Sneaky Self-Tour of a Thriving, Bible-Focused, Downtown Episcopal Church
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- Опубліковано 13 жов 2024
- I showed myself around Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Augustine, Florida to see what I could learn about them from their building and their art.
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I have attended evangelical and charismatic congregations in the past, but upon moving to my retirement community I started attending an Episcopal Church. There is as much scripture, if not more, in the lectionary and liturgy out of the Book of Common Prayer as I heard in many a Sunday sermon in other churches. The atmosphere of the liturgy is very conducive to meditation on Christ and what he did for us. The community reading together of the Psalms becomes a time to pause and just give thanks. The pastoral focus on love and good works, not doctrinal arguments, is also a nice change.
In a world full of turmoil, it's nice sometimes to just refocus.
Regarding the pulpit and the lectern and which side is which--the Pulpit is on what is called the 'Gospel' side of the church and is located on the left side as you face the altar. This is where the Priest preaches the sermon. On the right side as you face the altar is the Lectern called the Epistle side. The word lectern in Latin means 'reading desk'. On this side the Liturgy of the Word is read (i.e., the Old Testament Reading, the Psalm appointed, and the Epistle). The readings are done by a Lay Reader. The actual reading of the Gospel is generally proclaimed in the midst of the people in the center aisle. This is a very traditional layout of an Anglican/Episcopalian church. In the Anglican tradition of worship there is an emphasis of using all 5 senses in worship (what we share is embodied worship) - hence your senses are animated as you see the beautiful windows depicting the cross, hear the word preached, the choir sing, the organ and pipes play and sometimes the bells ring, touch the bread, your neighbors hand as you pass the peace midway through the service, taste the wine and sometimes smell the incense. We can also laugh at ourselves...we often call this 'smells & bells'...a very sweet set of novels capture the best of what it means to be Episcopalian/Anglican can be found in Jan Karon's fictional accounts of Father Tim...I enjoyed your visit to our beautiful Episcopalian faith, history and tradition-the priest is correct--we are kind of the monk-hood of the Reformation--we are held together by a prayer book--and open our doors to everyone full stop--as he so aptly said. Thanks Matt---love what you do! Best!
Chiming in as an Episcopalian here. When you commented on how those seats in the corner without a good line-of-sight to the front of the church would be "bad" seats, I'd actually push back on that a bit. A lot of Anglican churches (especially in larger cathedrals, etc.) have seats like that, and I find that they can actually be a very spiritually helpful way to engage with the service. It helps serve as a physical reminder that the purpose of the service isn't to be a show that the priest puts on to entertain the congregation, but rather that our attention is toward God, to whom we're addressing our prayers. This is actually why some folks including myself (though still a minority of Episcopalians) actually prefer when the Eucharist is celebrated "ad orientem" with the priest facing toward the altar with their back toward the people. Sometimes people find this off-putting because they feel a lack of a connection to the priest, but I think when framed in the right context it can be a really helpful reminder that what's going on is not between the congregation and the priest, but between everyone and God. The priest is just serving as a designated representative of the people to offer the bread and wine, but ultimately we're all standing together, facing the same way, making our collective offering.
Thanks for the low-key but open-hearted tour. Thank you for exploring the little details and insights that different denominations bring out in their worship. And the concept of the church building itself being a teacher of the faith is not one that I had thought of until you mentioned it here; thank you for the idea.
Sir please visit a Syro Malabar Catholic Church and Syro Malankara Catholic Church and make a video. Those Churches are there in US😇♥️ Love from India
I second this! love our Eastern Brethren
@@jonnygray43 ♥️ Thank you sir
We were blest a few years ago with a Syrio-Malabar priest serving in our Roman Rite parish as a parochial vicar while he got an advanced degree in hospital administration. He usually celebrated in the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, but we did get to hear the Syrio-Malabar liturgy!
Beautiful church and windows. Thanks for the tour, Matt.
Beautiful church thanks for the tour Matt.
I love all the little details in those kinds of churches.
really beautiful stained glass windows here💖❤🔥🙏
You are doing well figuring out what you are looking at!
