89 :: Saint Paul's Episcopal Church

 

This evening, we observed Christmas Eve at Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Key West, Florida. This is our second time worshipping in Florida and also the second Episcopal Church that we have included in this journey.

The Episcopal Church is often called "Catholic Light," which references the high degree of Mass-like formality in Episcopal worship. Despite the similarity of format, the theology of the Episcopal Church and the Catholic Church have very little in common. The most meaningful area of overlap is in the area of social justice. If you take the Catholic social justice tradition that is manifest in the Society of Jesus (more commonly known as the Jesuits), you will certainly see overlap with the Episcopal Church... but you will never see the Catholic Church add in the ordination of women, affirmation of gay people, or a willingness to share communion with anyone who attends the Mass.

Alike but very different.

What is the Episcopal Church?

The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican Church, also known as The Church of England. In the taxonomy of American Protestantism, the Episcopal Church has always had a reputation of being the denomination of America's wealthy and powerful ruling class. As an example, the Bush family has been part of the Episcopal Church for many generations, until George W Bush got saved after a long walk on the beach with Billy Graham. After that encounter, W started attending a Methodist church. 

As the demographics of America have changed and the theology of the Episcopal Church has also changed, this reputation is mostly an artifact of history now.

Here is a link to a NY Times article that goes deeper into the elite roots of the Episcopal Church, including how the group goes back to the Jamestown Colony [link]. It is a good read, have a look.

There are only about two million Episcopalians in the US now. Most do not attend church very often. The average Episcopal Church on a given Sunday has about fifty people in it. The chart below shows the Episcopal Church with the green line. It seems to suggest that all Episcopal Churches will be empty by 2040 [source].

Interestingly, last week I drove past the other Episcopal Church that I have attended as part of this spiritual pivot, Saint Peter's Episcopal Church in uptown Charlotte. They had a sign out front entitled People of Faith for Climate Justice. This would be an example of how modern Episcopalians are different.

***

We entered the property of Saint Paul's by stepping off the crowded and bustling Duval Street that runs through the center of downtown Key West. When we stepped onto the grounds of the church, it felt like stepping into a different world. The structure of the church was striking. The property had luminaries along its walkways. There was also a beautiful manse on the property. There was a labyrinth, as well. You can see David and MC walking the labyrinth in the video below.

Saint Paul's Priest is The Reverend Donna S. Mote [link]. She was raised in the Southeast and has a long history of serving in the US Military. She not only gave the sermon, but she also sang many of the pieces of music that required a soloist. Her voice was beautiful.

We sat through a full ninety-minute service at Saint Paul's. It was among the most traditional formats that we have encountered during this journey, akin to anything we have seen at an Orthodox Liturgy or at a Catholic Mass. 

We said The Nicene Creed. 

We had a responsive reading section with the terms Kyrie Eleison at the end. 

Because filming in church tends to draw attention, and due to the fact that the church this evening was very full, I recorded some of the singing without lifting my phone up. Here are two of those videos:

As you can hear, it was very beautiful and it followed a very ancient style of singing and chanting.

Reverend Donna's sermon started with a monologue about the favorite Christmas films of her youth. She seems close to my age, so the films that she mentioned were well-known to anyone raised during the 1970s. She gave special focus to The Grinch, describing the details of the story, with special focus on the redemption of The Grinch through the enlarging of his heart due to his encounter with Cindy Lou Who. 

After this, she moved on to more substantial themes about the Incarnation. She described it as the mysterious act of love that changes the way that a person sees life itself. She said that the Communion Table was for anyone who wanted to partake. That is always a beautiful sentiment, as some churches will only offer the Communion elements to adherents of their particular denomination. I have encountered such exclusion multiple times while on this journey and it always gives me pause. The Communion table and the communion elements on it are not the domain of a particular denomination. Instead, it is God's table and needs to be open to anyone who wants to make that connection with the Body and Blood. That Reverend Donna made a point of mentioning the openness of the Episcopal Church's Communion Table felt great. 

Here is the Nicene Creed, take a look at its beautiful prose:

I believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

 of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

 the Only Begotten Son of God,

 born of the Father before all ages.

 God from God, Light from Light,

 true God from true God,

 begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

 through him all things were made.

 For us men and for our salvation

 he came down from heaven,

 and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

 and became man.

 For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,

 he suffered death and was buried,

 and rose again on the third day

 in accordance with the Scriptures.

 He ascended into heaven

 and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

 He will come again in glory

 to judge the living and the dead

 and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

 who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

 who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,

 who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

 I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins

 and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead

 and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Below are the pictures of the service. These include our entrance into Saint Paul's, elements of the service, the Communion, as well as the lighting of candles at the end. You can see how majestic the place is, as well as how many people were present.

