Encountering various churches in Berkeley
The optimistic nature of the Catholic priest
On September 14 (Sunday), I had long wanted to visit the Christian church across the street. After breakfast, it was past 9 o'clock, and I called Tang to go over together, but found it very quiet, unlike a service was happening. Upon entering, I only saw two people, an elderly woman and an old man. The old man was sitting inside, and the elderly woman warmly greeted us. It turned out their service didn't start until 10:45. I had heard singing from another church earlier, so I hurried over there. This church was right next to where the party was last night. When I entered, the worship was nearing its end. This seemed to be a Catholic church, with the priest in colorful vestments and the choir in white robes, and there were not many people, about 30 or so, all singing hymns together. Their Chinese Mass was filled with singing, responding through hymns. There was a hymn that was very beautiful, which I seemed to have heard back home, instantly transporting me to a distant era and a secluded countryside.
They spoke quite casually, sometimes interrupting, and the priest didn't mind, with laughter occasionally breaking out during their exchanges, their cheerful nature evident even in worship. I did not participate in the communion. After the Mass, I picked up a hymn book to learn the songs, and after a while, a woman came over. She listened to me sing once and then said: You got it, and told me there were more activities below. I asked if I could borrow the hymn book to take back, and she said yes.
The liveliness of the Protestant church
Later, I went to the Protestant church again, this time without Tang. There were still not many people here, similar to the Catholic church, but this church was much smaller, mainly attended by elderly people. The same spirited elderly woman, Lancy, led me in and introduced me to the female pastor and others. The pianist here was an old man who played quite well. The format of the service was similar to that in China: praise, preaching, response. It started with brief free speaking, and the scripture reading was done by an ordinary believer, a beautiful blonde woman sitting in front of me today.
Before communion, there was an offering, where people passed trays in front of others; some placed money directly on it, while others put it in paper bags. I wasn't used to it yet, and when it came to me, I placed my offering, and only after communion did I supplement it with 5 dollars. The bread used for communion was just ordinary large bread; the pastor broke it twice, and then the communicants broke it themselves. Later, this bread was also used for the love feast. The wine used was purple, and they took the bread dipped in wine to receive the body and blood. They recited the Lord's Prayer together, but did not recite the Apostles' Creed. After communion, there was a fixed response hymn printed on the worship program.
Today's sermon was titled "Practice Love," delivered by an elderly pastor. He spoke quite concisely for about 30 minutes. After the service, there was also a love feast, but only some people participated, and I stayed as well. I communicated with them about the situation of Christianity in China, and they were quite interested. That blonde woman was a doctoral student studying the Bible; I forgot her name, but she could play the violin.
During lunch, the pastor answered questions raised by everyone. This pastor might be an outsider, and there were quite a few questions; his answers were very serious, but I still mostly didn't understand. Later, an elderly woman, after hearing that I introduced the situation of Chinese house churches, was very moved. She said their family also had a house church and hoped I would participate as well. Her husband was also very old, sitting in a wheelchair, and during the meal, she fed him, a very loving couple. There was also a tall, thin old man who was very talkative.