To ask if you can just go to church?

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This might seem like a ridiculous question. But can you just attend a typical Sunday church service? Would it be unusual? Is there anything I should know in advance? If it was a Cathedral can I just listen to the service and then sneak out? I'm just curious. I'd like to go but have no idea how.

Has anyone converted to a religion - how did that happen (if you are happy to share of course, and thank you if you do)

Been to every single one, have we?
Typical MN smartarse atheist comment, much more boring than any church service I've ever been to...

The best bit about the whole pandemic restrictions- the ability to have a nosey at other churches / "church shop" from the comfort of your sofa. I've recently moved and I'm checking out all the local ones online

Absolutely. Go ahead.

Agree - that doesn't sound very CofE at all. Haven't seen the Peace done like that since covid either - usually just have to catch people's eye and smile cheesily rather than actually touch them now - vastly better IMO!

It shows how long ago it is since I have been to church (except for funerals) @SnackSizeRaisin

Yes absolutely. Cathedrals especially have lots of visitors for the Sunday services but you'd be welcome in any church (just may stand out more as 'the visitor' rather than a usual church goer).

@Babdoc - yes, true.

Some greeters can be more enthusiastic than others, though the ones at the church I attend try to gauge the level of interaction people seem to need as they're coming in and play it accordingly.

Some congregations are actively seeking new members, though, and the greeters can come across as a bit pushy.

And I was never more surprised than I was the day DD and I were sitting minding our own business before Mass started in a neighboring church when one of the ushers tapped me on the shoulder and asked if we would like to carry the gifts to the altar at the Eucharistic procession. In thirty years of attendance at my own church that had never happened once!

Several times when attending Mass in non-Catholic countries (so small local Catholic population and, in season, stream of Catholic tourists, often Greece) I've been asked to read at Mass on my first visit. In France this summer I was asked to take the collection at Bayeux Cathedral - not carry up the gifts, actually collect the money and then bring it up in procession. It doesn't happen as often in the UK, here usually you'd have to be a regular to stand a chance of making it onto one of the sacred rotas! Although carrying the offertory is more ad hoc.

I'm a Christian (sort of) and thought that was quite funny. It wasn't unhelpful either.

It was funny, I agree 😁

Yup.
Same here.
Very amusing.

@mathanxiety @Fink I was asked to read in a Parisian church four or five years ago. I'd never read anything aloud in French since being at school. I'd intended to go to another church and was only passing by because of wanting to see where my great uncle had lived!

OP, perhaps worth viewing a church service online beforehand so you know what to expect (when to stand/sit for example).

@LlynTegid I was asked to read in French at Mass in Rome this autumn. I did ok (I'm a fluent French speaker) but there was one word I mispronounced, and unfortunately you only need to mispronounce it by one letter (miss out an r) for it to become a different word entirely, which predictably I did. Afterwards, two priests congratulated me on my very nice reading ... only it turned out that neither of them spoke French, so what they meant was just that it had sounded impressive even though they couldn't understand it.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions all, I've been reading up on all the various denominations, it's fascinating. I'm very rural although there are many different nearby churches, they're all very small (apart from the cathedral). My daughter surprisingly has said she'd like to go too so I'll bring her along (cold and boring is fine for me, less so for her though maybe!).

That’s lovely, OP. I hope you really enjoy your first visit, and feel welcomed, but if not, don’t give up, just try some of the other churches to find one that suits. There is a wide range from modern “happy clappy”, to formal and traditional, some are family oriented with a Sunday school and creche, others are mainly elderly. There will be one out there for you. And it will feel
like coming home, to be wrapped in God’s unconditional love.