29June2008: Day 35: Church

Church at a new ward – Gillingham. It’s divided into three wards. One starts at 9am, then 11am, then 1pm. I’m in the 3rd ward that meets at 1pm. That worked out so that Chris could attend a full service at a church down the road. Hopefully he'll add more to this about his experience.

I guess because of the scheduling, they have Relief Society/Priesthood first, then Sunday School, then Sacrament meeting. It seems to me I recall doing this back at home a very long time ago, probably when we were split into two wards. But here, I didn’t understand why, at least this 3rd ward, is split from two other wards. I only counted about 50 people in Sacrament meeting, which meant a lot of empty seats. I’ll have to ask someone about that. Also the songs for Relief Society were done by a CD as there was no piano in the room. Then in Sacrament meeting the piano player played very fast. There was no “holding” of notes and no pause between the first verse to the next. So the sacrament songs were done very quickly. But that’s not the point.

Since we didn’t get home until after 4pm, it was just a lazy day around the house.

Chris' Day at Church: I went to St. Agustine's in Gillingham. They apparently were in search of a priest and are installing a new one this Thursday. The priest they had was a older man, but very good, though the organist gave the sermon. He said that his 11 month stint was over, so apparently they have been serching for a long time. The new priest has three young children. I'll probably go next week. It is a newer church probably early 1900's. It is large, but probably about the same size congregation at Good Shepherd. A lot of people participate in the services, which is nice to see. Seems very homey, so I think I will like it. It is only about a mile from home, so I may try walking there on nice mornings.