Catholic Church Experience Paper

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As I grew up in Vietnam, I only knew two types of Christians, which are Catholic and Baptist. As I am a Catholic, I decide to visit a non-Catholic church. I attended a service at St. John’s United Methodist Church on February 15th. This church is located in Springfield, Virginia. Compared to those Catholic churches I have been to, this church’s sanctuary is very simple. After attending the service, I learn that both Catholic and Methodist churches believe in Jesus Christ and Jesus was human as well as divine. As the service I attended was the day after Valentine’s Day, the priest discussed about love of God and how we define love for one another. The songs and hymns at the service were all about God’s love and blessings. During the service, …show more content…

John’s United Methodist Church. She shared her experience serving at this church. She gave me some background of Methodism and the church. Methodism is an inspiration from the life and teachings of John Wesley. As being Methodists, the church and its community have done many social services to share God’s love and practice his teachings by helping others. St. John’s United Methodist Church is a very diverse family as displayed in ethnicity, gender, age, and interests. She also told me that they would not convert people into Methodism but they welcome everybody to learn about their religion, their church and their …show more content…

The service started with greetings, prelude, opening hymn and Psalm reading. Then, the priest talked to children about love of God. The way and meaning that the priest expressed during the service were very effective. She also made the service into a conversation. Even though it was my first time attending the service at St. John’s United Methodist Church, they made me feel very friendly and welcomed. In Methodist church, people can get baptized at any age with water by sprinkling, pouring or immersing them. For Methodists, Baptism means starting a new life in Christ and a journey of Methodism. Methodists believe in helping the poor and average people in the society. Miss Tina Nguyen told me that St. John’s United Methodist Church has hosted many social services such as soup kitchen, free carwash, and food giveaways. They are also considered as a ritual of Methodism because its characteristic is to help one another. She also emphasized that on their website, it said, “We seek to bring messages that are Biblically based and relevant to today’s life. Messages that bridge the gap between God’s word and our everyday lives. We believe that the Bible is still relevant to our lives and make it our goal to help you apply its meaning to your life (“St. John’s United”,

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