Do you feel like you haven't been to church for a long time when

[Hardrada]

you find yourself saying, "Now just when did they change THAT?"

[xchrom]

1. that reminds me of the first time i stepped into a liturgical church.

i was raised mailine protestant -- very plain, very straightforward.

i started dating an episcopal priest -- and wow!!!

parades, huge choirs, eucharist, thuribles with billowing smoke --

i was just floored.

i was also hooked -- i just loved it even though it was all very strange to me.

[Hardrada]

4. I was raised in a Lutheran church and we had everything

but the incense (sounds like a movie title). I am now a virtuous pagan of sorts but i go for the sake of family for the Nativity of Christ and during Holy Week.

[Callalily]

2. I have not been

to church in a long while, and yes I know why, and no, I don't miss it.

[Lowell]

3. I haven't been to church

since my parents got married. Haven't been back since.

[evlbstrd]

5. It had been 25 years since my last mass.

Until I went to my niece's wedding, a full-bore Wedding Mass. It was like I'd been just the week before. I still knew the entire liturgy. My kids, upon whom I had never inflicted Catholicism, stared at me with their mouths wide open.
I'm pretty sure we made the holy water boil, though.

[Hardrada]

6. I think Catholics are surprised that any Protestants know the

Liturgy but Lutherans and Anglicans have the same ancient common service so we don't need any help getting through it. Except that some Lutheran churches now have contemporary sevices which don't use the Kyrie, Gloria etc. or any of the great old chorales either (hmmph) and it seems that the music used for contemp. worship is NOT current metal/rap/hip hop stuff either but seems more Phil Collinsish.

[evlbstrd]

7. Speaking of music,

you brought back memories of Guitar Mass, the Church's feeble attempt at being hip. "Blowin' in the Wind" was a staple.

[Hardrada]

9. That wouldn't have worked at that time (mid to late 1960's)

since the Catholic parishioners had not grown up in the tradition of congregational singing as the Lutherans and Methodists etc all had. My recollections of the Lutheran services of my youth are of ornate 16th to 19th century hymns of some difficulty and we also sang every single verse! And people then sang heartily. Also if we were somehow not singing with enough enthusiasm, the pastor would stop us, lecture us about this, and then we would resume! Been a bit of falling off of that now so the choirs have to take up some of the slack.

[evlbstrd]

10. This was in a Catholic parish, and in the same time frame.

We didn't have the choral requirement. But if we didn't have all of the rote dogma down, we were still doomed. It wasn't a trade, just an attempt to get us to come back.
It seems you guys traded one harsh master for another.

[JVS]

17. A few months ago I was at a meeting where we were looked through and sang some songs...

from the new Lutheran Service Book
http://lsb.cph.org/
We had visitors from the whole county and people sang with gusto. The pastor leading the presentation invited us all to come to his congregation any time to sing so enthusiastically.

[qnr]

8. I don't go to church. However, I was surprised yesterday. I passed St. Augustine Catholic Church

as a mass was letting out, and people were walking out with their dogs. I hope that means that a place was provided for them so that they didn't have to stay in the car, in the cold.

[hfojvt]

11. either service dogs

or they had a mass for pets. I think they had one of those in this area.

[qnr]

13. OK, too bad :/ - Didn't look like service dogs. We used to take ours to the

Blessing of the Animals, but it was Native American.

[Wapsie B]

12. Yes I do.

Especially those hymnals. Us Lutherans just love switching hymnals at times.

[Hardrada]

14. The best one was the red Service Book and Hymnal.

It had the most elegant settings and I associate it with the very civilized time of my youth. All gone now but of course the ALC is also gone. As often as Lutherans change hymnals they still can't keep up with pop culture so why try? Why not stick with the better music and more traditonal phraseology?

[Pretty Go Pale]

15. Do I feel like I haven't been to church in a long time?

Yes, I do. But I slept in a Holiday Inn last night and will be delivering my sermon on the mountain tomorrow.

[jakefrep]

16. Yes...

...I've been trying to figure out when the let's-all-hold-hands-for-the-Lord's-Prayer thing became fashionable in the Catholic Church.

[idgiehkt]

18. it trips me out the ladies wear pants now

I don't go, but I clean one and wow...when I was going to church as a child they acted like ladies wearing pants to church would have brought about the apocalypse.

[zanne]

19. At my mother's funeral last spring...

OK; this is kinda funny. The immediate family was seated in the front row of the church. None of us are real churchgoers, so when we go to a wedding or funeral, we always watch the people in front of us and when they kneel down, sit down, or stand up, so do we. When you're in the front row, you don't have that luxury, so we had to keep turning around to look at what other people were doing. It turns out that the rest of the attendants weren't churchgoers either, because everybody was popping up and down like prairie dogs on meth. We were doing the wrong things and everybody else was following our lead.
It was something to laugh about at the luncheon.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. like prairie dogs on meth

:rofl:

[RetroLounge]

20. Nope

haven't been to church in 35 years...

RL