Seeker's Church

Sunday was the third time I had been to Seeker's Church. It is not located in the neighborhood where many of the other Church of the Savior congregations are. We have to take a bus and then the subway and it takes about 45 minutes to get there. This is the church that I had been communicating with since last fall. I had bonded with some of the members at the meetings I attended last week. I felt compelled to worship with them on Sunday and had promised we would.

Thankfully, Paul is a bit more mobile than he was last week. He has now graduated to a cane. the crutches were so laborious! He also is really tired of sitting by himself with his foot elevated, so he has become eager to venture into the city a bit more. I'm fine taking off by myself, but do enjoy the company as well. I offered to buy him a breakfast at the corner Coffee and Crumbs to celebrate Father's Day. He was appreciative of the thought.

It began to rain as we were eating our omlets, so I dashed back to Andrew's House to get an umbrella to take with us on our journey to Seekers. We'd had some impressive rain storms the day before and I didn't want to get caught without protection. It was really a good thing I went back for the umbrella because the whole rest of the day was sunny and lovely! The humidity dropped way off for a change as well.

Our bus took longer than expected to arrive so we were a bit later to Seekers Church than we had planned. The folks had already gathered in a room downstairs from their worship space to kind of check in with each other, share prayer concerns, and make announcements. We arrived about in the middle of that event and they made room for us and had us introduce ourselves. It was nice to see some familiar faces there and to know so names already.

After the gathering time at 9:30 a.m., they all went upstairs for the main worship of the day. The Celebration Circle, which was the mission group that I had visited on Wednesday was leading. One of them was in charge of the first gathering, and another was the liturgist for the day. They still had up the Pentecost artwork, which you see in the photo above. 

The liturgy.... prayers and readings where in a bulletin, much as we have at Emmanuel Church. The Celebration Circle writes this liturgy. They use the same prayers and readings every Sunday for about six weeks at a time...so the them was still about the Holy Spirit. I think that these thoughtfully written pieces would be allowed to sink in better to the worshippers, as they are repeated for a time.

Since they pride themselves at being a completely laity-led church, they are always asking for volunteers (unpaid) to be the preacher of the day. The preacher of the day this Sunday was Pat, who had also been the teacher of the class I attended the Tuesday before. When there is a man preaching, they have female liturgist, and when a woman preaches they have a male liturgist. 

There were three children in attendance that day. (About forty people in worship.)  I couldn't tell who the parents were as they were sitting in many laps. Eventually I asked one of the women who had been holding them a lot if she was their mother. She said no, that another woman in the church was the grandmother. They stay with her on weekends and she brings them. Obviously they feel like they belong to everybody. There was a Word for Children near the beginning of the service, much like at Emmanuel. The lesson was taken from the lectionary reading. Then the kids went off to their Sunday school class.

Most of the order of service was very familiar to us, except that all of the prayers --thanksgiving, confession, and intercession were said one right after the other. (Much like Emmanuel's Saturday Evening service.) They have no choir but did have very traditional hymns which the preacher had written new words to. 

After worship was a traditional fellowship time with iced tea. They have a huge kitchen, to encourage fellowship and conversation. Their fellowship area, however is relatively small. There was a guest speaker there for those who wanted to stay from a group concerned with human rights in Guatemala. For several years members of this church have gone each summer to build schools there. Guatemala is close to their hearts. It was a bit disheartening to learn about an increase in violence there and the reasons behind it.

I will probably return to Seekers on Wednesday evening to sit in on the Celebration Circle again as they continue planning for worship during the "green season" which is from the middle of July to the end of August. This group has been very welcoming and encouraging and it is very inspiring to be involved in the development of liturgy. It would be fun to continue with them as long as I can. But we will be worshipping in other church in the coming weeks in order to get to know them too.