Do You Attend Church?

[OnlQQker]

Please bear with me as I have a tendency to waffle...

I was christened in a church and attended church up to the age of 10.
The church was built in 1155 and stands at the top of a steep hill, within a wood pretty isolated. It is built out of stone and apparently fell into disrepair in the 1500's until it was brought back to life by Browne Willis.
Thomas Webster painted a famous picture in this church in 1846

As a child all I ever remember is how cold it was, whether Summer time or Winter time it felt freezing on the inside.
Then my parents moved to another village 5 miles away and we stopped going there, well they did, I would still go but on my own and when nobody else was about.
However cold it felt, I was drawn to it by it's architecture/energy and setting in the woods.
To this day I still go, and in all of these years it has given me an inner peace. Yet I still only go when nobody is around. I'll sit on the benches outside or around the graveyard, have a debate or two and wander back to my sofa surfing lifestyle.

I'm just curious to how people interact within a church, I know they pray and sing, but what happens in the before and after stages. Do they talk religious, or does that only come in when the vicar starts talking?

Any church attending people here, I would appreciate some insight?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SalixIncendium]

I go to a church on occasion when invited or on a whim, or occasionally I'll drop by a temple, though I've done neither in the last year or two.

When I was young, I attended Catholic mass regularly and had the entire service, save the gospel reading and homily, memorized.

Since I'm not the worshiping kind, I no longer have much use for attending. I'd much prefer to attend a lecture on Vedanta.

 

[Onasander]

I stopped going, still christian, when I realized I was getting nothing out fo the liturgy save the homily. The church didn't keep up with adoptions in media technology, few centuries out of date.

Last I went was for Latin Mass to improve my pronunciation and all I got was a roller coaster of standing and sitting and so that was my last.

 

[Sand Dancer]

I am currently searching for one. So many around here take the Bible as inerrant, so non denominational churches are out. Looking at Episcopal or non conservative Catholic.

 

[metis]

My wife & I attend mass fairly regularly, but since we're both in our 70's, sometimes we don't make it, so then we watch "Mass For Shut-ins".

 

[OnlQQker]

My wife & I attend mass fairly regularly, but since we're both in our 70's, sometimes we don't make it, so then we watch "Mass For Shut-ins".

I like white doves, there are a few of them around here, I've just fed one some shredded wheat!
That's some amazing artwork in the glass detail @Western Michigan University...

 

[metis]

I like white doves, there are a few of them around here, I've just fed one some shredded wheat!
That's some amazing artwork in the glass detail @Western Michigan University...

Thankyou, as that university and that parish really changed my life.

 

[Rival]

That sounds like the most Anglican thing I've ever heard.

I've never really heard anyone talk religion there..!

The Catholic Church has much more religious talk.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Synagogue. Great community.

 

[Vinayaka]

No I don't go to church. The last time was probably for some funeral many years ago, perhaps my MIL. My parents both had Royal Canadian Legion funerals as they were veterans.

 

[syo]

Whenever I lie to other people that I'm christian.

 

[OnlQQker]

Whenever I lie to other people that I'm christian.

I don't understand why you feel the need to lie?

 

[syo]

I don't understand why you feel the need to lie?

If christians find out I am a pagan they will excommunicate me from society.

 

[JustGeorge]

I don't go to church, and haven't(other than a few exceptions for events/field trips)since I was a teen and decided Dad couldn't make me go anymore.

I attend a temple when I can, but the travel to it has become increasingly difficult, and my son(who has some significant disabilities) isn't easy to take unless there's a festival and he can kinda soak up the crowd, Few want to babysit long enough for me to make the trek, which with travel time is easily a day's trip, so I don't go much anymore.

 

[anna.]

Please bear with me as I have a tendency to waffle...

I was christened in a church and attended church up to the age of 10.
The church was built in 1155 and stands at the top of a steep hill, within a wood pretty isolated. It is built out of stone and apparently fell into disrepair in the 1500's until it was brought back to life by Browne Willis.
Thomas Webster painted a famous picture in this church in 1846
View attachment 82836
As a child all I ever remember is how cold it was, whether Summer time or Winter time it felt freezing on the inside.
Then my parents moved to another village 5 miles away and we stopped going there, well they did, I would still go but on my own and when nobody else was about.
However cold it felt, I was drawn to it by it's architecture/energy and setting in the woods.
To this day I still go, and in all of these years it has given me an inner peace. Yet I still only go when nobody is around. I'll sit on the benches outside or around the graveyard, have a debate or two and wander back to my sofa surfing lifestyle.

I'm just curious to how people interact within a church, I know they pray and sing, but what happens in the before and after stages. Do they talk religious, or does that only come in when the vicar starts talking?

Any church attending people here, I would appreciate some insight?

Thanks in advance!

Lifelong church-goer here. Baptized Catholic as a baby. I've had a few times in my life when I stopped going or attended sporadically, but I've always gone back eventually. Until about 10 or so years ago, I had a lot of certitude about what I believed, and then - I lost it. I still deal with a lot of doubt, but I'm learning to live with it. I can understand how agnosticism makes sense. And yet.

I've had the same sense of being drawn to the architecture and energy of churches, particularly ones like yours that have stood for centuries or longer. They were built to reach to the heavens, and I feel a similar energy you describe and I've been lucky to have stood in some very ancient churches and abbeys.

 

[OnlQQker]

If christians find out I am a pagan they will excommunicate me from society.

This is where I start getting confused.
I've never studied religion, and though I was christened and told over the years about it, I understand the concept of it.
It's all about being a good person and not hurting others, I mean going out into the world and not, stealing, mugging, murdering, extorting, torturing animals etc etc.

Personally I felt like this anyway, without the need to be labelled a Christian as a baby.
A morel compass if you like, and yet I had an abusive father who would knock me into the unconscious realms from 3 years old simply for asking questions.
A strict Christian you could call him!

I will have to look up the word pagan to understand what you mean, which I will do later as I'm just about to go out for a walk.
Thankyou for replying to the thread!

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I don't go to services but I do go to a church up the road to participate in a community garden, food bank garden, and gleaning group. (Gleaning is where you go to various farms and pick up product not going to be harvested, because it's late in the season and past picking or can't be automated.)

I'm an atheist but they've never asked and my not being Christian hasn't gotten in the way of working with them.

 

[Viker]

Sort of. Depends on what we are calling church. A building? Religious services/rites? A patch of densely wooded forest? A cave? I go often.

 

[ChristineM]

I used to go to church until age 14 and loved it until... (Not the thread for that story)

It took me 2 years from then, which included reading the KJV before i drifted into atheism.

However

I do on occasion still go to church, christenings, weddings and funerals.

Also i like to visit ancient churches to take in the art and architecture.

 

[Jainarayan]

When I was Roman Catholic and then Eastern Orthodox I attended church very regularly. My Orthodox parish was small and fledgling, so I became something of a fixture, and well known. I was a reader and served on the parish council. When I became Hindu I attended temple fairly regularly, several times a week after work. After I lost my job (temple was halfway between work and home) and moved, and took a part time job it became difficult to get to temple. My anxiety about driving the distance and route I have to has increased. I haven't been there in I-don't-know-how-long, but I still do my puja (worship) at home in my shrine room.