I found a home in the Episcopal Church when I was 13. In the 58 years since, I have seen us be godly or sinful, found or lost, loving or scornful, fruitful or barren. Yet somehow we persevere, in significant part due to those very buildings and rites someone at some time designed, that when brought to meaning by the wonderful Holy Spirit, help us realize who we are and what we are to be about.
Your dear friend in St. Augustine summarized us as fostering the monkhood of the believer. As we fall deeper and deeper in love with our Maker, we readily and publicly proclaim how good He is because we see His hand so clearly in our own lives and on a regular basis, sometimes even minute by minute! Who wouldn’t make a fuss?
Brother, you might want to be careful when you tread Episcopal Church grounds. Heaven forbid that you might be tempted to join, or worse, sense a call to ordination! It happens fairly often!
The stained glass dedicated to the memory of Charlotte has the Latin word ‘Fides’ in the figure’s halo, and it means ‘Faith’. This corresponds well to the other window ‘Charity’ you mentioned as one dedicated to Christian virtue.
Enjoyed poking around with you and looking at those stained glass windows
Yes, the Stations are the same and in the same order. Love your vids.
Another great video, Matt. Thank you. ❤
Fun fact: you mentioned Anglican churches feel like castles to you. Medieval English churches often functioned as a fortification for the city, somewhere to flee to if your town was being besieged. If you have a chance to come to England and see a Norman era church, you will notice things like slit windows on the towers and the zig zag at the top of the towers (for archers)! Oystermouth church in swansea, wales is a good example. If you get a chance, there are a few churches which have remnants of medieval wall paintings on them too (most were white washed after the reformation but have been discovered since). An excellent example is in a Chapel in Canterbury cathedral but other smaller parish churches have them too such as the parish church at Lenham, Kent. Of course neo-gothic churches retained some of those features but are now purely decorative/tradition.
Fascinating self-tour of the St. Augustine Trinity Episcopal church. Loved the oh-so-real comment at 5.35 about a kid 'spacing off' in the outlying wing. Been there (60 years ago); done that....
That’s a beautiful font. Shaped like a sea shell. When the pastor of my LCMS church baptized he uses a stylized silver sea shell to administer the water.
so beautiful! thank you for your tour! :D
Hi Matt, greetings from here Scandinavia Finland! I wanna thank you for your excellent videos, i find them very educating. I was looking through your UA-cam video archives, and I did not find any video about the Salvation army, correct me if im wrong. I would like to suggest, if you could make video about them someday. Blessings to you and your family, keep up the good work!
I loved your poking fun at the seats with a poor viewing angle. I can 100% confirm it's a good place to goof off, eapecially if you have a pillar screening shenanigans like kicking your brother...not that I would ever do that 🙏😂
Helena is a Saint in the Anglican Tradition.
Great, informative video. Thanks!
I really learned a lot about watching these tours and learned so much about these faiths. I appreciate you for doing this, and they were really educational. I'd like to see you do one on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That would be a tour I'd like to see and learn about.
I love the Episcopal churches down here in the south many go back to the founding fathers days.
To remark on a couple of your "not sure"s:
- The stations of the cross are the same for Anglicans/Episcopalians as for Catholics (or at least Roman Catholics).
- In general, the Anglican Communion recognizes all of the same Saints as the Roman Catholic Church, along with a few bonus Saints.
With regard to the charity stained glass windows, love as a virtue (1 cor 13) is also translated as charity. I bet in addition to faith and charity, you'll find a "hope"window too
Concerning the "Gospel" side of the church. Traditionally Churches were built facing East - the direction of the coming of Christ and the Resurrection. When the priest presided at the eucharist with their back to the congregation they moved to the north end of the altar to read the liturgical gospel reading. This symbolism was adopted by the early church when the church expanded from the middle east, north africa and around the mediteran sea towards the pagan tribes of northern europe and the nordic countries.
Matt, would you be open to doing an episode on Global Methodism and the future of Methodism?
Visit St. Cecilia’s cathedral in Omaha, NE. The absolute most beautiful church I’ve ever seen in North America.
