Not the Mormonism of my childhood

This morning I went to The Community of Christ (formerly known as The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) church here in Ogden. So, what was the experience like at the other Mormon congregation?

Atmosphere:

The Community of Christ church of Ogden is not a big meeting house like you would see in LDS churches on every corner in Utah, nor is it an ornate church filled with stained glass and modern architecture. Instead, it's a quaint little church looking like it's transplanted straight from New England into the Ogden Valley.

The exterior is a gorgeous whitewashed wood with Gothic arched windows. It was quite unexpected to see anything like this in Ogden. I actually shouted out when we pulled up, "Oh, it's so adorable."

When you walk into the building, the first thing you see is the chapel. The chapel is nothing like any LDS chapel I have ever seen. Again, it looks like a simple, quaint church from New England. There is a cross crowned with a crown of thorns, a handsome picture of Jesus next to that, the pulpit in the center, and a communion table off to the right side. There are decorations all along the wall, mostly of the hands of Jesus, or paintings from the life of Jesus. 

Growing up, LDS churches all felt very manufactured to me. They all had similar floor plans, the same mass printed paintings, the same sort of furniture, there was never any variation of anything. Nothing in this chapel felt like it was pre-selected by some committee from a catalog, but felt very organic and alive.

The communion table was quite interesting. It was covered in a purple cloth and on it was an earthenware chalice and an animal horn. I was curious whether it was a shofar, a traditional Jewish instrument used in biblical and modern times in certain Jewish worship services. Indeed it was one.

Also on the communion table were a bunch of nails. More on that later.

Directly in front of the pulpit is a table with a cross on it and an oil lamp that is lit during the service. A lovely touch that I enjoyed very much.

Overall, the atmosphere felt homey and welcoming.

The People:

This is so far the smallest congregation I've visited. The congregation was mostly made up of elderly people save me, my friend Austin, and the granddaughter of one of the pastors who was in her teens. There weren't even a dozen of them, but from what the speaker today said, they were missing some people today who were off on a service project and a few who couldn't make it due to personal issues.

This congregation is very close-knit and very friendly. Everyone came up and introduced themselves to us. A few asked why we were there and seemed really receptive to the idea. The pastor I had emailed previously had came to introduce herself to us and was very glad welcomed us to the church.

I am not sure of the official function of the man who led the service today, but he was quite an amazing man. He is extremely well educated in religion and openly gay. He is married to the associate priest at Glory to God Catholic Church in Ogden (an Old Catholic church which is on my list, so stick around for a review on them).

The congregation was quite relaxed. There was no dress code, people had tattoos, the younger girl had gauged ears, nobody seemed to mind us being there, it was lovely.

The people overall were wonderful.

The Service:

I was more surprised by this service today than I have been by any service thus far. I was expecting something akin to my LDS childhood services, but slightly more cosmopolitan. This service had no real resemblance at all to it.

The service was an invitation to Lent. This was the first thing that really surprised me. The LDS do not have liturgical seasons. Lent is something completely foreign to the LDS Church. In fact, most LDS Mormons you'll meet will not have any idea what Lent is. The speaker gave a great talk on Lent, more on that in "The Message" section.

Apparently there is a wide spectrum of church practices in the Community of Christ, from very high churches that even go so far as distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, to churches that have no liturgical calendar of any kind, much like the LDS Church. I like that they have a wide range of expressions as it allows the Church to adapt to local tastes and preferences.

The service began with a hymn about Lent called, "Glory of These Forty Days."

After the hymn, the speaker began a traditional call to worship from the Book of Hosea and punctuated it by sounding the shofar. That was quite a cool thing for me to see and really set this service apart from many other.

Afterward there was an opening prayer given by a member of the congregation. The prayer sounded like a standard Mormon prayer I grew up with, with "you" and "your" being substituted for "thee," "thou," and "thine." The prayer was addressed to Heavenly Father and closed "in the Name of Jesus Christ" with an "amen" afterward.

Then the speaker gave his message.

