Protestants?

*This post is one in a series chronicling my ecumenical visits to various area protestant churches.

Living in Wetumpka for over a month now, I've come to a realization (besides just liking fireworks).

The realization is this:  I've never been to a protestant worship service, ever.

I grew up in a devout Catholic household.  We always went to Mass on Sunday.  I went to Catholic schools--before going to seminary I had been educated entirely on Old Shell Rd in Mobile, at St. Mary's and McGill.  I was born into and grew up entirely within as near pure a Catholic milieu as possible in southern Alabama.  Once I was in seminary, forget it--I was to be stuck in a Catholic microcosm for the next nine years.

The closest I ever got to protestants was in the Boy Scouts.  My troop was sponsored by a Methodist church and we met at a Presbyterian church.  But even then, since there were so many Catholics in the troop, we had a priest come with us on most weekend campouts and celebrate Mass on Sunday morning.

What Bible Belt, right?

Anyway, here I am in Elmore County, surrounded by the grandest variety of protestant churches imaginable, and among them there is only one Catholic parish.  This is a very different place for me to be.  And it got me thinking, as most things do:  I have never been inside of one of these places.

So, I asked Fr. Kelly, my pastor for the summer, if it would be okay for me to go to evening Sunday worship services at different denominations for the rest of my time here.  I was intending to go incognito, but he told me no, "go in your clerics."

I tried last week to visit a Presbyterian church, but I was mistaken about there schedule.  They didn't have a Sunday evening service.  (I obviously couldn't go in the morning, since that's when Mass is here at Our Lady of Guadalupe.)  But the pastor there invited me to a special ecumenical dinner he was hosting on the occasion of his church's Mission Sunday.  I decided to go, even though it wasn't a worship service.

I'm glad I did.  There were a number of different denominations represented, though the largest group were Presbyterian.  They were the hosts, after all.  It was an informal get together, and we all shared our experience of "mission," both at home and abroad.  I talked about my time in Egypt, as well as some of my apostolic placements at the various seminaries I've attended.  Then we had dinner and "fellowship," which is a peculiarly protestant word, but a fundamentally human idea.

And that's really what the whole evening was about, and the whole reason I want to get around to these other churches.  It's not because I'm just curious about how they worship and what their preaching is like, though I am.  It's more about being connected to other people who are in the service of the Lord Jesus.  Protestants have many misconceptions about Catholics, but the reverse is also true I think.  It's only in real interpersonal relationships that ecumenism can have any hope.  I don't intend to convert all these Christians that I'm going out to meet (though I won't get in the way if it starts to happen!).  I just want to get to know them as people, and for them to realize that the Catholic faith is not hazardous to their salvation, nor, for that matter, to my own!  For that to happen, they have to meet actual Catholics who are strong in their own faith, and can answer any questions they might have clearly and without hesitation.

I must admit, I got the feeling it was an extraordinary thing for them to have a Catholic seminarian around, but that might just be my own subjective opinion.  In truth, our conversation focused mainly on mission, the topic of the evening.  Nevertheless, for at least a few minutes, curiosity seemed to get the better of some of them, and we started talking about me and Catholic seminary/practices/etc.  I was glad to answer any and all of their questions.  I was also glad to just get to know a group of nine or ten other human beings who, like me, try to follow Jesus.  I was very happy to be there, and it was God's providence in action.

This Sunday, I'm back on task, searching out actual protestant worship services.  I still have not attended one!  I'm going to an Church of God congregation.  I've already spoken with the pastor, and so I'll be there, sitting in the back, dressed in my best (my only) black suit and rabat.  I'm sure I'll post something about it, so stay tuned...

An unrelated photograph:

Up to my neck in gravel