Wasatch Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church

 Wasatch Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church 

11:15 am service 8/12/2023

Neat building. I've noticed over the years, that this denomination has the greatest diversity in church architecture style of any sect I know.

Got there early enough I could see people in their various sabbath schools, I never seem to see those at other churches.

Around 130 people in the sanctuary, good  mixture of ages, racially diverse, with a particularly large black contingent, judging by dress and accent many of them forgin born. Semi formal dress.

Opening prayer and announcements followed by children's church, this is when they bring the kids upfront for a little story or lesseon. I'm glad I didn't have that growing up, I would have hated it. Around 20 children under 12, biggest youth contingent I've seen in a (non LDS) church of this size. As the kids are relassed back to their family's, they first take little pails with them and collect the tithes and offerings. Clever and adorable. 

Two "baby dedications" today. Each child gets a certificate good for one months free admission at the local Adventist school. Synergy.

Then the praise and worship music. This was NOT Christian rock, more hymn/ mellow gospel style, the lead singer was good. Three songs. 'We Are Marching to Zion', almost Mormon. 'The Blood', very old school Evangelical. 'Draw Me Close to You', "this one's just right" said Goldilocks.

Then a pre sermon prayer, this one you kneel. However they didn't have those pull out, kick stand "kneeling benches", so I found the kneeling awkward and uncomfortable.

Sermon was on "fellowship", the Gospel is the rare precious things you want to share with others, as opposed to a gold prospector protecting his claim. It's even better then a fancy sports car! From the sermon I also learned pastor Barry Curtis grew up in Wyoming.

Then that was it. Dismissed. No closing song or prayer even. 

I had a few people talk to me.

Noticeably no mention of founding prophetess Ellen G. White or any distinctive SdA doctrines. Though they did mention the post service picnic would contain vegetarian options, as some Adventists are vegetarian. While not mentioned in the service,  I had forgotten before reading some of their free literature I took from the lobby, that Adventists don't drink alcohol.

Adventure Church

 Adventure Church, Draper, Utah, 10 am service 8/6/2023

Adventure Church is affiliated with the Foursquare Gospel denomination, an Evangelical/Pentecostal Church founded in California in 1923 by Aimee Semple McPherson (1890 - 1944). Today the denomination claims 8.8 million members worldwide.

McPherson was an early celebrity pastor who made heavy use of the radio. As a charmastic female preacher she made a real impact on the popular culture, fictionalized versions of her show up in such works as Sinclair Lewis's novel Elmer Gantry, and the early Frank Capra film 'Miracle Woman' where she is played by Barbara Stanwyck.

Hallmarks of the faith include female clergy, an emphasis on 'entertainment', and spiritual gifts such as healing and speaking in tounges. I saw neither gift manifest in the service I attended.

The service started with now standard 'praise and worship' Christian rock style music. When I go to various services I typically will not sing, even though the lyrics are usually projected on a screen, unless I know the song. 'How Great Thou Art' was one of the songs this week so I sung along to that.

Then there was a communion service, they did open communion but specifically said "this time it's between you and the Lord", implying they don't always do open communion. I did not partake. People came up front at the end of the music portion to get bread and juice which they took back to their seats. Associate pastor Kuulei Lee, a Pacific Islander woman, lead this part of the service. There was no prayer as such, but some Bible readings and basic instructions.

This was followed by video announcements on the three big screens and then the sermon. Sermon was on 'The Great Commission', it was somewhat rambling and began with a Star Wars skit, including use of lightsabers. It was given by another associate pastor Ira Popper (the main pastor is a woman and she wasn't there this week).

Again I thought it was mostly meandering, if pleasant, but got interesting near the end when Ira shared his conversation story, which I suspect most people there already knew. Ira was raised Jewish, even Bar mitisvhaed. Urged on by friends he accepted Christ at age 17, outside the music room at his California high school March 18th, 1976. (This reminded me of the Spielberg surrogate and his "flirt to convert" girlfriend in The Fabelmans). I suspect that caused some friction at home, it would be interesting to learn more.

The service had an overall pleasant and comfortable vibe. Only three people talked to me. The building is bigger then it looked from the outside. There were various offices, common rooms, a coffee shop. There were classes and day care for young children. Around 120 in the sanctuary, about half the seats were full. White, Latino, Pacific Islander, black, Indian. Good cross section of ages. Two people in wheelchairs. I found the place likable.

Fun facts: Aimee Semple McPherson was married three times, the first ended in death the other two in divorce. While Aimee died in her 50's her two children, a boy and a girl, both lived into their mid 90's.

The Cathedral of the Madeleine

 11 am service 7/23/23 The Cathedral of the Madeline, Roman Catholic Church, down town Salt Lake City. Named for Saint Mary Magdelan, whose feast day had been yesterday. Magdelan is the patron saint of the Utah diocese.

The Cathedral was begun in 1900 and completed in 1909. Large and designed to look older then it is, the interior of the sanctuary is done up in what I think you'd call a Byzantine style, ornate fixtures, lots of iconography on the walls, stained glass windows. The color scheme is vaugly "Easter Egg", eggplant, teals, tans, off whites. In good shape save for the floors which they are currently raising funds to restore.

