Tyler Martawibawa - Church Visit #2

Church name: Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church

Church address: 180 S Russell Ave, Aurora, IL 60506

Date attended: March 20, 2016

Church category: Catholic Church

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

I attended a Latin mass at the Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church. For a majority of the service, the priest would have his back towards the congregation and be speaking in Latin. During the middle of the service, however, the priest took to the pulpit to give a short message on salvation since it was Palm Sunday. It was different from my regular context as my pastor will always be facing the congregation, engaging with us and speaking directly to us. My pastor will also always speak in English. At the end of the service, communion was served. The only difference with my church would be that we only hold communion once a month, whereas the Catholic church serves it every week. I also noticed that when members left and reentered the pews, they had to kneel on one knee while facing towards the front of the church. And to close the service, the priest and congregation recited prayers and praises to the Virgin Mary, something that I’ve never done.

How did the worship service illuminate for you the history and contours of global Christianity?

This worship service illuminated how similar Catholicism is to Christianity. This showed me how both the Protestant and Catholic faiths developed from the same history, splitting off into their own distinct branches because of minor disagreements while still holding similar major beliefs. I noticed that on one of their collection of creeds, they had the Nicene Creed; a creed we also profess as Protestants. Listening to the priest’s message on salvation, I realized that he preached the same good news that a Protestant church would also proclaim on a Palm Sunday. It was interesting to be aware of the shared history and geographical development of both Catholicism and Christianity in order to understand how Christianity has globally developed.

How did the worship service illuminate for you your personal identity as a Christian?

This worship service has illuminated how closed off I’ve been as a Protestant. I’ve always viewed Catholicism as a a “wrong” version of Christianity because of their worship of Mary, but to experience a worship service humbled my identity as a Christian. While not endorsing universalism, I feel that through the visit to an Orthodox church and a Latin mass my identity as a Christian has expanded a little. My personal identity as a Christian doesn’t involve only me, myself, and I, but includes a global church and centuries of history. Attending this service has shown me that my personal identity as a Christian doesn’t consist only of what I believe, but of what I don’t believe as well.