After the message, there was the Church's daily prayer for peace. This is done in the main temple of the Community of Christ every day, and they choose a different country to pray for each day. It is mirrored by each congregation apparently on Sundays. Today's prayer was for Austria, which included a little information about the country, and a prayer that they and all the world may enjoy peace. I absolutely love this practice. I think it should be incorporated into everyone's lives on earth. Not necessarily a prayer, but a daily reminder that we strive towards peace and what we can do for that. If everyone on Earth had a constant reminder of peace, how different could this world be?

After the prayer for peace, there was a community prayer where the speaker asked members to give him their concerns and joys. He wrote all of them down as they were brought up to him, then he said a very heartfelt prayer about all of the joys and concerns of the community. I loved how on the spot it was and how it involved the community and their immediate concerns.

The female pastor then got up and gave an invitation to Lent and a litany for repentance was said, which included the famous words of Jesus that there are only two commandments, love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Besides these, there are no greater commandments. I wish more Christians felt this way and didn't focus on all these tangential things like who's being moral and who's not, or accumulating wealth or power.

We sang another hymn afterward. The hymns were lovely. There was a lot of diversity with them. Several were about Jesus, one was a traditional part of the Catholic Mass, the Kyrie, and the one sang at the very end was a traditional Jewish hymn called "Shalom Charavim." It was explained to me that they are a world church, and being a world church doesn't mean that they simply translate their hymns into other languages, but they take the hymns of other cultures of other peoples in their church and incorporate them into the tapestry of their body.

The service ended with all of us gathering around the communion table. Not for communion, but so that the speaker could lead us in a fascinating ceremony I had never seen before. There were a bunch of nails on the table, each with a purple ribbon (the color of Lent) tied around them. Each member of the congregation passed a nail to one of the others asking them to forgive them and to pray for them. As the Lenten season goes on, members are to keep the nail with them as a reminder of their duty to forgive and their hope of being forgiven. Then on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Good Friday) they are all going to nail their nails into a cross as a symbol that Christ takes away all burdens.

Here is my nail from the service:

 

Overall, this service was an amazing surprise and I felt very alive and touched by many parts of it.

The Message:

The speaker's message was lovely. He talked about the tradition of Lent and how it had developed in early Christianity. He spoke with a great deal of clarity and authority on Christian heritage. He also explained that Lent is a newer tradition in The Community of Christ, but one of great importance to him and one that can be quite enriching. The focus in their Church isn't on you being a wretched sinner, but a person created in God's image, so occasionally, it's good to evaluate yourself with a critical eye and see where you can improve.

Later, he talked about where the church donations were going to help the community at large. This church places a huge emphasis on community improvement and world peace. On that note, I snapped this picture of a banner in the basement of the church. There were little things like this everywhere:

Their church has lofty goals for such a small denomination. They have set out a goal to eradicate poverty, hunger, and conflict throughout the world. They are interested in bringing the peace of God's Kingdom to here and now, not on some distant Day of Judgment.

The speaker put it best when he said, "The mission of Jesus isn't to force a bunch of people to sit in a building in straight rows and tell them what to believe, but to go out and make a difference in the community."

I love this message. This denomination isn't as much concerned with your beliefs as how you treat people in the here and now and what you do to make this a better world. To this I say, "Amen, let's have more Christians and people of all creeds or lack of belief like this!"

Overall Experience:

This church was one amazing find and a gem among denominations. They are obsessed with peace in a way I think more people need to be and strongly committed to making this world a better place. The service was very real, very emotional, and filled with love.

This church felt like nothing from my childhood, and I wish that this had been the Mormonism of my childhood rather than the strict and often lifeless expression I received. The only real resemblances I saw were a couple references to Mormon scripture in the bulletin, one reference to a member of their Church's Presidency, and the opening prayer which sounded similar to the prayers of my Mormon childhood. The rest was unique and I loved every moment of it.

Additional Comments:

This next week I will be visiting two different faith traditions. Next Sunday, I will be visiting a church, though I have yet to determine the denomination. This Friday will be a brand new experience for me as I go to Kol Ami Synagogue in Salt Lake City.

Until next time, peace be with you.

Icons, incense, chanting, and candles

I just got back from the Greek Orthodox service at Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church. Again, I mentioned I used to attend this church long ago. So, did the Greek Church stir up the same sort of nostalgia and inspiration that the Catholic Church did in me?

