Max Boyd

Max Boyd – Church Visit

Church name: St. Sabina

Church address: West 78^th Place, Chicago IL

Date attended: 30 October 2016

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

I think that the entire purpose of the assignment is to get to a point when you are completely out of your context - and in this case, St. Sabina was completely outside of my normal context. This can be seen from everything: the demographic of the congregation, the fact that the church is Catholic, the fact that the church is charismatic and Catholic, the order of service, the emphasis on different parts of the service...like I mentioned, almost everything is outside of my normal context. The service was about an hour, constituted of amazing gospel worship, readings from the Scriptures, reciprocal prayers, and many other components. I felt excited the moment I walked in, greeted with a giant sanctuary and its center a painting of black Jesus and a giant neon sign "Jesus".

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

The most interesting was for sure the mix of charismatic and Christian. I have never, ever seen this and to be honest wondered how it would be possible for them to mix, but they did in a beautiful way. To mix those two things with a predominantly African-American community in a mostly impoverished area. The mix is the most interesting thing about the service, but ironically the reception of this mix is the most appealing part about the church. The way that the congregation and priests interact with each other was beautiful and so very welcoming. Hugs all around - for everyone. Waving and warm interactions between the congregants and between the congregants and the priests. Walking in, you did not feel as estranged as you could walking into another church. I loved the appeal to passion and love that the congregation had along with the attention to their own culture.

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

I think the most disorienting things about the service was actually sort of unintentional - the accent of the priest was so thick coupled with the fact that the he was screaming into the sound system made for a difficult time trying to understand what he was trying to say. But regardless of being able to understand, it was a bit disorienting to hear the preaching be "yelling". I have heard it before, but this particular screaming was disorienting. The other challenging thing was assuming Catholic understanding and theology to be a "prerequisite" to the service. Things like the explanation of the Eucharist, or the understanding of how the order of service is done. Obviously not necessary, but would be helpful.

How did the service help you to reflect on questions of wealth and poverty?

I think that two things allowed me to see how to reflect on wealth and poverty was 1) seeing simply where the church was. Seeing the placement of the congregation and how they worship God and understand how God loves them in their situation. (I realize this is incredibly vague, but I really can't think of another way to explain it). The second realization was a major one and it was part of the sermon. The sermon was on the "poor in spirit", and although the pastor went in-depth to explain the "in spirit" part, the explanation was extremely practical. The priest mentioned many applications of when to be poor in spirit and how Jesus calls us to this. He mentioned the violence all around them and the disparity in politics. So it was seeing how wealth and poverty affects the message that you preach - how you see the Scriptures and how you see Jesus.