We Are the Borg - sort of. 27 Jan 2013

As a Star Trek fan, being in church when we all recite/respond/read together always makes me think of the Borg. In fact, I heard somewhere that Gene Rodenberry (creator of Star Trek) actually got his idea for the Borg from attending church. He was, evidently, not a fan. Although I think the "You will be assimilated" sentiment is not a completely unwarranted conclusion to draw from a worship service.

Since I've been here in Australia, I've been to a variety of churches. My usual spot, as much as I have a usual anything at this point, is the Cambridge Fellowship at Trinity College. But I also caught a service at Melbourne Uni's Newman College chapel, an Episcopal Service out at Ballan, a country church Catholic service near Springbank, and a Carmelite Catholic service on the east side of Melbourne.

Now at my parent's church, Trinity in Kalamazoo, I was quite at home with the pace of congregational reading and recitation. In fact, it wasn't something I thought about much until one new family joined in 2012. They always sat in front, and they said everything just a few beats slower than the rest of the congregation - so we'd be all wrapped up and they're still saying the last bit. The longer the bit we were reciting, the more catching up they'd have at the end. So for prayer responses, we were all pretty much together. But for the Lord's Prayer, they were on their own for quite a bit at the end like:

(us) and the glory. Amen.
(them) For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen

Every time. Every Sunday. This did not change over the many months they attended before I moved. I have to say, though they made me giggle every week, I admired their staunch resistance to being assimilated into the pre-existing congregational pace. And to be fair, the rest of us weren't much for adapting to their pace, either.

Here, at the Canterbury Fellowship and the two country churches, I am a bit quick on the draw. I usually start and finish a little before the crowd, but we're generally at the same pace. When I went to the Newman College Chapel, I was definitely the person who made other people giggle by finishing long after everyone else was done. Those spoken word masses go like a sewing machine with the pedal all the way down. The congregation is responding before the priest is done with the bit that we are responding to:
TheLordBeWithYou
                   AndWithYourSpirit
                                          LetUsBlessTheLord
                                                                 ItIsRightToOfferOurThanksAndPraise
YourBiologicalAndTechnologicalDistinctivenessWillBeAddedToOur...
Oh, wait, wrong words. You get the idea. Mass started at 7pm, so maybe folks were just in a hurry to get to dinner.

The Carmelite service, though, was a whole different story. There were people from India, Italy, Indonesia, Australia, and at least one American - and those were just the ones I knew about. The liturgy and handouts were the same as at the Newman College chapel, but the whole service sort of ambled along. I think the folks leading music were seeing the hymns for the first time. And there was no way anyone in the group started or finished any singing, reading, responding, reciting together. It was a great continual murmur of voices and accents and languages that just swelled up as more people got into the spirit of the thing and diminished as folks gradually made their way through. At first I found it disconcerting - I couldn't find the rhythm of the group. But then I realized I could just have my own rhythm and it fit in just right and my voice contributed to the whole. I think that's just how God intended the church to be. Thanks be to God.