Last week, for our final faith experiment for Theology
two, our assignment was to visit a church whose worship is in a different
stream of Christianity than Salem Alliance. I chose to attend the Mt. Angel
Abbey and worship with the Benedictine Monks.
This was a completely new experience for me. I had
been to the Abbey many times before, however, in all of my previous visits, I
was just there to do my own thing. Whether it be a personal time of prayer, a
quiet day to study, or just a day to trespass around in some cool old buildings.
Whatever motivated me before to make my way up to the Abbey, it had never been
to sit in and join my Christian brothers in worship.
Of course I was a little uncomfortable during the
service, I really had no clue what I was doing, but I did all I could to keep
my focus on the Lord and not on how stupid I felt for, I think missing the bunt
sign? Anyway, while the worship was very different than anything I am used to
and caused me to feel mildly uncomfortable, I didn’t see anything inherently
wrong with what they were doing or feel the need to point out why I don’t believe
it is necessary to do the sacraments and practices they do. It was just
different. Their beliefs didn’t seem too different, just their expression of
their beliefs. But that’s okay, as Ravi Zacharias said, “Uniformity of belief does
not guarantee uniformity of expression.