Here is a glimpse of the theology in the liturgy that would be described as progressive or liberal. We prayed for the unemployed, the underemployed, the oppressed, prisoners, as well as for our wise use of the Earth's resources. 

I really liked seeing these areas of focus. It is the strength of such denominations like the Episcopal Church that perpetuate the tradition of Christians moving forward social change. 

Abolition of slavery was a battle moved forward by Christians. 

Ending child labor was a battle moved forward by Christians. 

Ending racial segregation and Jim Crow was a battle moved forward by Christians. 

And so much more.

And that got me thinking...

Some churches have a solid emphasis on the transcendent aspects of the journey to God that is the Christian walk... but one might rightly argue that those same churches may not have enough of a focus on how we live together.

Other churches have a solid emphasis on the worldly considerations of how to live together... but one might rightly argue that those same churches may not have enough focus on the spiritual and transcendent aspect of the journey to the Cross.

Then I considered how the Holy Spirit is described in Episcopal theology. Reverend Donna said that the belief in the Episcopal Church is that the Holy Spirit is encountered when He descends onto the Communion elements of bread and wine. Then the elements are consumed, providing the congregants with an opportunity to encounter the Holy Spirit.

Many of my recent experiences have led me to believe very different (and for me, new) things about the Holy Spirit. 

I believe that the Holy Spirit is the aspect of the Godhead that is on the Earth right now, left in the stead of the ascended Yeshua (John 14:26). 

I believe that the Holy Spirit can settle on a person in an event best described as a Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11, Acts 1:5, 1 Corinthians 12:13). 

I believe that the Holy Spirit can leave you utterly different, day in and day out and be involved in both the large and small details of your life (2 Corinthians 3:18). 

To diminish the work of the Holy Spirit to the simple role of settling upon wafers and grape juice on a weekly basis seems to be missing the mark in a very profound way. 

That was a significant line of thinking for me as I sat in Saint Paul's.

***

Overall, the beauty, pageantry, majesty and formality of the Episcopal Church was very welcome on this Christmas Eve. It was a glimpse of a denomination that is rapidly dwindling and will likely all but disappear in coming decades. 

As we wandered out into the dark and tropical evening, we shook hands with Reverend Donna. She smiled warmly. Then we again found ourselves in a mass of people out on Duval Street.

We were thankful to have had this experience. We won't have another Christmas Eve service related to this spiritual pivot and this blog. As such, this was a wonderful way to observe the arrival of Immanuel at the end of this most interesting year.

Thanks to Saint Paul's for a fantastic Christmas Eve.

88 :: Newsong Church

 

This morning we visited Newsong Church in Cornelius, a town in the north of the Charlotte metro. This church came recommended by friends of ours. That couple had a power outage at their house last night and did not make it to church this morning as a result. We really enjoyed Newsong! The high recommendation that we had received about Newsong were all validated - this is a solid and growing church with a great future.

We don't know exactly how old Newsong is, but we believe it has been around for multiple years, perhaps as many as ten. 

When we walked in, we were greeted in a friendly manner by multiple people. Such greetings always apply toward the impression that a church gives visitors. Definitely a friendly church.

The feel of Newsong was definitively modern, across all categories. This includes the structure of the building, the format of the worship, as well as the message. For example, Newsong has the whole dark auditorium thing going on, as well as modern praise music with the ubiquitous purple backlighting that so many churches have.

Despite being a typical modern church at first pass, this is definitely a place that has a uniqueness to it.

The sermon was given by Jeff Watson, the Lead Pastor of Newsong [link]. He has been involved with ministry in multiple capacities over his career. Jeff also has some historical tie to Freedom House that stems back to the early 2000s. While we don't have any background on that, he mentioned Troy and Penny by name with a big smile on his face. 

As part of being greeted at Newsong, we also met Julie Watson, Jeff's wife. She figured directly into our experience at Newsong.

The worship leader was Mikala Hooper. The worship leader role often sets the tone for a church experience, and Mikala and the band delivered very solid on that. They played a mixture of Christmas music, as well as the more popular praise songs of today.

Here are some pictures/videos from our entry into Newsong, and through the worship.

We quickly noticed that Newsong is a church that would qualify as evangelical, but also a church that would fall into the category of charismatic. We definitely saw this toward the end of the service. That was the moment where Pastor Jeff invited people to come forward to break disbelief, or renew their first commitment to Yeshua, or simply come forward to bring something specific to God. During that moment, Pastor Jeff told people that if they had a prayer language that they were invited to worship up front with that particular spiritual manifestation.

