Church name: St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church (Egyptian)
Church address: 455 79th St, Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Date attended: November 15, 2015
Church category: Different ethnic or racial demographic
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context? The service was extremely liturgical. They used incense heavily and the haze was visible as soon as you walked in. The service we attended was in English, but I believe there was another service that was, I assume, in Arabic. When we walked in, the priest (I'm just going to call him that because I don't know what his title actually is) was reading from the book of John. Then they moved into a read liturgy with rare instances of call and response. The service was pretty full when we got there and after we sat down, more people kept coming in. One of the girls with us said that it was common in Middle Eastern or Arabic churches for people to come and go and walk around in the middle of the service. This was definitely true for this church. More people would come in throughout the service and stand at the back until they could find seats. We understood that this service was going to be two hours long so we planned to feel it out whether it would be possible to leave early. One thing that surprised me was that the congregation was divided by gender with men on the left and women on the right. I don't remember this being the case at the other Orthodox church I went to for my church visit but maybe I just didn't notice it. I also noticed that some women, mostly older women, wore a scarf over their head, but it seemed like it was completely a personal choice. Many women were sitting with their children, with some sitting with their fathers or moving back and forth.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
When they did the "kiss of peace" the women around us passed the peace with us even though we didn't know how but it was pretty simple. They seemed glad to have us there. There was a woman next to us with her baby who smiled and laughed at us when she saw us admiring her baby. I really liked that the children seemed very important in this setting. Since the atmosphere was more relaxed and the constant liturgy made it so you could talk without being heard by the whole congregation, the mothers mostly allowed their children to be however they wanted. Sometimes in my church or in public I get annoyed with parents constantly scold and monitor their children when they're not even doing anything disruptive. They didn't seem to be like that at this Egyptian church and they seemed like they were very interested in just being with their children, looking at them and smiling at them often instead of trying to focus on what was going on and unsuccessfully micromanaging their children. In my church experience, parents are always encouraged to put their kids in Sunday school but here it seemed like it was the norm for children to go to the worship service with their parents and I liked that.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
Starting on a more trivial note, the most disorienting thing at first was definitely the incense. As soon as we walked in I could just see a hazy cloud of it over the whole congregation. Before we got used to it, the smell was a little overwhelming and I was worried it would dry out my contacts. That, mixed with the somewhat higher temperature in the room made it a little uncomfortable to sit through the service, especially a two-hour long one. It was also a little disorienting when I realized that the room was divided into men and women. I just wasn't expecting that and it kind of went against my modern sensibilities. But I saw a couple women sitting on the men's side with their husbands or whoever so I was a little confused about why it was divided if it was apparently okay for those women to sit with the men. I was also a little confused because some of the women had scarves with a picture of a bearded man printed on them. Now, after I've looked at the church's website I've guessed that he is Pope Tawadros. I have no idea who that is but they mentioned him during the service so he must be higher up within the Orthodox denomination. The discomfort I had because of that picture made me realize how I'd been affected by growing up in a post 9/11 America since I was only 6 years old and if it is ever difficult for these Coptic Christians who look Arabic, dealing with Americans who don't know about Coptic Christians. All I know is that in the context I grew up in, in the Bible Belt in the South, I wouldn't have understood how this could still be the same religion that I believed in. I'm grateful that Wheaton has brought me out of that context and showed me other traditions that are just as faithful and committed to the same God that I am, or like to think I am.
What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
I guess to expand on what I said at the end of the last question, it just illuminated how culture and religion go so hand in hand. We never realize how much our faith and church life is actually influenced by the culture we grew up in, nor do we always recognize when we judge those from other cultures and traditions who worship differently than we do. This just reminded me how divided we are as a church and what Jesus says about the Body of Christ being one. But seeing how all these people were able to come together once a week or more and participate in this liturgy every week together and the way that everyone acted like a family towards each other made me feel like I wouldn't want to disturb what they had going here, because they seemed happy to be there with their friends and family. Of course, as the Body of Christ we are also family, all adopted by the Father, but I still feel sympathetic towards those traditions that are so rooted in culture and ethnicity.
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