York Minster

I'm in York for almost two weeks on business.  With only one weekend to spend here, I chose York Minster as my church for the weekend.  Admittedly, I chose it because it is a spectacle and it just didn't make sense for me to be in York and not go to York Minster.

I thought it was great.  It's very different from anything would attend regularly ... I'm a small-church type.  But worshipping in York Minster was a great experience, bringing me back to the majesty of God.

My suspicion is that seeing it week after week would get quite dry and old, but as for me and this one-time visit - it was quite good!!

The service was called a "Sung Eucharist" and featured a mens and girl's choir doing most of the singing.  We sang hymns, too, but the parts where we just listened, they did beautifully.

I thought it would be professionally done, but it wasn't.  It appeared to just be men and girls from the church.  The girls ranged in age from about 7 or 8 to their teens.  The men were perhaps teens to 50's or 60's.  So "Men and girls" is an accurate description.

The cathedral was huge.  When people were speaking, it was miked and echoed quite a bit, but it wasn't distracting, it was just BIG.  But when the singers sang, they were unmiked.  Hearing their voices ring throughout the stone building was awesome.  It sounded almost angelic.  I've been searching for the right word all day, and it's "majestic."

The only instrument used throughout the service was a monstrous pipe organ, adding to the majesty.

Going to a small church regularly, we're big on reaching out and making Christ accessible to those who don't know Him, and we try to do things in a way that they would connect with.  This experience brought me back into balance (for the moment, anyway) with the majesty due our King.

Over the past while, I've heard and been part of discussions about whether or not a Sunday morning service should be "for Christians to worship Christ" or "for the lost to find Christ."  While I believe a balance must be struck between these two beneficial but opposing focuses, it was a very moving experience for me to worship Christ in such a majestic setting.

Not being exposed to a liturgical service much at all any more, the words were all fresh to me.  The prayers were all sincere to me.  The pomp and majesty of the experience was not "religious methodology" but rather "majestic worship due my King."  I was surprised by how much I was moved by the experience.  I thought it would be quite dry, and perhaps to regular attenders it is.  But not for me on this occasion.

The speaking was good and I thought Biblically sound.  I took communion with them, and prayed when they prayed and stood when they stood.  But for a lot of it, I just let my curiosity feed on itself and I just looked around at what was happening around me and tried to soak it all in.

But of everything I experienced this morning, I would have to say the sung Eucharist was my favorite.  Perhaps that's because it was a cultural experience almost as much as it was a spiritual one.  But to close the service, as the acolytes and ministers did their procession down the center aisle, the girls and men were singing Psalm 150 a capella.  The sopranos of the girls and tenors, baritones and basses of the men echoing off the walls was beautiful and once again, majestic.  They sang all the way out of the sanctuary and continued singing after they were gone, their voices drifting off into the distance, with a final, distant, "Amen" to close the service.

I was moved.  As I said earlier, I don't think I would be happy here week after week.  But for this one occasion, one week into a business trip, seperated from my family by 4000 miles and hungry for a spiritual experience, York Minster was just what the doctor ordered.

I gave it an overall rating of 4 because I have nothing but good to say about it.  I did have a bit of trouble, however, learning how to follow along.  They're not set up for instructing anyone, if you want to attend you can, but you're sort of on your own to follow the order of worship.  It was too formal for my taste, but as I've said all along, it was very good to be reminded of the majesty due my Lord.

Denomination: Church of England.

Friendliness:2 - this was not becasue they did anything wrong, but because it is a bit of a tourist attraction and they seemed to me to be in a bit of "crowd control" mode.

Singing:2 - They sang out of a hymnal, which there's nothing wrong with that, but I had trouble finding the songs and flipping between the hymnal and the official order of worship designated by the Church of England. 

Preaching:3 - The preaching was good.  If people really listened to the words they were saying, they were so deep and so good.  I just wonder if it isn't a bit dry for the regular attender.

For me, the experience was very spiritual and I felt God's presence in that building.  I can't speak for the hundreds of others (tourists, members, etc), but for me, I was worshipping my God.