A cross shaped space, I was sitting near the front, not a good angle to count attendees, but by the end of the service I would say it was around 60% full. Good cross section of ages and races, white, black, Latino, Asian, particularly Filipino. Probably the most diverse congregation I've visited. Parishioner range of dress, formal, semi-formal, casual.

Large procession, big organ, solid choir. Guest speaker was a monk, in his 30's, visiting from New Hampshire but grew up in Utah. He gave a short sermon about Saint Mary and the history of the faith in Utah. Was a little hard to follow, the place echos.

I think a good share of the people who show up each week are visitors, place is a tourists attraction. After the service alot of peopel started taking out their cameras.  Free tours are offered, I considered taking one but missed it. There is a gift shop downstairs, it was open, which seemed a bit off. 

 https://youtube.com/@NewCreationSLC

https://youtube.com/@mountainviewchristianassem7511

https://youtube.com/@fpcslc - Presbyterian 

https://youtube.com/@FUMCSLC - Methodist 

https://youtube.com/@DCCSLC - Christian & Missionary Alliance 

https://youtube.com/@canyonsyoutube6715

https://youtube.com/@HolladayUnitedChurchofChrist

Saint Anna Greek Orthodox Church

 Saint Anna Greek Orthodox Church in Sandy. Named for the mother of the Virgin Mary who is referred to as Anne in other Christian traditions.

Modern looking on the outside, inside it was being renovated, the carpet was stripped so concrete floors. There were icons and candles and incense, I wasn't comfortable with taking pictures inside the sanctuary.

Matins begins at 8, which is basically psalm singing by the priests and select others. Your supposed to arrive for the 9 am Divine Liturgy service at some point during this hour, though people continued to arrive after that past. When I arrived at around 8:48 there were maybe 20 people in the sanctuary, there was probably around 100 by the end of service. Attendees skewed older and female, but a healthy mix of family's, some of the children were at Church camp in Colordo. Many of the attendees, unsurprisingly, looked very Greek. Parishioner dress mostly semi formal. There was a choir, also dressed semi formal.

The priest faced away from the congregation for most of the service, like old school Catholics.

Musky incense smell, place was hot, AC out, they had fans going. The ceiling was exposed metal, bars, beams and such. Unnaturally faux fancy chandeliers hung there from.

Acapelia singing, there was a keyboard present but it was just used to set pitch.

The seats were among the comfiest I have encountered at a church yet, though they were largely a ruse. I would nickname this "Standing Church." Early on everyone around me started standing so I started standing and stayed standing for the next hour and 8 minutes, save for 3 short breaks, the longest of which was maybe 90 seconds. It was exhausting. (Some older people, young children and a pregnant woman sat more often.)

I'm usually not very critical of the services I visit but this was probably the least fun so far. It didn't really offer me anything, lots of standing, chanting type singing (which I like less then Christan rock), recitations, for most of it the priest talked in a ritual cadence that was hard to follow.

The communion portion started about 10:05 with the hosts being paraded around the sanctuary, along with a big gold cross, a gold dish thing, incense; by alter boys, priest and some others all in white robes. Your supposed to always be facing these emblems so you turn to follow them as they move around the room. 

After that you can sit. Most took this sacrament, I of course did not. Priest uses a ladel to spoon feed recipients the wine from an urn like container, then they were given the bread (it looked rather fluffy) to consume on their way back to there seats. This whole process starring with the proceasion took around a dozen minutes. The sermon didn't start until 10:17, lasted about 9 minutes, then 3 or so minutes of announcements (the Bishops coming next week), the congregation dismissed though most came up front again for what looked like a dab of Holy Water on the forehead. There may have been food or something outback because most people were exiting that way, but I went out the front to head home and lie down.

In a rarity nobody greeted me at any point while I was there.

The priest looked Bruce McGill or Glenn Beck like. Sermon used the geological concept of Pangea for a metaphor about the church breaking up, divisons in the church. He talked about the 4th Ecumenical Council (451 AD) which formally made Constantinople 2nd to Rome in authority, paving the way for later break. He talked about some obscure sounding distinction as to the degree to which God can be said to be of one substance, this theological disagrment (which I couldn't follow) apparently still divides the Greek Orthodox from other Orthodox sects like the Coptics and Armenians. He closed with the hope that eventually the other groups would get on the correct page about this and restore unity.

While the last bit was interesting,  for the most part the service was tough to stand through. The phrase "Let us be attentive" was used alot during the Liturgy, probably because of the temptation to zone out. It felt like the service was less about pence for sinning then penance for sitting. I might be willing to go to a different type of Orthodox service in the future, or one in a more ornate bundling, but I don't think I'll go to another service at Saint Anna's.

 https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/believing-adoption/

 

Through a Glass Darkly

Trying to Understand the Scriptures

https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/through-a-glass-darkly-trying-to-understand-the-scriptures/