Zion Church of Baltimore

Now that my husband has Sundays off again, we've decided to conquer some of the churches in Baltimore itself. I'm hoping to branch this blog out with more visuals, perhaps on a website. For this week, we went to the only church in Baltimore that still has a weekly service in German. There is also an English service later on, but I have not tried that one yet.

Location: 400 E. Lexington Street

Worship time: 9:15 a.m. for the German service, 11:15 for the English service

Spiritual Leader: Reverend Dr. Holger Roggelin is a witty middle-aged man who is very welcoming. It was clear he knew his parishioners when he mentioned an older member who recently broke a hip. Though he did show his concern, Reverend Roggelin wryly reminded people that we are all getting older and need to remember we can't do everything we used to be able to do.

He also made sure to personally invite me and my husband to the Kaffeestunde at 10:15 and also to the beautiful, well-kept library behind the altar.

Congregation: The 26 parishioners were by and large an older crowd, formally attired, on time, and very close to each other. Yet, we were definitely welcomed at the Kaffeestunde. Hearing some of the parishioners' stories was a lot of fun. They made an effort to engage my husband, primarily an English speaker, in the conversation as well.

Interior: The church was very cozy. It was simple, wooden pews and mostly regular windows with a gorgeous stained glass above the pulpit to focus attention there. A small divider sectioned off room for an office and Sunday School.

Presentation: To say this church is beautiful is an armaggedon-like understatement. Zion Church was built in 1755 and has the graves of several important historical figures on site. Stained glass windows from different regions of Germany tells stories from a variety of places in the Bible. The pews are comfortable but bisected, which gives the church a fuller look.

Sermon: The reverend smoothly blended the firm belief that parishioners are personally accountable for doing their own soul searching about their beliefs with a kind and personable manner that understood the foibles of human nature. This message in particular was a bit difficult to make new, but the reverend managed. He pondered the Trinity and how absurd the "dreieinger Gott" even sounds. The reverend firmly asserted that God is relational, in all three parts, managing to stay quiet but intense. He also affirmed that the Trinity is one of the only ways that our feeble human minds can wrap around the mystery of the Almighty. Impressive, really.

Music: The hymns are traditional, some in the hymnals but others in the bulletin without the score. A lot of the music was call and response, which was more difficult to follow if you were new.

The pastor also added a verse of "America the Beautiful" in English to commemorate Memorial Day.

Overall atmosphere: The building and people have a serene pride that make me want to be a bigger part of this culture and city. I'm fairly certain I'll be back.

Woodberry Church of the Brethren

Woodberry Church of the Brethren

If I'm correct, this is the last church in Hampden that I hadn't been to. Hope everyone has enjoyed the blog so far.

Location: West 36th and Poole Streets. It's actually down the hill from the Avenue itself, towards the light rail station.

Worship time: 11:00 a.m.

Spiritual Leader: Pastor John Weyant, a sweet and cheesy middle-aged man who takes a moment to think how to phrase things but is very enthusiastic.

Congregation: Of the 21 there, most were over 50. There were a couple of parents with young children. While dress tended toward nicer attire, some of the older crowd also wore jeans.

Interior: The church was very cozy. It was simple, wooden pews and mostly regular windows with a gorgeous stained glass above the pulpit to focus attention there. A small divider sectioned off room for an office and Sunday School.

Presentation: Though the bulletin gave the disclaimer "This service is subject to change, under the discretion of the Holy Spirit," there was nothing scary about this church. Everyone who talked had a nice, wry sense of humor. The pastor and leaders talked through the transitions and made the transition from the Sharing of Joys and Concerns time to worship again fairly smoothly. I found that the post-Ravens' loss chattiness that greeted me at the door continued with the members' genuine concern for each other.

What really impressed me was the constant outreach and respect for other denominations. For instance, not only does this church work with local churches to supply the food pantry, but they invited all to Emmanuel's Rock at the Falls Road Methodist church on Wednesday at 7 p.m. for a contemporary service. Perhaps this is because this denomination, as one of the parishioners said, is smaller than many, but it will serve them well.

Sermon: The message, "The Model and Model Behavior," focused on humans, like the pottery of the Ming Dynasty, being stamped with the mark of God, making us very valuable indeed. Historical allusions didn't touch on the scripture part of things so much as why people make models at all and that if God is the potter, that he made things that are made to be used. Some of the references felt thrown in instead of meaningful, but at least there was a variety to be found.

