[Magdalen] Coffee Anyone?

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

Lutheran Stuff:
 
My Cousin Connie, essentially raised as a sister, confided in me that
her oldest son (named after me) and his wife have recently  transferred
membership from an ELCA parish to a large CLB (Church of the Lutheran
Brethren) church in the city.
 
On the one hand I'm concerned because the CLB is quite unlike other
Lutheran groups in that it is essentially an evangelical  denomination.  It
has a free-form liturgy of the type one would expect in a megachurch,
and traces its origin to the Pietistic Movement in  Scandinavia.
 
I am not enamored by what we call in the USA "Evangelicals".
 
My cousin visited the church with son and wife recently, and I was  curious
about her experience.  The church has three services on  Sunday morning.
The first, which she attended, was rather straight forward with  hymns,
prayers, and a sermon.  The other two she described as  "contemporary"
and "Supercontemporary".  The latter is so free-form that Connie's  
teenagers
consider the worship style over the top.
 
The service Connie attended began with the singing of several  hymns
accompanied by the piano and played by yet another of my cousins who
is the parish ("Bethesda") music director.
 
Then there was some scripture and prayers.
 
AND THEN THEY TOOK A COFFEE BREAK!
 
They returned to the nave proper for the sermon, some additional  hymns,
and it was all over.
 
There have been worship liturgies I've attended through the years, where  a
coffee break during the liturgy might have been very helpful.
 
Maybe the CLB is on to something.
 
 
David Strang.