Church

Our normal priest is away right now and the Australian priest conducted today's service. When it came time to begin, it was only the two of us for worship, but as the Prayer Book says, "When two or three are gathered together in his name..." He'd originally told the American priest he would use the Rite I liturgy as we usually do, but since there were only the two of us, he asked if I minded if we used the liturgy he uses at the Australian compound. I told him that was fine by me and I'm very glad I did. (Two more soldiers joined a few minutes into the service.)

The liturgy he used was more like the Rite II service we use back home, with only a few minor variations. It was comfortable, which is funny since I grew up with Rite I and know it almost by heart, but now Rite II seems normal and today's service put me more in mind of home. He used quite a bit of silence during the prayers, which I enjoy, and is something we do at Holy Communion as well. I hate feeling rushed during prayer and silence seems to me to make that time more interactive with God.

The final part of the service was actually after we'd received our blessing and dismissal. As we were chatting with some "biscuits" he'd brought (he attends every week and always brings some Australian cookies) he asked if we noticed there were questions at the end of the bulletin. I had but hadn't looked closely. He said those were for us to take and think about this week if we wanted. Someone said, "Not only did we have a church service, but we have homework!" We laughed.

But as I was walking back to work, it occured to me, we always have homework following church.

Cheers, Pearl