Church of the Apostles

I attend an Anglican church in downtown Columbia called Church of the Apostles. I come from a fairly contemporary church setting, with heavy guitars and pounding drums, and the preacher using his iphone to reference scripture. This sort of emergent style churchgoing is great, but it is polar opposite from the Anglican style of Sunday morning worship.

When I first visited COTA last year, I was a little uneasy. To be honest, it was mostly due to the fact that I was sitting right by Katlynne (now my fiancée, but at the time only an interest). I didn’t know her all too well, but I liked her. I was nervous though, because it was very hot in the church and I was beginning to sweat. Thinking that I might disgust her with my profuse perspiration, I began to get up and go to the bathroom to clean up, but just as I thought about leaving my seat, I heard a voice from the back:

Please Rise!”

And the whole congregation rose to their feet. As I said before, I come from a more relaxed church background, so I was not used to the high church calisthenics that someone from a Catholic or Greek Orthodox background might be accustomed to. Standing, sitting, standing, sitting, kneeling, sitting, standing, kneeling… it starts to be a workout. I looked back to see who owned the voice that had interrupted my trip to the bathroom, and I saw three robed men and a child bearing a cross. They proceeded down regally toward the front of the room with dignity as the organ began to blare and a hymn materialized on the projected screen in the front of the room. The congregation began singing and I noticed something about the dignity of the clergymen making their way to the front. It was reverence for the cross which the altar boy was bearing in front of them.

My mind was wandering a bit here and there throughout the sermon and aerobics of standing up and down, because I had never considered that high church could be an engaging and vital community of believers. I always thought that you had to have guitars and iphones to engage young people, and as I looked around the room, there were tons and tons of young people singing and reciting liturgy and hearing and proclaiming God’s word. I admit that I was distracted, but it was out of awe. How had I missed such a rich tradition of worship and dismissed it as old fashioned all these years?

In the midst of my train of thought, Katlynne touched my arm, and I instantly forgot everything I was thinking and gave her my full and undivided attention. “We have to take communion,” she whispered softly.

I had not recognized that the service had shifted from hearing the word and transitioned into communion. “We must be here on communion week,” I said softly to her, thinking myself very clever for drawing such a profound conclusion from the immediate context. “Every week is communion.” She responded.

This was interesting to me. Communion every single week? That’s crazy talk. Now that is one of my main reasons for attending Church of the Apostles. I love taking communion every week.

The first week, however, I was unaccustomed to the Anglican style of communion. At my church it was always a little nibble of bread and a shot of grape juice passed down the aisle in a rather impersonal style. At COTA, however, it is an intensely personal time of taking the sacrament of communion. You walk down the aisle to the front of the church and accept bread from a priest, and move to the next priest who gives you the wine. Yes, wine. The kind with alcohol in it that stings your mouth a little. I know it is hard to believe for many CIU folks.

At first, I was afraid of getting sick. Everyone drinks from the same cup. Then I realized that it was such a communion, not only between Jesus Christ and me, but also between the fellow saints with which I shared the cup of Christ’s blood.

Long story short, I enjoyed the service despite my sweaty condition and rather confused disposition toward high church. But with each service I have grown to love the richness of tradition that COTA has to offer, and Katlynne and I have chosen this church to be where we, as a married couple, will commune with Christ and his body on Sunday mornings, and throughout the rest of the week. I am really looking forward to becoming more plugged in to this church. I can’t wait to enjoy the benefits and contribute my part to the Church of the Apostles.

Grace and Peace,

Jacob Given

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