So I tried to save my soul...

A while ago, my Communication Studies instructor assigned us to visit a place that was unfamiliar to us and to write a paper about it. I decided to visit a church service – I had planned on going to a church here to see the differences anyways, but who knows when I would have pulled myself together on a Sunday morning to get up early, if it hadn’t been for the assignment!

There are plenty of churches to choose from in Athens, but I decided to go to the Presbyterian Church, which I pass on my way to campus every morning.

I had known before that religion still plays a bigger role in peoples’ lives here than in Germany, especially in rural areas. Once I arrived here, this was also noticable: there are a lot of signs with Christian messages to observe (“GOD IS REAL! HELL IS REAL!” - somewhere on the highway between Chicago and Athens – or “What keeps you out of church, might keep you out of heaven!” - on a church in Jacksonsville, OH), and I met more people talking about their religiosity than at home.

Lovely sign outside a church in Jacksonville

I wanted to see for myself how a church service was conducted here in comparison to what I have experienced in Germany, to see whether I could understand some of the churches’ bigger popularity here. Of course, I can make very little generalizations, because there are so many different congregations here and also various regional differences, I suspect. But still, there were some things that struck me and that might be some of the various reasons for churches’ success here.

At first, I noticed the unfamiliar architecture and the unfamiliar atmosphere it conveyed. In Germany, churches’ architecture is often impressive, they tower high above the visitor and feel somewhat intimidating. Most churches I know are rather dark and cold, and thus seem to demand respect from their visitors. When I enter a church, I usually automatically start to tiptoe and to lower my voice to a whisper. The feeling inside the Presbyterian Church was quite different. It is light and warm inside, and when I opened the door, there was not the humble silence I had expected. Instead, people were having friendly conversations in a normal volume. A man standing in the entrance area handed out flyers with the sequence of the service. He greeted me warmly and padded my shoulder. I sat down in the last row. Two elderly women in the row before me turned around and said ‘Good morning!’ before they returned to their conversation exchanging recipes (I swear, I am not making this up!). I took off my jacket, because it was warm in the church, another strange thing. When visiting a service in Germany, everyone usually sits there wearing a jacket. Even in summer, many old churches with thick stone walls that never really warm up. Not exactly a welcoming atmosphere!

It's not ALWAYS cloudy in Athens... ;)

All in all, the Presbyterian Church conveyed a friendly climate, almost cozy – which might be one reason why people feel more motivated to go to a church on Sundays here, instead of in Germany. Also, the feeling of community seemed stronger than in the churches I had been before. After the service, almost everyone headed downstairs for free lunch and a movie screening. I was also engaged in a (initially friendly, then uncomfortably political) conversation by the two people sitting next to me. When I was younger and visited churches from time to time, I did not perceive them as places to get to know people, usually everyone kept to themselves – maybe because it would have felt inappropriate to conduct small talk in the church – and afterwards, most people went home again.

I could imagine how being a part of the church community rather than just a silent visitor might contribute to making the church here more attractive. But probably not quite attractive enough to make me get up on a Sunday morning again!

The sign outside the Presbyberian Church with a "LGBT-FRIENDLY" sticker on it