Barnes in Common

the magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
January/February 2005

Home
Current issue
Previous issues
Noticeboard
Discussion board
About CTiB

A Catholic visit to the Baptists

by Theresa Munford

I shall come clean and start by confessing my preconceptions. I had expected a Baptist chapel to be a dour, cold place, the service to be full of sin, Satan and scary passages from the Old Testament. Happily, the moment I stepped inside the simple brick building on Lonsdale Road, I felt my prejudices crumble away.

Sunshine poured into the chapel, reflecting off the polished wooden surfaces and the pictures of The Light of the World and Durer's Praying Hands. The six or seven rows of seats gave the room a cosy, almost domestic, feel and this was reinforced as the dozen or so worshippers arrived, greeting each other and me, the stranger, with the casual warmth of a family gathering.

Moments before entering I had suddenly found myself worrying about a matter far from spiritual.....was I dressed right? As an RE teacher I have visited mosques, temples and synagogues. The first thing that comes to mind when preparing for these visits is dress code – veil? clean socks? trousers or skirt? Yet here I was, about to enter a house of prayer, and I had not checked what to wear. English Catholics, I think, tend to dress casually for church. Paying too much attention to what you wear was a kind of vanity, we were taught. Yet I'm old enough to remember a time when women would not enter a church without a hat. It was a relief, therefore, to find that amongst Barnes Baptists hats were not required and 'smart casual' seemed to be the norm.

Although there is a raised platform, the service was conducted from the simple table and reading desk at the front. There were prayers, readings and song interspersed with moments of silence and stillness. If you wonder how a small group of people can sing hymns together unselfconsciously, then modern technology can be thanked – a tape of the hymns with voices as well as music did the trick. (The chapel does have a grand piano, but apparently their centenarian pianist has recently had to retire into a nursing home).

Reverend Graham Pulham's sermon was part of an on-going study of the Gospel of John. It is probably only within a community of this scale that a detailed unpicking of scripture can be possible. In this case, Graham spent ten minutes on just two verses from the early chapters, looking at John the Baptist's words about his mission. It was an absorbing and enlightening talk and there was a real sense that the congregation were deeply involved. The approach underlined on many different levels the maxim that 'Small is Beautiful'.

I was, of course, expecting to say the Our Father, that prayer that links all our Christian communities so well. But what surprised me was how familiar most of the hymns were. We really are 'singing from the same song sheet'. As it was All Saints Day, I particularly enjoyed belting out that old favourite For all those Saints, who from their labours rest.

Although Liturgy of the Word is becoming more common in Catholic churches (often due to a shortage of priests) I still find it unfamiliar to have a service without a Eucharist. But I came away feeling that I had experienced a different kind of communion, one that occurs when a small and sincere gathering of people pray and think and sing together. I would like to thank Graham and his parishioners for their welcome and for opening my eyes to another branch of the Christian family.

This is one of a series of articles in which members of Barnes Christian communities visit a service in the church or meeting place of another denomination.

Back to the top