought everyone was very deeply rooted into their beliefs and traditions which varied from what I had preconcepted because I thought it was going to be based more on attendance and going through the motions, rather than being present and understanding the message being given.
One thought on “Reflection 2.25.19”
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Interesting that the style of a Protestant church was similar to a Catholic mass. Given the difference between the two; it sounds like this congregation was striving to be more progressive.