Kelly Hynek

Recitation 601
Growing up, I never really attended any sort of religious services on a regular basis. I
did, however, semi-regularly attend synagogue the summer I lived with my grandfather in 2002.
So If I am familiar with any service, it is the Jewish service. For this assignment, I decided to
attend an Episcopal church called the Church of the Holy Family.
When I arrived, there were two ushers at the door who handed me a bulletin. They may
have been friendly, but I just slipped inside and sat in the back. When I sat down, organ music
was playing, which was nice because I could tell it was going to be a musical service. Indeed it
was. Hymns were interspersed throughout the entire service with the whole congregation
singing. A choir led from behing the altar. I was not prepared for all of the action in the service.
We had to sit, stand, and kneel in various orders throughout the entirety of the service, but at
least that kept things interesting.
There was a reading from Psalm 105, which was about Gods faithfulness to Israel, which
was interesting considering we had discussed this during class and how much of Judaism bled
into Christianity. The Gospel was Luke 13:1-9, follewed by a sermon that touched on the same
themes. This was helpful because the gospel barely made any sense, and it was nice hearing
someone eloquent and passionate riff on the subject.
Women seemed to play a prominent role in this church. The priest who gave the sermon
was a woman named Sarah Ball-Damburg. Other readers, ushers, and altar-people were women,
which made the church seem very modern despite the traditional vestments worn by all the
clergy and really anyone involved in the service.
The altar seemed elaborately decorated but rarely used by anyone throughout the service
for reasons beyond decoration or preparing the wine and bread for communion.