Lena Maxey Church visit #3

Church name: St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church of Chicago

Church address: 15 West 455 79th Street, Burr Ridge, IL 60527

Date attended: 5/2 

Church category: Different ethnicity

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

This worship service was quite different from what I am used to and mostly because it was not only a different ethnic group, it also is of a higher liturgical tradition. Most of the men and boys up front wore white robes with a gold and red cloth wrapped around their shoulder. The entire service was chanting and reading of scripture, carrying crosses and icons and marching around the sanctuary, a sermon, and then more chanting and there was also communion. Repetition was a large part of the service.  

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

I really like the incorporation of all ages in the service although it was only with males, there was not a single woman or girl on stage or a part of the service. There were old men, young men, boys, and tiny children all dressed in robes and participating in the march and carrying icons, some teenagers read scripture passages, and there was even one cute little boy in a little robe who was wandering around the stage and then carried by a man on stage and was squirming because he was so bored. 

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

Honestly, the length was difficult for me. It was 3.5 hours long and I am not able to stay focused that long or continue appreciating the beauty of it when I am sleepy and don't fully understand what is being said. I am very impressed with all of their stamina, especially the little boys who were on stage for a lot of the service. At that point everything that was meaningful stops having meaning for me because I am just bored and wanting it to be over. It is clear that I have not been trained to have long services. 

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

After talking about it with a friend and processing, I came to understand the importance of all six senses in their worship service and how the worship was embodied. There was the sense of hearing in the chanting and listening to the sermon as well as the ringing bells on the swinging incense. There was sight with the icons on the walls, the robes, the crosses and bibles being carried around. The sense of smell in the incense that was swung throughout the whole sanctuary. The sense of taste and touch through communion and kissing the Bible. All my senses are not usually incorporated but it really helps me understand embodied worship and that it is important that I am embodied. Maybe even the length of the service teaches me as I have to learn to fight my bodies urges to sleep or distract myself from the worship at hand.