Cant wait to see if you tour other churches in St. Augustine
Gud stuff
Dr Walter, Martin writer of the kingdom of the Cults once said I am a converted liberal I was born and raised in the Episcopal Church which is the American branch of the church of England educated in Roman catholic parochial schools became an agnostic converted to Christ, trained under a Presbyterian ordained Baptist and Pastored a Lutheran Church talked in a nondenominational seminary some say cemetery and wound up teaching Apologetics at a Christian law school, a theological Lawyer I don’t think I missed anything along the way.
The Stations of The Cross are the same :)
There are slight differences depending on which Anglican you ask. Some follow the catholic, some reduce the amount to only the biblical portions (e.g. no veronica), or swap the extra-biblical with more stages (e.g. judas' betrayal) akin to Pope John Paul IIs scriptural way of the cross😊. The later is the one on CofE's website for instance.
@@Guguchina I have not experienced that. Every Stations of The Cross I have been to, or have offered has had the same Stations. Veronica might not be mentioned, but a woman has always wiped Jesus’ face. While The Stations don’t change there is one change that I sometimes find. Some Churches change The Stabat Mater to the Trisagion.
Good Tour. Almost the same as The Greek Orthodox Church I Attend In New Hampshire
I'd love to see you take a tour of the Chapel on Naval Academy grounds. I find it very beautiful.
It seems that this fellow may be being drawn to a liturgical church. Come Holy Spirit.
If you ever want to visit an independent Methodist (former UMC) church pastored by an Anglican you are welcome to visit Nolley church in Jena Louisiana
I think: The window depicting the bishop figure with “Te Deum Laudamus” is probably Bishop St Ambrose of Milan (late 300s AD), defender of the faith against Arianism and paganism, politician and doctor of the church, and author of many hymns including the “Te Deum”.
Usually the one on the left is for the epistles and the one on the right is for the gospels.
greetings from Germany howabout you visit Wesrminter Abbey in London ?b HJust a suggestion.
and the Westminster Cathedral.
I know that you don't have plans to become Catholic or Orthodox or Anglican/Episcopalian or Lutheran. But how can you live without Eucharist each week or every day? I suspect that you have grown to appreciate the "source and summit" of our faith from your visits into other tradiitions. The mass -- the Eucharist -- is why i joined up with the Catholic church, now that i think about it.
St Pius X on the Eucharist: "The first and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit".
You should visit a Parish that celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass (FSSP, ICKSP, SSPX, etc.)
Regarding the stations of the cross they are the same.
Stained glass is from the days where a lot of the congregation would have been illiterate they would have been able to understand the stories from the images
Did i miss your tour of the Basilica in St Louis?
Or is that still forthcoming?
I reached out but wasn't able to get in there for a video, so I'll have to try again some other time.
@@MattWhitmanTMBH Rats. It is magnificent.
Please visit the basicila of the immaculate conception
Don't get me wrong I'm loving the church tours and all, but I'm starting to miss the Ten Minute Bible Hour content when you would talk about Bible stuff.
Thank you! You might like the last two videos I published on this channel - One is about the book of Esther, and the other is a short little Bible video about a weird incident in 2 Kings. But if you really want more stuff in the style of the old videos I did way back in the day on this channel, you might like the daily Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast. I moved that serial style Bible conversation over there and I publish every weekday morning going straight through books of the Bible.
For the algorithm
Can u go to another Orthodox Church
What is a bible focused episcopal church?
The church is people, not buildings..
Matt, why aren't you Roman Catholic? (Aka the One, True, Faith) Deo Gratias.
Now, why do you ask that? Well, being papist myself
@@cedricphillip5945 Matt is visiting all sorts of Christian denominations. He is progressively learning more and more about the history of Christianity. The more you seek the truth, the sooner you will come across the Catholic Church which was founded on the rock of St. Peter. Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide are easily refuted.
One must always come to the inevitable question... How do you know if you are saved? From that question alone, you will discover that you are saved through the one church that has valid Sacraments (most importantly the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist), the one church that was founded by Jesus Christ, and as spoken in John 6:53-56 "Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day."
I feel the presence of Christ when I visit an Episcopal church. Doesn't make sense.
First