Charismatic, for sure.

Some people did come forward for special prayer at that time. While that was happening, Julie Watson walked over to us and gave us a word, as well as prayed with and for us. It was quite moving. Julie said that she wanted God to bless our ongoing visitation to one hundred churches. She also prayed for our family. Additionally, she prayed that what we are supposed to do together as a couple would be revealed to us in the fullness of time. She brought all of that praying to us with a weightiness of deep emotion. It was candidly very powerful and very touching when Julie prayed.

What about the message? 

As is to be expected in any church service, the message was the main focal point of what happened at Newsong this morning. The title of the message was "Rooted." Pastor Jeff gave it.

The message reminded those in attendance of the importance of being rooted in both the Word, as well as the Body. One point that Jeff made was to be rooted in the Word, which means spending time in the Word. He emphasized that if a believer is spending the majority of his or her time watching theology videos and/or reading Christian blogs online ("even the good ones!" Jeff emphasized), that we were not living in alignment with the obligation to be rooted in the Word itself - reading of the Bible. In addition to being rooted in Scripture, we need to be rooted in one another. The Body of Christ is a community that needs to be founded on unity with one another.

Jeff's message style was mature, forceful and convincing. His voice boomed. Much of what he said appeared to be in-the-moment, which is to say off the top of his head. And his tone was pastoral in the best sense of the word. He was guiding the flock this morning.

At one point, Jeff gave us the guidance to be patient with each other. He referred to a hashtag that people are increasingly using - #PBPGINFWMY. It stands for Please Be Patient, God Is Not Finished With Me Yet. It's a fine principle to portray out into the world, as well as an excellent premise to hear from others - even if they didn't explicitly say it.

So good.

Another thing that happened during the service was that Newsong prayed for another local church. Cornelius Baptist is looking for a new pastor at this time and Newsong prayed for that search. We have never seen anything like that, it was truly a first. It spoke volumes about this church and its commitment to being connected to the rest of the Body. Simply a spectacular thing to see!

We enjoyed Newsong to a high degree. It will surely continue to grow and flourish. As the larger church evolves into an entirely new format in the 21st century while maintaining its theological integrity toward the historical roots of the fifth, Newsong will grow and meet the needs of the people north of Charlotte. 

For that, we can be grateful.

87 :: Coptic Cairo

The Hanging Church 

Today and yesterday we visited The Hanging Church and Saint George's Church in a section of Old Cairo known as Coptic Cairo. A highlight of the visit to this section was seeing the place where Yusuf, Maryam and Yesua (the Arabic names of Joseph, Mary and Jesus) lived during their exile in Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15).

In addition to experiencing the historical significance of these churches, we did worship in Coptic Cairo. We did so by praying together and by lighting candles in the traditional Eastern Orthodox fashion. Our visit to Coptic Cairo was an amazing experience across two days.

Is this our first post about Eastern Orthodoxy on this blog?

No, there are actually five others.

This blog contains a post from my visits to an earlier Coptic Christian church  [link], two Greek Orthodox Churches [link and link], an Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church [link] and an Orthodox Church plant [link] attracting young evangelicals. All of these visits were in Charlotte.

Now to be in Africa in one of the heartlands of Eastern Orthodoxy was an exciting prospect.

I'll divide this blog post into multiple sections to delineate different themes...

Coptic Christianity

Who are the Coptic Christians?

Coptic Christians, also known as Copts, trace their roots back to the 1st century AD when Saint Mark arrived in Egypt and introduced the gospel to the local population. There is also a language and alphabet named Coptic. The Coptic language is now dead, except for its use in the liturgy of Coptic Christians. The same is true of the Coptic alphabet (below), which was closely related to Greek and is also used only for Coptic liturgy now.

Saint Mark

Coptic Alphabet

With the arrival of Islam into Egypt in the 8th century, Copts were forced to learn Arabic in both spoken and written form. If they refused, their tongues were cut out. With the forced proliferation of Arabic, Coptic was often printed next to Arabic in the liturgy. As a matter of fact, this practice continues until today. Virtually everyone reading the combined Coptic/Arabic scriptures today only understand the Arabic.

The picture below shows a copy of the Book of Psalms in both Coptic and Arabic. The column of Arabic on the right of each page. The Book of Psalms in the bottom of the picture is entirely in Arabic.

Coptic / Arabic Psalmody

How is the Coptic Church organized?

