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Calvary
Church of the Brethren
by Anna Jensen |
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For my western encounter project I decided to visit a Christian church. Although I am a Christian, my religion seems to differ that of Protestant based religions on many levels because I am Roman Catholic. These differences intrigued me and I was hoping to gain more than just knowledge about the Brethren ceremony during this visit. I attended the 11:00 am service and was pleased to be greeted by all the welcoming faces. I know a few people who attend this church or others like it, so I had the opportunity to learn more about their faith, in turn learning more about them as a whole. I was excited to see that the service I chose to attend was a youth service. Although I missed out on seeing the traditional worship, the youth did a wonderful job, and followed along the same set up as would have been seen on any other Sunday. Everyone was very easy to talk to and the pastor is extremely friendly, in fact he gave me a book on the Brethren faith as well as more information about their own church. This project was very worthwhile and helped me to see the vast differences within Christianity alone. I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned. I’ll start with the basics, the first impressions of the building and the people. The church itself is very simple in nature, clean lined, and very horizontal. I found beauty and peace in its simplicity. Growing up Catholic, most churches (though not all), are relatively ornate with many statues and religious symbols. I am used to a large scale church with seating for thousands within it’s cross shaped floor plan, what I found was two single rows of pews with seating for perhaps one hundred. I’ve asked why there were no crosses or symbols of Jesus and the answer was "simplicity." The Brethren faith believes in the simplicity taught by Jesus. I think this belief is very interesting, without the ornamentation, the congregation is able to look at the beauty of God and His word. I still enjoy my Church and her ornate beauty, but the answer I received gave a new light to why people choose to wear plain clothes or head coverings. Today the Brethren have the right to choose what they wear, some I saw with their heads covered, in homemade clothes, but others I saw dressed in "everyday attire." My belief is that Jesus takes you as you are, it doesn’t matter what you wear only what you believe. The next important thing I discovered is that Baptism comes during adolescence or adulthood, not as an infant such as the Catholics practice. Baptism is a cornerstone of my religion, but I do see parallels in Brethren baptism practices and my rites of baptism and confirmation. In a sense, the Brethren are confirming their beliefs and dedicating their lives to God as I have done through these two sacraments. One reason they choose to baptize at a later age is because the Gospel of Mark says that you should believe and be baptized, the Brethren question how an infant can believe. I think babies are born with the knowledge of God, then their parents bring them into the Church where they are able to confirm their beliefs when of appropriate age to do so. I saw where the baptismal tank was located, behind the sanctuary, their practice of full body submersion is much different than the sprinkling of Holy Water that I am used to. Finally, I noticed a big difference in the fact that they don’t offer communion every Sunday. Apparently, some Brethren churches have the option, but Calvary only has the sacrament a couple times a year. I can have the sacrament of communion everyday, multiple times a day, but that was not the biggest difference. The biggest difference in their communion and mine is that I strongly believe, as do all Roman Catholics, that the bread and wine is consecrated and becomes the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ, not a symbol there of. I think the main difference stems from the words of the Bible. The Brethren believe that the bible says (during the last supper) "this represents My body…" and also "My blood," whereas I believe it says that "this is My body…, My blood." Finding out that they see a different passage helps me to understand why they don’t believe in communion as anything more than a symbol of Christ, while I believe it is Christ. This experience was really an eye opener for me, I learned a lot of new things that I had previous misconceptions about, or knew nothing about at all. Although it may not seem that there are many differences between two Christian religions initially, I know now that although we share a common belief, our methods of acting out our faiths are very different and unique. I would attend this church again; the people were wonderful and had open arms. I also would like to visit other churches someday to see how they differ from my own. I think that faith and the method of faith teaches us a lot about each other, my knowledge can only make me a stronger person, not lessen my faith in myself, or the Church. |
| Created by Laura Ellen Shulman |
Last updated: July 2002
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