Although raised in the Episcopal Church, I haven't attended anywhere with any degree of regularity…read moresince my children were small. Beginning at the first of the year, I started looking around here in Dallas for a church where I felt comfortable. I think I may have found that place. St Matthews. Just for starters, the windows are heart-stoppingly beautiful. Congregation members, making conversation in the parish hall after services have asked me what made me decide to give St Matthews a try. I have told them that I am superficial enough that I can be seduced by beautiful windows. I am.
Located at Ross Ave just south of where it turns and becomes Greenville Avenue, the church building is over 100 years old. The windows over the altar date back to the original construction of the building at the beginning of the last century. The rest of the windows were made in two different phases in the 1960s and 1970s. The building was originally part of an Episcopal girl school. Ladybird Johnson attended school there for 4 years in the 1920s. The Diocese of Dallas acquired the buildings in the last 1920s, and it has been their Cathedral ever since. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Church_of_Saint_Matthew,_Dallas,_Texas
But, most people don't go to church to look at the architecture, they go to connect with the Almighty. St Matthews provides a number of different types of services that make that connection possible. There is a once-a-month sung Compline, done at 9 p.m. on a Friday night, with only candle light (really cool and very moving). There is evening prayer every week night at 6, a quiet moment to reflect on the day, a way to step out of my regular daily life and connect with a reality that is larger, quieter and certainly more potent than anything else I come into contact with on a regular basis. There are Eucharists in private homes, a practice that harkens back to early Christian life. Sunday has 3 different types of mass (Traditional, a sung Mass, and then a service in Spanish). A really great breakfast is served after the first service and lunch after the Spanish service. I haven't tried the lunch, but I can report that a person could plow fields after that breakfast!
Because it is Lent, there is a weekly Stations of the Cross. Stations is a guided meditation on the Crucifixion, beginning with Christ being condemned and ending with his being taken down from the cross and buried. It makes a good guided meditation on the central focus of Christianity. Last week, Stations was done from the perspective of Mary. Thinking about Jesus' Mother as she watched her child being put to death...well...it was very, very strong, an emotionally effecting experience. It got me. Most things don't. That did.
And, lets talk about the reputation that Episcopalians have for not knowing how to make strangers feel welcomed. There is a historical basis for that reputation. St Matthews appears to be a little different in that regard. My first Sunday at St Matthews, there literally was a line-up in the parish hall of people wanting to talk to me, people interested in making me feel welcomed. That willingness to talk to a stranger has continued to impress me. There are several people who always talk to me after services, people who are obviously introverted. Making small talk isn't their default setting. They are talking to me anyway. They aren't back-slappers. They have a community they are proud of and they want to share it with others. I respect that a lot.
The windows may have gotten me to show up originally, but having meaningful services and friendly people keeps me coming back.
