Sunday @ Trinity Church

Had a chance to go to a beautiful liturgical service at the historic Trinity Church down in the heart of Wall Street. (The location of the church has some very interesting metaphoric meanings to me, but more on that another time). The service is Episcopalian, and I found the entire service very different from any of the Pentecostal venues I’m familiar with, but also very beautiful. There’s a lot of mystery & symbolism wrapped up in the service, not all of which I understood, but it was neat; I particularly liked the censer and the reading of Matthew from a silver plated Bible held out by the vicar in the middle of the pews surrounded by people holding candles on long staves.
I went down there at the invitation of a school buddy; we went primarily to hear Dr. Miroslav Wolf speak, who is the Professor of Theology at the Yale Divinity School. Dr. Wolf delivered the sermon (which was very short compared to sermons I usually hear) and gave a talk over brunch afterwards (the brunch was excellent).
A man I knew whose learning I respect once talked about writing a book on the history of schisms within the church, and how to the denominations might be brought back together. I hope he writes it.
I’ll say this too, there’s a lot of stuff from the high church traditions that the church here in America misses out on. Those things, while not perfect, are a part of our heritage too, and we should be mindful of that.
I wish I’d had my camera, there was a fresco inside the church that was absolutely staggering, I had to settle for this picture instead. If I go back there again, I’ll be sure to take a better picture.