How To Find a Spiritual Home-Away-From-Home

By Henriette Thompson

From March until this past July, I was assigned to a global change project with World Vision, located in a suburb of Los Angeles and a community just south of Seattle, in Washington State. As I travel frequently for my work, I relish the opportunity to explore other Christian churches. Well, this year I had a full five months in two distinct cities to explore the ‘spiritual’ landscape.

California is often depicted as the place of mega churches where several thousand people attend auditorium-sized churches on Sunday. I don’t find that particularly appealing, so my visits ran more toward the smaller community churches, like St. George’s.

One Sunday an American colleague invited me to attend his family’s church, Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena. This church comes from the holiness tradition with roots in the theology of Charles Wesley and in the Anabaptist tradition. The Church of the Nazarene has a strong teaching emphasis upon the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of the believer and in the congregation’s worship and ministry. Its focus is on transformation of the world by spreading scriptural holiness. Now I didn’t learn all this about the Church of the Nazarene in one Sunday visit! I did enjoy the warm welcome from people in the congregation and noted the church’s vibrant weekly congregational life for youth, children, and people of all ages.

Another Sunday, a colleague and I walked to St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Monrovia, the LA suburb where we were working. It is over 100 years old and the BAS service, with some twists, was familiar. The sermon time was an opportunity for the rector to link a local issue of plans for a nursery school on church property to broader issues of the church’s role to ensure that it promotes inclusiveness in its practice. Some people were planning for a privately funded school that would have prevented lower income families from accessing the school for their children. In comparison to the Church of Nazarene’s plenteous members, St. Luke’s was sparsely attended on this Sunday morning.

In May and June I lived in Federal Way, a community just south of Seattle, Washington. I began to look up the local Anglican (or Episcopal) churches in the local directory and noticed the churches within walking distance of my apartment. Since transportation was an issue, I settled on attending Calvary Lutheran Church.

Lori and Doug, a husband and wife clergy team, lead a congregation that strives hard to provide a central meeting place for children, youth, families and individuals throughout the week . Their programs included a “Not-so-young adults” gathering, youth and family ministry team meetings, and a “body and soul sisters” assembly. I enjoyed a six-week focus on vocation and work during which the sermon time was presented as an interview with congregational members working in various fields.

On Sunday, May 15 -- Pentecost Sunday -- the sermon linking the Tower of Babel with Pentecost was complemented by Syytende Mai Norwegian Heritage Celebration. This celebration is in honour of Norway’s Constitution Day, May 17. Many of Calvary Lutheran’s members are descendants of Norwegian settlers who first settled in the Dakotas in the early 1900s and then migrated to the Puget Sound area. Names such as Torvend, Peterson and Thurman reflect this heritage.

After the service, a Norwegian forum with displays of artifacts, books, and people in costume was held. We listened to people tell compelling stories of their families’ settlement in the US. My table conversations over coffee and Norwegian baked goods with two senior men were an opportunity to share immigrant stories, as my family, too, arrived as immigrants in Canada after World War II. It was particularly powerful to hear stories about how the faith (Lutheran, Protestant) was transmitted from generation to generation.

My American church pilgrimage also took me to St. James Cathedral in Seattle on Ascension Sunday. The Catholic liturgy has many similarities to Anglican liturgy; the music (Schubert’s German mass) and the lofty interior of the cathedral made me reflect on the majesty of God. The postlude, “Final” from Symphony No. 1 by Vierne, sent us out into the world in a resounding way.

My visits to American west coast churches were a discovery in the challenges of community, the struggle for relevance, and the striving for faithfulness in responding to the call of the Gospel wherever we’re placed.

When we pray the Anglican cycle of prayer for churches around the world every Sunday morning, I am reminded of our American cousins. My intercession is that we are all led by the Holy Spirit to live out our calling.