Although I belong to a local Church of Christ, my soul also requires an occasional dose of Episcopal ceremony and reverence. This past Sunday morning my wife Sara was on a women's retreat so, after co-teaching my Bible class, I slipped over to St. John's Episcopal Church in Houston, an evangelical congregation at which I have occasionally guest taught since 1982. Since all Christian churches pray, sing, read Scripture, hear preaching, take Communion and give offerings, I reflected afterward about what I found most a blessing in the Episcopal form of worship. I concluded that it was the incarnational nature of the service, involving as it does the whole person and all the senses.

One bows upon entering the sanctuary, kneels for prayer and stands to sing. The choir and clergy wear colored vestments reflecting the rotation of the church calendar (the altar is decorated according to the same cycle). The service begins with a glorious and triumphant Processional and ends with a Recessional (we all do that for brides -- why not for God as well?) The minister walks into the congregation to read the Gospel, to which the people respond, "Glory to you, Lord Christ!" The people also pronounce a vocal and unanimous "Amen" to all prayers.

Here the Communion liturgy is gospel-rich and classically worded. We go to the altar for Communion, where we receive bread and wine from one who pronounces, "The body of Christ" and "The blood of Christ" while placing bread in our hands and the chalice to our lips. We sing as Psalm 150 exhorts, praising God with the full sound of instruments as well as voice. Some Anglican churches also use incense, as mentioned in heaven in Revelation, but St. John's doesn't. That is just as well with me, since I have lost all sense of smell anyway.

Someone might point out that the first-century church had almost none of these externals, and that it more nearly resembled a home-church fellowship or perhaps even an AA meeting. I realize all that, and appreciate also that end of the spectrum of worship style. Today I am especially remembering a phrase from the Nicene Creed which we recited Sunday morning. "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church." This is the truth about God's whole church in all its parts. It is "one," despite appearances and divisions resulting from human weakness and sin. It is "holy," separated from the unbelieving world and dedicated to God's own purpose and glory. It is "catholic," which simply means "universal," including Christ's people in all times and in all places. It is "apostolic," built on the Apostle's testimony about Jesus, called to a lifestyle and morality taught by the Apostles and awaiting the blessed hope of Christ's return which the angels promised to the Apostles as they watched Jesus ascend back to heaven. I am part of that "one holy catholic and apostolic Church," whether I am worshiping in my regular acappella Church of Christ or sitting in a pew at The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Divine. That is the truth of the matter, and I praise God that it is so.

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