ritual and celebration

[hatter_anon]

I went to my cousin's wedding yesterday. She's 21, married a 24 year old, and the young couple are both evangelical Christians. There was a lot of talk about  giving one's life to Jesus Christ in both the ceremony and reception, but provided you could cope with that it was quite a beautiful day. Her three older sisters were bridesmaids and matron

Comments

[elowena]

I've always liked rituals, and always joke (perhaps with bad taste) that if I were to convert to a religion, I would become a Catholic or a Jew. I really enjoy Church services and occasionally envy the community some people find in their congregations. I will never know what it feels like for, say, a Mormon, an Adventist, or a Methodist to be baptised, but I can imagine it being a pretty profound rite of passage.

Are non-religious versions of Christian sacraments big in Australia? Around here people not getting married in a church will more and more often get someone to organize a secular ceremony very similar to a Christian wedding, complete with wedding vows, etc. I myself went to a secular "Confirmation camp", where we discussed many of the same things as they do at ordinary Confirmation camps, but discussed religions in the plural and obviously didn't learn the dogma of the Lutheran Church.

(Should I expand on this? Do other countries have Confirmation camps? It's kind of like Sunday school, only you go on a camp for a few weeks when you're 15 and you're taught the basic dogma and teachings of the Church as well as have a chance to discuss things like sexuality, morals, and all sorts of issues youngsters might have. After the camp, you take Communion, get accepted into the Church as an individual soul rather than someone their parents dragged with them, and then you get loads of presents and cake. I think it's a pretty neat rite of passage from a social point of view - camp groups tend to get along really well and it's often the first opportunity for kids to discuss puberty-related issues in a relaxed, non-judgmental environment. Well, unless you're gay. Then you'll get the spiel about how we as people can't judge and clerics are in a really awkward position when it comes to this question, but the official stance of the Church is that homosexuality is not okay...)

Wow, I'm so rambly today. Point being, there's definitely a desire to substitute religious rituals with secular ones around here.

P.S. The term E/evangelical is so confusing! I was boggled for a moment when I read your entry, because I'm used to the term Evangelical Lutheran which is the national Church and basically Church Lite - a very, very lenient and non-fundamentalist Church. A bit of googling set me straight, though. :)

[hatter_anon]

It's not a standard thing but many churches and church run schools have similar sorts of camps or classes. If you don't go to church though, and you attend a state run public school, you could theoretically go through life without any exposure to any major theological discussions.

I wasn't aware of the other use of Evangelical. I have always used evangelical in the sense of those who ascribe to a belief that they should actively try to convert others to their religion in order to save heathen souls.