Catholic Church Observation

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On Sunday March 12th and 19th, my husband and I attended Holy Trinity St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (HTSN) in Finneytown, Ohio. The church conducts Orthros (Matins) at 8:15 am and Divine Liturgy from 9:30-11:30 am. I chose to attend HTSN for two reasons; first, they host the annual Panegyri Festival and two, learning about the 1054 split intrigued me given the current state of the Methodist Church.
On March 7th, I spoke with Father Mark Emroll, explained the course assignment and requested his permission to attend the service. He briefly explained the prohibition for taking communion and that if I wanted to speak with either he or Father William Redmon it would need to take place after the service. Father Emroll explained the church …show more content…

Father Redmon explained in our interview that each person is to join his or her voice in united faith. My observation was of people outwardly participating e.g., kneeling, crossing themselves but vocal participation was minimal or left to the choir. During my interview with Father Redmon, I mentioned my observation regarding the various responses and he emphasized the centrality of the Eucharist, saying “Worship of the Holy Trinity through the Eucharist is the purpose of the church” and it is through this that they grow both individually and as the Church.
Through the various calls for response made by the priests, “let us be attentive”, “let us pray to the Lord”, “peace be with you” and “servant of God” tradition is linguistically demonstrated. Each of these and other prayers was concluded with a response or “Amen” typically by the priest or the choir. Also, we saw reminders of God’s beauty in the images of those who loved and served the Lord throughout the ages as painting on the ceilings and walls.
Finally, at the completion of the service, the priest welcomed the people and made a few announcements. This tradition of welcoming people into the House of God for worship and fellowship was explained to us by Mina, one the Greek “yiayia” as a gift of

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