Atmosphere:

The Orthodox do atmosphere as well as the Catholics. I have to say that I'm partial to the look of many Catholic churches vs. many Orthodox churches, but Orthodox churches are beautiful and it's only a personal preference of mine.

The outside of Holy Transfiguration Church is nothing to really write home about. On the outside you'd never guess the splendors that await you inside. The outside I've always referred to as the Greeks present the 1970's.

However, once you get inside, you're transported to another time and another world. The whole church is filled with the perfume of sweet incense. There is chanting (granted from a tone deaf choir, but chanting nonetheless) and bells jingling, you light a bee's wax candle and place it into sand, kiss icons, and feel as though you have stepped out of the Utah and out of the United States.

Behind this wall of icons (sacred paintings that are not intended to be realistic but depict spiritual realities to their faithful) is the high altar. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that, because it's beautiful, but I didn't want to photograph the service and the doors in the center are closed off when services are not in progress.

This icon hangs from the center of the ceiling. It is known as Christ the Pantokrator (Christ the Ruler of All). It represents Christ looking down upon the Earth from his throne in Heaven with the Book of Life in his hand blessing the whole Earth.

These are known as the Royal Doors. The icon in the center slides to the side like a sliding door. It depicts Christ as the High Priest. Below it are two doors that have the four Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Directly behind these doors is the high altar of the church, considered to be the most holy place in the church.

A couple more icons. The top one is the event for which the church is named for, the Transfiguration of Jesus. Couldn't get a great picture of it because everything is in the way. The one below is an icon depicting the Resurrection of Jesus. It depicts Jesus trampling down the doors of Hell and Death and raising Adam and Eve from their tombs.

One final note on atmosphere, I used to work for a stained glass studio. Long before I worked there, they did the stained glass windows for this church and I still think they're very beautiful.

If you follow the stained glass windows around the church, they actually depict the entire life of Christ.

The atmosphere is fantastic in an Orthodox church and I highly recommend checking one out for that reason alone.

The People:

The community at the Greek Orthodox Church in Ogden is amazing. That was always one of my favorite things about attending this church. Coffee hour afterwards was sometimes better than the service. Today was pretty plain compared to other coffee hours I've been to, just some doughnuts and Greek cookies, a Greek dessert I've always loved but can't remember the name of (pine nuts are actually good in dessert believe it or not), and some coffee.

Several people introduced themselves to me. I mentioned how I knew the old priest who used to serve there and his family and that was a good icebreaker. The current priest was very fun. He came over to the table and greeted us. Talked about how the coffee hour would be better with scotch and overall was just a hoot.

The Greek community of Ogden is a wonderful community. I miss them very much.

Side note, every September they hold a food festival with traditional Greek dancing. Check it out sometime if you're ever in Ogden at that time.

The Service:

I had forgotten this being away from the Church for such a long time. The Greek Orthodox liturgy is equal parts awe inspiring and boring. It is a beautiful service. In Ogden it's half in Greek and half in English and the whole thing is chanted. The service is essentially a dialogue between the priest and the congregation with the choir doing the responses for the congregation. It is breathtakingly beautiful and filled with rich imagery and chanting. Every single gesture is symbolic of something greater.

Yet, the service is insanely monotonous and repetitive. There are many points in the service where virtually the same prayer is repeated. The responses to the prayers are quite repetitive and the prayers go on in very long litanies. I realize this service built up over thousands of years, but there are times where all I do is focus on the pretty icons around me rather than what's going on because I have heard the same prayers just moments ago.

Overall, the service is very beautiful, but the repetitive nature of it drags it down a bit.

One thing I really do love is at the end everybody lines up and receives a piece of bread from the priest as a sign of fellowship. The bread is really good. It's leftovers that aren't consecrated during communion and baked fresh the night before by a member of the congregation.

The Message:

The Orthodox are not known for their long sermons. The sermon lasted literally like three minutes. The priest basically told the congregation that they should be reminded that human beings are small in relation to the grand scheme of things. In God's eyes we're tiny and we are insignificant in so many ways. But we are not all bad and we should approach God knowing we are sinners but there is good in us.

Not a bad message, keep in perspective that you're a good person, but you're not the center of the world and you have flaws.