Coptic Christians are Orthodox Christians, which means that they are organized under the oversight of one man who is known as a Patriarch. The Coptic Patriarch at this time is a man named Pope Tawadros [link]. He lives in Alexandria, the famed ancient seat of high learning that is located in Lower Egypt, which is somewhat counterintuitively in the north of the country.

Coptic Pope Tawadros

How many Coptic Christians are there in Egypt?

No one really knows. The number is a political hot potato, as the dominant role of Islam in Egyptian life is a core theme in how Egypt sees itself. Because of this, the Egyptian government artificially keeps the number of Coptic Christians low. The percentage is sometimes offered to be as high as 20% but it is also mentioned to be as low as 6%. It is likely that the most accurate number is between 10% and 15%. Since Egypt has slightly more than 100 million people, the number of Coptic Christians may be around 15 million.

Consider that black Americans make up about 13% of the US population and you will get a sense of the proportion of Christians in Egypt's overall demographics. 

What is the status of Copts in Egypt today?

Coptic Christians are an oppressed minority in Egypt. This is a fair description not only due to high levels of violence against individual Copts and Coptic communities, but also because there have a series of recent church bombings in Egypt. One of the most tragic incidents was the Palm Sunday bombings in 2017 [link]. This was a double suicide bombing that made the outside world aware of the way that Egypt's Muslims continually attack and abuse Egypt's Christians. 

Palm Sunday Bombing, 2017

The state of affairs for Coptic Christians was especially bad under Anwar Sadat in the 1970s, but perhaps the worst period in recent history was when the Muslim Brotherhood took power in Egypt in 2012 after the Arab Spring. The Brotherhood (Ikhwan in Arabic) took steps to implement Islamic law in Egypt, including lowering the age of sexual consent to twelve years old. The Brotherhood was removed from power a year later in 2013, which brought a military government to power. The rise of this military government has benefitted the overall status of Coptic Christians in Egyptian society. The current state is as good as it has been in recent years, but their status as an oppressed group remains.

Despite the ongoing challenges for Coptic Christians in Egypt, they continue to worship Yesua two thousand years after the gospel came to their land.

When we entered Coptic Cairo, the entrance was filled with armed guards. Coptic Cairo is also closed to car traffic. 

Egyptian Police

Before going to the next section, take a look at some of the ancient art of Copts. Coptic Cairo has a museum with the largest set of Coptic artifacts in the world. Here are some pictures from that Museum, it gives you a sense of the aesthetic of the Coptic Christian faith. 

Click on the images and really look at them, they are striking.

Pantokrator, Yesua icon

Egyptian window

Maryam breastfeeding Yesua

Ornate Coptic ceiling

Coptic Museum

Yesua and angels

Adam and Eve, before and after The Fall

Coptic iconography

Sacred geometry

Coptic iconography

Icthuses

Coptic relics

Coptic stained glass

Coptic icon

Coptic marriage cart

Our Experience at The Hanging Church and St. George's Church

 

We felt a noticeable spiritual relief the moment we crossed the threshold into Coptic Cairo. Both Beth and I could actually feel* a difference in our bodies when we entered. We felt lighter and cleaner, in a spiritual sense. There was a feeling of heaviness that we left behind upon entering Coptic Cairo. 

What was that? There is clear theology to say that God puts His mantle on people, but it may also be the case that He can put His mantle on places, too.

Once in Coptic Cairo, we were immediately peppered with offers for tour guides. There were men coming at us with statements about the criticality of having a guide to explain things to us. I never avail myself of tour guides but in this case, we decided to make an exception.

We hired George, a local Christian guy who gives tours of Coptic Cairo. He deserves special mention here because he was one of the highlights of our visit. Everything we saw in Coptic Cairo involved George's guidance, across both of the two days. He seemingly knew everybody in Coptic Cairo and he helped us immeasurably during our visit.

George, with us

George walked us through both The Hanging Church and Saint George's Church. What follows are some pictures of our visits to those churches.

Beth lighting candles

Pantokrator, a fixture in Orthodox churches

Greek Orthodox Church

One of the Coptic priests in Coptic Cairo

Column with Coptic Cross

Holy Family cave

Ancient well

Colored window

Pantokrator

Orthodox candles

Altar

Pulpit

Saint George's

Altar

Coptic tilework

Hanging Church

Roman fortress

Saint George's

The Hanging Church was built in the 7th century and Saint George's was built in the 10th century. Both had the complexity and ornateness that one expects from Orthodox churches with such age. Both had candles in sand, both had the faint smell of incense in the air and both had the clicking of shoes on marble floors. The two churches were unified in that they displayed a high level of ornateness that catches the eyes of people raised in more spartan Protestant settings. 