Music: The songs were traditional and from a hymnal. The pianist played well, though the acoustics of the church made it hard for all of us to hear the right notes and adjust.

Overall atmosphere: So many people came to talk to me and were receptive to what I was doing. I was even invited out for a free lunch to further talk about the church and the churches in Hampden. Mr. Fred Wilhelm, a distinguished gentleman who seems to have become a bit of a local church historian, helped fill in many of the gaps.

The church does have a website, www.freewebs.com/woodberrycob, but it isn't very kept up. However, the COB is involved with the Christian Fellowship, a group of Hampden churches that gets together the first Thursday of each month at rotating locations to network. In February, COB will host this event. It always begins at 6 p.m. with dinner, which leads to 7 p.m. worship.

Since I believe I have attended all the churches, I will now mostly be posting updates from the Christian Fellowship. Please feel free to contact me at rmschwarz@gmail.com with any questions.

Greater Grace

The place was a little hard to find, as the church isn't allowed to put up signs at Meadow Mill. Nonetheless, it's worth a visit.

Location: 3600 Clipper Mill Rd, suite 114. It's tucked into Meadow Mill, which you can access by going under the bridge by car or foot on Clipper Mill Road off of Union Ave, right behind the Woodberry Light Rail Station. Once you get there, go 3/4 around the building clockwise and come in the open doors.

The church actually started outdoors and moved into the Mobtown Theatre space last winter. See www.ggch.info for updated locations and events.

Worship time: 10:30 a.m.

Spiritual Leader: Pastor Ben, a younger man who works carpentry full time and volunteers on Sundays. Like all the staff, he doesn't get paid to do what he does, yet he prepares a text-rich comparison of various people and events in the Bible. He is enthusiastic but business casual professional.

Congregation: Only 16 people were there today, but a few were out of town for the weekend. Exactly half the congregation was male. Pretty much everyone but Pastor Ben wore jeans. Everyone was very friendly, and though the ages varied, it ran toward young college graduate age.

In September a Sunday school curriculum for the kids is to be implemented.

Interior: It was inside a small theatre with very nice seats that slid out a little to give more room. The sound was good, and it was intimate enough to work well for a small group. Apparently, sometimes they have to trip over the theatre group's props on stage.

Presentation: The adaption of the theatre space worked well and likely attracts people who have worshipped in similar conditions at college. There were no available Bibles, given the location, but the verses were on screen for easy access.

Sermon: The message was about getting away from following the law just to avoid punishment and moving toward God's grace just making us want to be good. A plethora of seemingly unorganized verse choices followed. One main focus was Moses, who didn't talk to the rock as he'd been told but struck it to give the people water. This sin caused him to be banned from the Promised Land. A few other connections were placed out there, but the organization of them could have been better.

Music: The songs were so new I hadn't heard of any of them, but all the lyrics were put on a projector. A musician with a guitar led the music part, which wasn't as long as I might have liked but was very pretty. A few talented singers in the congregation added harmony.

Overall atmosphere: It was friendly and welcoming. I get the feeling that, with continued community outreach such as the Saturday morning Royal Farms prayer breakfasts at 10:30, the group will continue to grow.

St. Thomas Aquinas Church

A church review of the Hampden area would never be complete without the beautiful St. Thomas Aquinas, a combination church, school, and convent that rises high on Roland Ave near the fire station.  

Location: The church is on the corner of Hickory Ave and 37th St., but it's most visible from Roland.

Time:  I attended the 11 a.m. Sunday service.  Mass is also held at 9 a.m. Sunday and 5 p.m. Saturday.  Confession is at 4:15-4:45 on Saturday or by appointment.

Leader: Reverend M. Shawn Mahon, a man in the later middle age.  He hadn't done a lot of research for the lesson, and it showed.  He talked about immigrants speaking their native tongue, "Yugoslavian--or whatever language they speak," and I couldn't help but squirm and think that it's not hard to look it up and find that it was Slavic.  He also could have just avoided trying to name it, if he didn't know.

He used a lot of vocal fillers and didn't seem very impassioned or sure of himself.  He also was one of the few pastors I've ever met who didn't make an effort to greet me.  I also experienced another first--a pastor saying, "Have a good day" in bland monotone after the blessing.

Hilarious.