Overall Experience:

I enjoyed the community and the sense of tradition that came along with it. But it wasn't as spectacular as I once remembered it to be. It is a beautiful church and a beautiful tradition, but it was never my home and in the end was never meant to be with me. I do still quite love the Orthodox Church and the Greek community of Ogden will always hold a very special place in my heart, but I don't know how long it will be before I go back.

Additional Comments:

This entire adventure is really giving me so much to think about. I am learning a lot about myself, my community, and my country from this as well as seeing a lot of diverse things I don't think I would otherwise see. I want to thank you all for your feedback so far. I want to hear more of your thoughts either in comments below, messages or comments on Facebook, or some other communication with me, because I want to know what you're learning, what questions you have, where you think I should go from here, etc.

Can't wait to hear from you.

Join me next week when I go and visit the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden.

Until then, peace be with you.

Where the Spirit lives (inside us) and where my demons hide (Cuba apparently)

This week, I checked out Hope Resurrected Church here in Ogden. Hope Resurrected is a member of the Pentecostal Church of God. I realized in my last blog, I didn't really share much of what Pentecostals were nor did I explain what they believe. Sorry about that. Here's a quick rundown:

• Pentecostals are Trinitarian and Evangelical Protestants. This means that they believe in the Trinity (one God in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and that they believe that salvation comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
• Salvation is a gift from God given freely by the Grace of God to man through faith alone.
• But what really separates them apart from other Evangelical Christians is their heavy focus on Baptism in the Spirit. They believe that the Holy Spirit washes over them and they become endowed with various spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues (incoherent babbling they believe is a manifestation of God through them), prophecy, spiritual and physical healing, etc.

Now with that out of the way, lets begin. Was my time at Hope Resurrected an experience that filled me with the life giving Spirit of God?

Atmosphere:

For some reason, I didn't expect the service to be held in a corner meeting room for a Christian architecture firm, but that's exactly what I found. The exterior of the building gave no clues that this might be the case. I thought that they would be meeting in a larger, more permanent facility as the sign outside makes it seem as though it's the most prominent establishment in this complex:

But, as the sermon I heard last week at St. Joseph's said, sometimes we find great things in the most unexpected places. The outside of the complex has a certain Bauhaus simplicity to it. Again, the exterior gave me no clue as to how the inside would be.

As we entered the building, the sign posted over the entry made me realize we were entering the architecture firm and not a business suite as I had thought.

After a bit of confusion over where we were supposed to go, we finally found the corner conference room that they use and went in. the room had a cross that they could wheel into the room up at the front, a projector to project the words of the songs to sing along, a bunch of chairs lined up, and a bench to be used for the altar call later on.

I snapped a picture as best I could of the room, but it was hard with the cramped space and all the people inside.

I have to say though, my favorite part of the atmosphere was the two red solo cups on the ceiling. It was quite a surreal thing to see, so I asked one of the members what they were for. I guess they're keeping the motion detectors in the conference room from going off or something like that. In any case, entertaining as hell to me.

Overall, the atmosphere was very ghetto to me, but I'm not one to judge a church based on where they meet. It's the service itself, the message, and the culture of the faith that gives it its meaning, not the place of worship. I've been to moving Catholic Masses in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and under a gazebo in an amusement park. In the end atmosphere can be completely looked over.

 The People:

The people were very warm and welcoming to us. One of the pastors came over and personally greeted us. He was very warm, put his hand on my shoulder and just chatted with us. I asked him a question about his necklace. It's a love poem from the bible which was fractured by the jeweler and one piece went to him and one to his wife on their 55th wedding anniversary. I thought that was a cute little sentiment. He later presented us with goody bags. Others came over and introduced themselves to us. One man talked to us for a few minutes about the church and how Jesus had given him meaning in his life.

I got the distinct impression from a number of people there that there was a large part of the congregation that many were down on their luck. Many seemed like they were recovering from drugs or ex-convicts for whom their faith in Jesus had given them strength and meaning. To all that, I say, good for them. This was especially true of a man who gave his testimony at the service. He had a strong speech impediment, was missing a lot of teeth, and just had the classic look of someone who had lived very hard with drugs. He kept alluding to his past and how he had changed so much. I'm glad to see when people find meaning in their lives and it helps them live happier and better quality lives.

