St. Peter’s Church
18 October, 6:30pm
Tonight I visited St. Peter’s Church, another evangelical Anglican church in Carlisle, connected to St. John’s Church. The vicar, Simon Austen, pastors both congregations. On the Web site, the service was called an “informal Holy Communion” service, so I thought it would be similar to St. James and geared toward younger people. Though the churches are trying to build a service like that at St. John’s, this was not tonight’s service. In fact, Simon told me to please come back in the morning when the church is full (about 140 people) and there is a band. The service tonight, however, was refreshing for a change. There were 19 people in attendance, all with grey hair except for me, the vicar and the assoc. pastor, and 7-9 of them were involved in the service in some way.
When I walked in, I was greeted by the vicar, who asked me where I was from, how long I would be in town, and what I was doing—all details which, by the way, he remembered afterward. I was handed a songbook and liturgy book (for Communion). The service started out with some announcements (called “notices” in the UK). The associate pastor led all of the service except the sermon, and all of the insight he gave added to the worship. He also instructed us to sit and stand, which in many churches is neglected. I appreciate that instruction rather than the general expectation that everyone knows what to do—not too visitor friendly. The music was led by a keyboard and the pastor stood up front, but no one was leading the songs and we got lost a number of times. I knew only the last hymn and was somewhat familiar with an old 1980’s English tune, because we had sung it earlier in the week at OM. After the notices were two hymns, then a time of prayer led by a layperson. He prayed in different sections (e.g., for the church, for the sick, silent prayer) but it was not something we were reading together. We then sang another song, and then a woman read the Scripture passage for the sermon, John 2:12-25. The vicar preached about a 25-minute sermon. He was very good—sound theologically, knowledgeable in the scriptures, in touch with the post-modern shifts in culture, and not a bad orator. He was focusing on two events—the overturning of the moneychangers in the temple and Jesus’ “sign” that He would raise this temple in three days. He taught in context of chapters 1 and 3 (Jesus—the new religion—coming, the old religion’s destruction, then His destruction, and salvation and new birth resulting) He also taught in light of John’s epistles.
After the sermon, we sang another hymn and took Communion. At this point, we read together from the liturgy. (“Informal” Communion in the Anglican Church always seems formal to me as it has involved the liturgy in both churches I’ve been to, even though the rest of the service hasn’t.) The serving of the Eucharist involved giving the elements to two others, adding a middle section to kneeling benches, which were in the very front of the church, behind the pulpit, and dismissing us row by row to kneel and receive the elements, which included two common cups. I had appreciated that St. James had us dip the Bread into the Cup because of Swine Flu, and I have to admit that drinking from a common cup was quite distracting for me and I struggled to focus on remembering Christ. But I am not used to it. We did all of this in silence, which I appreciated this evening.
After Communion, we sang “Abide With Me,” and then had a closing prayer. The awkward moment for me came next, when the keyboardist started playing and I began to gather my things, while everyone else sat back down for a few moments. Oops. But the lady next to me started talking to me and the moment was over.
I had a nice chat with the vicar after the service, and he asked me about my church, told me about some churches to visit in London, and explained the state of the Anglican Church in England. He said the issues they face are completely different from the Episcopal Church in the States: the main issue here is, are you evangelical or not? There is a gamut of Evangelical Anglican churches, from ones like his to a couple of large churches in London (about 1,000), like Holy Trinity Brompton, which is charismatic but not Pentecostal. All of the churches of that size in England you can count on two hands. There are a couple of very large churches (like The Chapel), but they are Pentecostal. I asked him if the difference was that the Pentecostal churches believe that the baptism of the Spirit happens subsequent to salvation and the charismatic churches don’t, and he said that’s basically true but there would be some even in the charismatic Anglican churches who do believe that, though it wouldn’t be taught by the church. Simon told me that when I go to London, besides Holy Trinity, I should visit All Souls’ Church (where John Stott was vicar). We also talked about how churches his size in England have more staff members than in the States. He said he thinks it is because it is so hard to do evangelism here and takes more staff to reach the community. He considers his church understaffed, and when you realize that he is pastoring two congregations, he’s right. (Actually, if the two churches combined, they would have the largest congregation in town.)
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