Waiting and Leaving

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Today I went to the 8:30 service at Gangwashi. I got there early enough to get a seat in the “foreigner section” in the main sanctuary. The foreigners there seemed different than the ones at Chongwenen. It seemed like maybe more of them spoke (at least a little) Chinese. I was sitting in the front row of foreigners, so it was hard to count, but I’d say no more than 20. The couple I was sitting next to was friendly. They were from Idaho, and they said that whenever they said where they were from to a Chinese person, the Chinese person would think they said Ohio. Even when they said it in Chinese. There was a hymn sung by the choir that was to the tune of Finlandia. Be Still, My Soul. Sitting in the main sanctuary, I got to notice another interesting detail. On the screen at the beginning of the service, there were a bunch of reminders—turn off your cell phone, don’t eat in the sanctuary, etc. The title of the sermon was我们等候的人—The Person for Whom We Are Waiting. The pastor who gave the sermon was a man on the younger side of middle aged. There was another man who led prayers and helped officiate who was probably about the same age. Part of the sermon talked about how when he was coming to church he walked past a nearby Catholic church. It was about 6 am, and there were beggars around there. He ruminated on what they were waiting for.
There was another announcement for the people baptized on July 29 to pick up their picture and a booklet, which cost 3 RMB. Before the service started, people were singing the hymns. Preview of coming attractions, I guess. There’s quite a bit of time to fill since people get there quite early for the good seats.
Next I went to Chongwenmen’s 10:30 service. I took a bus for part of the trip so I could be there before it started. This time I got a laminated order of service, which read as follows:
Choral Introit
Greeting
Call to Worship
Hymn
Lord’s Prayer
Responsive Reading
Old Testament
New Testament
Anthem
Sermon
Announcement
Hymn
Communion (first Sunday of every month)
Benediction
For the Communion, it listed the confession prayers as Psalms 51:1-3, 7, 10-11, 16-17. There is also a prayer of thanks during the communion.
There was a lengthier introduction to the church being read over the headsets this morning. It also included the tidbit that Chongwenmen was Beijing’s largest Protestant Church. Based on what, I wonder. There’s a lot of ways to measure the size of a church. It also talked about how it was used buy a school as an auditorium at one point, and how it was destroyed beyond recognition during the Cultural Revolution. It also mentioned capacity. Again, the whole story appears on the church’s website. The sermon was given by a minister from Zhushikou Protestant Church. It was called走出埃及—Out of Egypt. It was interesting because she related a trip that they had been on at her church. They had recently traveled to some of the places she was talking about in the part of her sermon that referred to the Bible.
Hard to believe that I’m leaving Beijing tomorrow. I feel as though I’ve gotten a pretty good impression of what it’s like to go to services at two popular Protestant churches here. I may have a way to go as far as putting all the pieces together, but I already know I’ve learned a lot.
The hostel room here did indeed fill up. Two dudes from Poland. One seems to be reading Wild Swans.
Today I did some more shopping. The main purchase was a duffel bag at a department store. I decided to not go for the cheapest thing I could find on the street—I want something that will hold up at least until I get home. It’s exactly what I was looking for (although I’m not thrilled about the Nike logo, etc) as far as size and style. 298 RMB. I saw a lot of smaller bags that were going for that much, so I figure it’s a pretty good deal. If it’s decent quality, it’s still a little cheaper than buying something like it in the US. This bag will allow me to be quite loaded down by the time I’m ready for my flight home.

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