This week’s sessions have been wonderfully enriching for me. I have gained so much insights and learnt so much more about Christianity, presbytery and its differences with other denominations.
The visitation to Church of St. Mary of the Angels was an eye-opening experience for me. As a 2nd generation Christian, I was taught since young to only focus on Christianity and was never given an opportunity to explore other religions. Catholicism has always been an intriguing area which I wanted to find out more. Thanks to STEP, last Sunday was the first time, and probably last time, I attended a mass.
Being unequipped with any prior knowledge about Catholicism, I was caught off guard by the smell of incense and the ringing of bells. I experienced the sprinkling of Holy Water onto my face and witnessed Holy Communion and saw how different our religions’ structures are. Honestly, it came to me as scary when they performed the rituals and chanting. However, it was also comforting to see that many have found Christ and are passionate towards serving Him, though our doctrines may differ.
At the beginning of the week, we visited the Ministry of Home Affairs' Heritage Centre and learnt a lot about establishing peace between religions and races, and also about counter-terrorism. One thing that struck me regarding race and religion is how fragile our social fabric is. It reminds me to always be sensitive towards other religions and not shove my beliefs into their faces, something that I witnessed my friend doing towards her Muslim friend though they might be just joking around. Not only so, it reminds me to treat others with love no matter what race or religion they belong to, which, in my opinion, is very important in being a good testimony as a Christian.
On the same day, Rev. Tan Tiong Ann spoke to us regarding Christology and something he said left a deep impression in me. He mentioned about how the society is changing, and that Presbyterian churches need to stay relevant to the society, but also preserving. He quoted “worshipping the lamb, entertaining the sheep”, explaining that many churches have changed their worship styles to suit the youth, but at the same time unknowingly tweaked the meaning of worship.
As a christian from a Mandarin-speaking congregation, there are many times where I find our congregation’s worship very dull and not as reviving as English congregations’. There were also many times where I look at videos by the mega-churches and envied their “sensational worship”. However, this quote reminded me that worshipping our God is our main objective and there is nothing wrong with non-sensational worship. We as the worshippers need not be entertained by loud or cool music to worship our Lord, but what we need is a heart of worship. This is definitely something I will share with my fellowship and inspire them to continue serving in the worship ministry.
Sharon Long
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