Congregation:  Some of the older generations were dressed up, but I also saw several people in sports T-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.  However, no one said anything to me, and they didn't seem overly friendly among themselves, either.  There was a much younger crowd than in most of the other area churches, and there was more diversity, maybe 5% non-Caucasian.  This, and the attendance of 113 people, really impressed me.

Interior:  The altar was beautiful, with statues abounding. There were donated stained glass windows and dark oak eaves stretching high.  Ironically, the wall outlining the elaborate altar said (in incredibly fancy script):  "What does it profit one to gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his own soul?"  I wonder if those putting it up thought about how the money going to make the church that gorgeous might have been more practically spent.

Presentation:  There was no point by point bulletin to help me follow along, though the hymn numbers were posted.  The weekly bulletin, sponsored by several local businesses, including two wine stores, did have contact information and the weekly prayer concerns.  The bulletin did say, though, that 43% of American women have an abortion, which I thought was really high. It was.  Please see http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html for accurate statistics.  It really upsets me when churches do this--people should be able to trust those guiding them on how to live their lives.

I did enjoy the little baskets on sticks the ushers used to collect the offering from.  

Sermon:  The lesson was about the eucharist and letting yourself be transformed by Christ, focusing on that we should learn to be Christ in one another and to one another.  The examples, however, were bland and didn't reach out past Christians at all.  

Part of the prayer after the sermon asked for people to be called to be priests, nuns, etc.--a sweet self-preservation for the church.

Music: Organ was the only instrument.  A young woman with a sweet, delicate voice led all the singing responses and songs. Unfortunately, it was hard to hear her sometimes, and she didn't always give page numbers for what wasn't posted.  As a visitor, I found this difficult and discouraging.   The hymns, all traditional, often only had the line for the melody written out, though some people improvised the harmony quite well.  

Overall atmosphere: The church, as mentioned, is something to be seen and experienced.  I do think, however, that I'd prefer to visit on my own than during service.  It just didn't speak to me, despite the visuals.

Community Pentecostal Church of Hampden

Location: 1301 Dellwood (basically the corner of Union and Conduit towards the Light Rail station)

Time: 7:30 p.m., which I found intriguing.  

Leader:  Reverend Allan Snyder, who went by Brother Ted, was an older man who played electric guitar and was all positive parts of brimstone and fire. He stomped on the floor, pounded the pulpit, squeaked the microphone with his shouting of praise, and had to pull up his pants as he hopped around the altar with his praises.

I can only hope the reason he used a microphone despite his apparent natural volume was that his hearing was going.  His Bawlmer dialect was sweet, but I felt I could easily have heard less painfully from the house next door.

Congregation:  There were 21 people there tonight, mostly dressed quite nicely, which often coincides with an older audience like this.

Interior:  The church was always built to be small, which works well with the smaller congregation.  It is wood-panel colored with some mauve accents.  Fake candles and flowers were set in the window sills.  There are no stained glass windows at all. 

Presentation:  There was a lot of congregation participation, with shouts of "Hallelujah," "Praise God," and "Yes" echoing and interrupting each message, point, or prayer.  

Sermon:  The hour-long message was very disjointed and disorganized, partially because of all the "Yes, Jesus" praises thrown in.  It was about Saul who thought he was doing good for God because he was arresting Christians but had to listen to God to know what was really expected from him.

Most of the hour was actually about a congregation member's baby who was born fine, despite warnings of danger.  The doctors that said the baby might be born with a condition was called agents of the Devil. 

Music:  Few people in the church could either keep rhythm or tune, though a few people enthusiastically clapped off beat and used their tambourines.  Unfortunately, it wasn't until a few hymns in that Brother Jim realized he should shout out the page numbers of the hymns, since there were no bulletins or signs to say what numbers they were.  Singers were enthusiastic but sang not a single song I'd heard before.

Overall atmosphere:  Despite no formal meet-and-greet time, a few members did come and say hello.  However, in general, the service and style were a little much for me.  

Baltimore First Free Methodist

Today I visited Baltimore First Free Methodist, a church from 1907 tucked away between the row houses on Keswick. I did have to wonder what the "free" meant since there are other Methodist churches in Hampden. I was told that the Free Methodists broke apart from the others in 1860 because Methodist churches were charging rent for their pews and because the Free Methodists didn't support slavery. Ironically, today the Free Methodists are more conservative.

Here's the scoop:

Location: 3441 Keswick Ave.