Before the service, I heard the man who had come over and talked to us about the church and his relationship to Jesus explaining to other members why there was strange weather lately. He said that because there were a couple big earth quakes in the past few years, it caused the Earth's tilt to change and the Earth to spin faster. So that's why there was a polar front that came down into the Midwest and why the weather has been off. A lot of the people listening to him said, "Really? That's very interesting," and sucked it all right in. Now, I am not a meteorologist, I don't pretend to be an expert in any scientific field. But I have had several university level science classes including a physics class and a meteorology class, the latter of which I got an "A-" in and did some tutoring for. Therefore, I can say with a fairly reasonable level of confidence that that entire line of thought is complete horse shit. I really don't know how this even sounded remotely right to them, and it was an indication to me of how scientifically illiterate of a group I was dealing with.

The Service:

Let me just start with the obvious question all of you have. Nobody spoke in tongues. There was a woman up in the front at the very beginning of the service who may have been speaking in tongues, but her utterings weren't loud enough for me to determine if they were English or not.

There was a woman who began the service by welcoming everybody and then giving a special welcome to the Holy Spirit. She then got the crowd fired up with talking about the Spirit eliciting amens and hallelujahs from the congregation.

They then began playing audio recordings of Christian rock songs while they projected the words on screen. 3 young women led the congregation in song. These young women really got into it. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that these people love Jesus. Almost on a disturbing level. These girls between songs and verses were closing their eyes and raising their hands up to the Lord shouting, "Jesus. Lord Jesus we love you. We are in your hands." They looked to be nearly to a state of orgasm with their level of worship. These people would do anything for Jesus.

They sang a lot of songs in a row. Not nearly as many as Berean Baptist did, but still a lot of them right in a row with no breathing room in between. It did get a little monotonous after a bit and I was just wanting to sit down because they had us standing the whole time.

While the singing was going on, people were all doing their own thing. Some people were in tears crying, many had their hands raised up to or pointing to Heaven. Some were holding their chests and rocking back and forth muttering things to themselves. Nobody seemed to care what others were doing. It all seemed like personal time with Jesus to them.

Overall, other than the monotony of it, I enjoyed the singing portion of this service. The music was very pretty and contemporary.

After the singing, there were announcements and a sermon which I will get to in the next section, then afterward they did the altar call. Basically they invite people to come up and accept Jesus as their personal lord and savior. A couple young women went and a few members gathered around them putting their hands on them, some muttering things like, "Minister to them, oh Lord. Minister. Minister!" At the same time, a young man with some problems with his leg came up and knelt before the bench (altar). The pastor and several other members gathered around him and poured oil on his head and began spontaneous prayers for healing and praises to God.

The Message:

The announcements and sermon portion of the service began with a few common announcements about activities, and then an announcement that they were raising money for the pastor to go to Cuba on a mission. I was not terribly surprised by this, as Evangelical Christians are often engaged in missionary work. But then they explained the purpose of this mission. They explained that it was to go and fight the demonic dominion in Cuba. Now, I thought to myself, surely they mean this as a metaphor for the oppressive regime of Cuba and the living conditions of many of their citizens. Nope. They meant real honest to God demons. They told stories of demons manifesting themselves to the people of Cuba as dolls or in visions in water. They talked about demons actually terrorizing the locals with supernatural powers keeping them from sleeping and that the demons and witchcraft there was fighting against the Church of God. So, they are raising 2,000 dollars to have their pastor go and fight these demons in Cuba. I wish I were making that up. I don't think I could make that up if I tried. It's like Pastor Van Helsing. In the Post-Modern, post-industrial United States of America in the year 2014, this church is waging a literal, medieval battle on demons.

