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Do you think Northern and Southern churches are different? I realize there are different denominations of course and each has their own style.
But for me, I have been to church up North and where I live in Richmond, and I notice differences regardless of denomination ( I am Southern Baptist, BTW)
In the North- they have coffee and donuts (BEFORE) service. In the South after (usually)- and usually its cookies here or Krispy Kreme. Up North its Dunkin' Donuts.
In the North- after church, everyone just leaves and goes home. In the South, people linger, linger, linger! They can really talk the Pastors ear off about something.
Then we love to have church dinners after service- with lots of stuff like fried chicken, collard greens, mashed potatos, sweet tea, spoonbread, etc.
Also, more fervor with the prayers in the churches in my neck of the woods- be it Epsicopal, Baptist, or whatever. Just more talkin' to the Lord.
In Virginia, we dont have "high church" for the Anglicans or Episcopalians. Up North they do- and its really quite something. Almost like Mass at the Vatican.
My friend is from Michigan and moved to rural Arkansas for 9 months for a rotation at work. She found a church and on her first visit she was told to stand up in front of the congregation of hundreds and introduce herself and talk about her devotion and what religion means in her life.
Years and years ago when I was forced to attend church here out west, we'd have coffee and local donuts after mass at the Catholic church or have sort of a little potluck lunch at the Adventist church. Don't remember what we did at the Pentecostal church.
Of course most people here are non-church going, thank...goodness. And a good chunk of those non-church goers are atheist or agnostic.
I go to a 3000+member United Methodist church. We don't have a "fellowship" after church and really not before. Most of the sunday schools have their own eats and there is coffee and water and pastries in the church parlor below the santuary. Most people do before the service but usually sunday school runs so late that members have just enough time to get to the service. Actually we have 2 traditional services and 1 contemporary.
I wish we had those old fashioned potluck suppers more often than we do, but it's hard to get 3000 members on the same page for those. Sometimes the attendence is rather pathetic.
The architecture certainly is different, that's for sure. The Midwest and Northeast have large, towering, Gothic style churches that appear castle-like, MUCH bigger than Southern churches.
The architecture certainly is different, that's for sure. The Midwest and Northeast have large, towering, Gothic style churches that appear castle-like, MUCH bigger than Southern churches.
As a child in the 50's/60's I remember white wooden churches, no air conditioning, lots of ladies holding church fans (pictures of Jesus on cardboard attached to sticks) flapping furiously while muttering "Sweet baby Jesus". I was talking to some friends at work and they didn't know what church fans were. I recently went through my grandmother's photos and found a very fancy church fan that opens out. On the front it has a picture of Jesus with children and the quote from Mark "Suffer the little children to come unto me", and on the back it has "A & L Upholstering Company, Huntington, W.Va."
My friend is from Michigan and moved to rural Arkansas for 9 months for a rotation at work. She found a church and on her first visit she was told to stand up in front of the congregation of hundreds and introduce herself and talk about her devotion and what religion means in her life.
She said she basically s*** her pants.
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The architecture certainly is different, that's for sure. The Midwest and Northeast have large, towering, Gothic style churches that appear castle-like, MUCH bigger than Southern churches.
That's probably because there's a stronger Catholic and Episcopalian influence in those regions of the country, which place more emphasis on architecture than most Protestant churches.
As a Catholic from Minnesota, I have attended mass ( while visiting ) in Crossville TN, Talladega AL and Fort Payne Al.
I found it the same as back home .
The southerners were more friendly but I attributed that to the fact Catholicism is NOT the main religion in those southern places I visited and thus there is more of a "commraderie" of Catholics in the south compared to central MN where there is a Catholic Church in every tiny town every 5 miles.
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