Today I went with J to the general Protestant mass at our main chapel. It is held 90 minutes after the Catholic one started and since J is Episcopalian it was time again that I tried out one of the protestant masses on post. They don't have Episcopalian services mind you.
After the children were called downstairs to Bible study and Children's church the preacher began his sermon. I was expecting something entirely different than what he was going on about. He contradicted himself, acted like a misogynist, and treated us like children without reason of our own.
Finally he says that during the closing hymn anyone is invited up to pray with him personally. Well no one went up. Any wonder why? Well he did wonder why. When the closing hymn was finished he chastised the whole congregation for not one of us going up there. He said that many of us were there just to fill pews.
Maybe some of you will know and some not that the preachers for the post chapels are actually Army. So perhaps the chaplain would be better off filling out a Hurt Feelings Report rather than holding hostage the congregation to vent his bile upon.
In my opinion someone should try to remember that not everyone is comfortable with coming up in the front of the chapel to pray with the preacher since the mass is a general service for all Protestant faiths. Some Protestants just don't do that in their own traditions. I haven't seen it done in Episcopalian or Lutheran services but I'm sure there are some out there that do have the preacher pray with them.