Time: 10:30 a.m. The 9:30 on the sign actually is for bible study, which is held downstairs. Originally, I came early and was confused until I picked up a bulletin.

Leader: Pastor Loren Edwards, a middle-aged man who seemed to hold his enthusiasm back a little more than he might have wanted to. Very kind, and if he mispronounced hyperbole, it can only be said that most of his audience probably had no idea (as an English teacher I winced).
I do have a feeling he's a little more conservative than he lets on--he mentioned praying for his granddaughter to meet better friends, friends who were Christian, and didn't say anything about either Jesus hanging out with local prostitutes and tax collectors or the ability to witness through word and action, even and especially to people who aren't Christian.

Congregation: There were 21 people there, many of whom arrived late. Almost a third of the congregation was under 50, a feat for the neighborhood. I was greeted by quite a few people during different parts of the service.

The congregation will be helping to remodel the Fellowship Hall next month.

Interior: Although the worship space had been very warm at 9:30, it had been cooled for the service. Pews were comfortable, and while the decorations were sparse, two simple stained glass windows with diamond shapes brought in a little light and color.

Presentation: Things were a little off of the order I'm used to. Both offerings and greetings preceded the sermon.

People were encouraged to come up the altar to pray during different times, and a woman was annointed by a blessing from the pastor and the hands of other parisioners to take blessings to her grandson in the hospital. A little more hands-on then some churches.

A few fun activities and groups were mentioned, such as Kidz Club and the ministry to local Chinese restaurant workers held the last Sunday of each month at 10:30 p.m., when they can actually come. This impressed me--it makes for a long Sunday.

Sermon: The sermon seemed a little unorganized and spent more time on the whole message, not on historical context. Smatterings of Matthew 5-7 were hit on in seemingly spontaneous order in a "People Power" message about Christians and the Golden Rule. The one historical point made was that Confucius also had a version of the Golden Rule before Jesus.
The usual humor and jokes made an old message fresh and fun.

Music: The traditional hymns were sung from the hymnals and a cappela; newer songs were presented on Power Point and accompanied by a single guitar. Surprisingly, the harmony of the small congregation was quite good.

I approved of the song leader stopping the guitarist when we got off on a new song so that the verse could be started again. It saved that awkward rush that one can get trying to finish the song without admitting that there were issues.

Overall atmosphere: People seemed genuinely interested in why I was there and respected that I had already found a church I wanted to attend--and still wanted to talk, something one can't say about all parisioners. The congregation and pastor continually work to make the church work for multiple generations. I wouldn't be surprised if it survived long after some of the other churches in Hampden dwindled; it is the attitude, not the building, that's important.

Church of New Hope

Location: Hampden Family Center on 36th (The Avenue)

Time: 10 a.m.

Leader: Things were split up between the Worship Leader, George Merson, and the Message Leader, Maxwell Brown. Mr. Merson was a sweet kind of cheesy middle-aged white guy; Mr. Brown was a serious but kind black guy who also played piano for the service. Multitalented!

Congregation: There were 16 people there, including three babies. Originally, I thought that this number was down due to HonFest outside, but it turns out that there were actually a few visitors, making the congregation larger than usual. Most of the people were middle-aged and wore casual clothes, though no jeans. Tattoos were visible on a few of the women.

Interior: The church was set up inside a community center, so the room was used for many things. The walls were a warm tan and the chairs, padded fold-out seats, were comfortable and set up to make the space look perfect for a small group of people.

Presentation: The bulletin had the music and words, though the hymns were placed in the bulletin so they fit, not in order that they were sung.

There was "Caring Time" to share joys and concerns out loud, which many did.

Sermon: Mr. Brown's message ("I Was Found by Those Who Did Not Seek Me") centered on not trusting religious people to have faith and distrusting the zealous, whom he maintained were either more into the culture of the faith or did what they did to earn points instead of out of faith. In the sermon, several other religions inside and part of the major three were insulted as zealous but wrong.

The entire message was a sort of logical ethos. The main points were numbered and referred to in order. Actually, there was little emotional swaying or personal story to any of it.

Music: Again, Mr. Brown played piano beautifully, and while there was no choir, many of the members sang with confidence and key. The hymns were upbeat if a little too traditional.

Overall atmosphere: The people were kind and invited me to have refreshments with them afterwards. They are nice people, but I'll be looking elsewhere for a little more zest and openness.