The sermon made absolutely no sense. The pastor who had talked to us and given the goody bags gave it. He gave everybody a lot of scripture verses to look over, he didn't really explain why he was using any of these verses, there was no real theme to speak of, a lot of the time he seemed confused and lost. He would bounce from one topic to another. I honestly wondered if he was exhibiting the early symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer's, and I don't mean that as a joke. Some of the things he talked about, in no particular order were, getting saved, the ascension of Jesus, going to Heaven, Noah's arc (presented as a real and literal story with archaeological evidence), the cross of Jesus, the Jews conspiring to kill Jesus, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., sewing seeds of faith, the day he got saved, an old Pentecostal song about the glory of Jesus, the Jews still being the apple of the eye of God and anyone who messes with them brings God's wrath upon themselves, etc. This incoherent sermon went on for an hour and fifteen minutes and only ended when members reminded him of what time it was. He said he hadn't finished his message and would have to another day. I was very confused about everything at the end of it all.

In the end, I don't even know what I can say about the message because there was no message to speak of.

Overall Experience:

I will say this church was a learning experience for me. I have heard of churches filled with people who believe in just bizarre things like demonic attacks and how scientifically illiterate our populous is. I never expected to see it so clearly as I have. There are a lot of people walking around who are this uneducated in science and do fill the gap with superstition and strange explanations for things. I just don't understand it.

The community of people seemed very nice, but in the end, I just couldn't believe this church experience was real and I did not enjoy myself. In less than a month, I've heard Christians glorifying slavery at one church and another talking about sending their pastor to Cuba to fight literal demons in a spiritual war. I don't know what to think of this! This disturbs me, I won't lie.

Additional Comments:

This next week is going to be a special week. I will be attending two separate services. On Thursday I will be visiting the Jehovah's Witnesses' Kingdom Hall in Roy, Utah, and on Sunday I will be attending Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Ogden. Look for two separate pre-service blog entries and two separate blog entries on each church visit.

Also, I may post a video blog tomorrow just summarizing my journey up to this point and highlighting some things that didn't make it into my blogs.

Until my next entry, peace be with you.

Heading home, so to speak.

Well, after last Sunday's adventure to Berean Baptist Church, I decided I wanted to go to something familiar. So, I have decided to go to a Catholic Mass. The parish I have chosen is St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Ogden. St. Joseph's is a traditional, Spanish Neo-Gothic church that is quite beautiful inside and out. (Yes, I have been there before.) You can't miss St. Joseph's Church if you're in Ogden. Next to the LDS Temple in Ogden, it's the most prominent religious building, being both massive and on a hill.

There isn't really a "Who are we?" section of their website, at least that I can find, so I'll talk generally about the Catholic Church. I used to be Roman Catholic. For those of you who don't know me too well, my religious background is a colorful one, but I have officially belonged to two churches in my lifetime: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormons or LDS) and the Roman Catholic Church. I was raised LDS but left that church mentally at age 17 and publicly at age 18. I have spent some time with a few other religious bodies, including the Greek Orthodox Church and the Episcopal Church, but it was the Catholic Church that proved to be my religious home as a young adult.

What is there to say about the Catholic Church that most people wouldn't know? I suppose I'll just state some basics:

1. It is the largest religious sect in the world, and the largest religious sect in all of human history with currently over a billion members worldwide. For those of you playing the numbers game, that's roughly 1/7th of the world's population that belongs to this one church.

2. The Catholic Church is headed by the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the Pope. Currently, Pope Francis holds this position. Catholics believe the Pope is the successor to the priesthood authority of St. Peter whom they believe was head of the apostles and Christ's representative on earth. The Church also teaches that in matters of doctrine, when the pope is speaking for the entire Church in special circumstances he is infallible.

3. The Catholic Church, along with a few other churches, can claim to be the oldest continuously practiced Christian church on earth with roots of it going back to the earliest days of Christianity, and major developments in it's formation happening in the 4th through 11th centuries.

4. The central act of worship, and what they consider to be the highest, is the ceremony of the Mass. In this ceremony, passages from the Bible are read and a sermon is given. The central act of this ceremony; however, is the consecration of bread and wine, which Catholics believe is transformed into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ to be fed to them for spiritual nourishment.

I have to admit, I'm sort of excited to go back to the Catholic Church. Though it's not the church of my childhood, I feel like it is the church that had the most impact on the person that I became in adulthood. For a time, I considered joining the priesthood and I still in many ways have a strong cultural connection to the Church. I do not believe in any of the Church's dogma nor any of the superstitions that go along with it. However, the cultural elements of the Church still draw me in.

I will let you all know how it goes.