Both churches were absolutely captivating.

The Hanging Church is built on top of a Roman fortress that was named The Babylon Gate. You can still see some of the structure of The Babylon Gate intact today (below).

Roman columns of The Babylon Gate

A key feature of Saint George's Church is the small cave that acts as a locational relic. It is the place where The Holy Family stayed during their exile in Egypt. This cave was marked with signs, maps and other things that called visitors' attention to it. There was even a water well used by The Holy Family.

Sign at Saint George's

Well used by The Holy Family

Map of the exile

Yusuf, Maryam and Yesua on donkey back

The Cave

Visiting this place helped us feel closer to the people, places and locations of the Bible. It certainly helped us to feel a deeper connection to the stories that we study in our verdant city of Charlotte in the Southeast of North America. While Charlotte is deeply saturated with connections to The Holy Land due to the faith of most of its inhabitants, it is in fact very different from The Holy Land in so many ways. 

This was a great visit to two beautiful churches.

Marked

As part of our trip, we learned that Coptic Christians have a tradition of getting cross tattoos on their right wrists. These tattoos are put on the faithful as a sign of fidelity against the aggression of the Islamic community around them. They also act as an entry pass into churches in Egypt. 

Our tour guide George had such a tattoo on his right wrist. 

These wrist tattoos have replaced a more ancient practice of branding crosses into flesh, which was the norm in centuries past. Now tattoos are mostly done on the wrist, although some of the faithful in rural North and East Africa get the tattoos on their foreheads. 

When we learned about this practice, we had a quick discussion and determined that we were going to get Coptic wrist tattoos. With George's help, we acquired Jerusalem crosses on our wrists at a small shop front in Coptic Cairo.

Below are some pictures from the tattooing itself. You can clearly see that Beth deals with pain better than I do.

A Jerusalem cross has multiple layers of symbolism, including that the four smaller crosses symbolize the four gospels. 

We love our new tattoos!

Visit to a Mosque

Later on Sunday, we visited the Mosque-Madrassa el Sultan. This is an Ottoman-era mosque and Islamic school that is open to tourists a few days a week. As we walked toward the mosque, we saw something of great symbolic significance that was also disturbing. We walked through an open stretch of land that contained cross-shaped rubble (we did not know what these were) while minarets of mosques cascaded off into the horizon. 

It was chilling and seemed to depict visually the current dilemma of modern Egypt. 

We visited the Mosque-Madrassa soon thereafter. Beth dressed in a modest way that is unfortunately required when visiting an Islamic location, which we will admit helped with the incessant tendency of men to leer at women in this part of the world.

As we entered the El Sultan Mosque, the fourth call to prayer (called maghrib) was blaring around us and across all of Cairo. A small number of the Islamic faithful walked around us into the mosque for salat (prayer). As is the case with all mosques, men and women filed into separate sections. 

Beth and I parted ways to be with the men and women, respectively. We both prayed for them.

For me, God spoke into my time of prayer. 

I received a word that Islam is the world's single largest religious edifice that is keeping people from the Truth. Islam is fueled by the spirit of religion and the spirit of flesh, which explains both the narrowness of spirit that Muslims show to those around them, as well as their tendency to "out demographic" other segments of society. 

The dual realities of birth rates and polygamy mean that Islam will continue to grow rapidly.

Additionally, I was told that people need to be about the business of bearing witness to the Truth into the Islamic world.

These are the things I was given.

Muslim men praying at the mosque

Woman praying at the mosque

On Sunday, we also planned to go to Kasr el Dobara, an evangelical church in Cairo that attracts as many as 7,000 worshippers on any given Sunday. Unfortunately, we had to spend hours at the US Embassy due to my loss of my passport. We did not make the service. This was a big loss. We were excited to see the more modern incarnation of our faith at Kasr el Dobara. 

It was not meant to be, it seems.

At the end of the trip, we sat and reflected on what we had experienced...

~ Exposure to an ancient form of Christianity. 

~ Seeing the home of The Holy Family during their Egyptian exile. 

~ Marveling at beautiful churches that date back over 1,000 years. 

~ Getting Jerusalem cross tattoos to show our solidarity with Coptic Christians. 

~ Having an opportunity to pray in a mosque for a group of people trapped in Islam. 

Simply an incredible set of experiences!

The two of us cannot express enough gratitude for this time in Cairo, and especially Coptic Cairo. God is deeply present in Egypt. Our time there left us fascinated, engaged, inspired, filled with new understanding and new meaning, as well as perhaps feeling a bit of sadness . 

We're grateful for this awesome trip!