Difference between CofE/ Catholic/ High church for a novice please

[MoaningMingeWhingesAgain]

I tried looking at Wikipedia and google but my brain fried.

Could anyone kindly explain the difference (in simple terms) - my local church, I thought was Catholic, because on the big plaque outside it says it is a church in the catholic tradition. But it isn't, apparently it is high church, CofE.

I went to a CofE primary but that's the limit of my experience really. DD would like to go to church one day soon, just to see what it is like inside and see what happens but I wasn't sure if it was a very formal kind of church. I do know the vicar/priest (he is a Fr. Bloggs) a little bit because he is on the school governors with me, he's a nice chap

Just because its "in the Catholic tradition" doesn't mean it will be formal. See what else it has to offer - does it have a Sunday School for instance? A lot of Anglo-Catholic/High Church C of E can be formal whats known as "bells and smells", as in incense and ringing of bells during liturgy. Does it say their main service (perhaps called Mass) will be Common Worship (modern) or Book of Common Prayer (ancient)? Or it may even use the RC Mass service, although strictly speaking they shouldn't do.

What counts as Catholic depends on who you speak to. Roman Catholics will call themselves Catholic. Anglocatholics (high church Anglican) will call themselves Catholic, but call Roman Catholics Roman Catholic. Its a bit of a minefield.

I was brought up RC but am now Anglican. High church compared to some, but not compared to others! Even I get confused occasionally as to whether it is RC or Anglican! Particularly if it uses the RC liturgy

Have a chat with vicar/priest, see what he says. It helps that he is approachable.

Hope I've helped, although I'm not sure I have :o

There are lots of differences between different styles and tradition in the CofE. Some of them are to do with history and theology and those are, if you like, the underlying differences. Others are more visible when you're attending g church for the first time. If it's a "Catholic tradition" church, the Priest will wear robes, and there will be a lot of formal liturgy (ie the service sheet with words on it will be several pages long), people may cross themselves during the service, there may be incense. The service itself aims to be beautiful and mysterious. At the other end of the spectrum at a very "Evangelical tradition" church the priest might not even be wearing a dog collar, let alone robes, PowerPoint might be used instead of paper, there might be less formal liturgy, and more modern worship songs. The focus of the service might be on the sermon rather than on Holy Communion. It's a spectrum - there's a huge amount of variation.

What I would suggest is if you are taking your DD and going for the first time is to look for an 'all-age' or family service. Most churches will have one once a month and web site will tell you when. These services are designed to include and involve children and are often more accessible if you are a complete church novice.

Good luck! I hope you enjoy your visit to church!

Thought it might be useful to say some of the things that will or could happen when you go to a church service for the first time.

There will be singing - whether you are singing traditional hymns with an organ or piano accompaniment, with a choir to lead you, or modern worship songs along to an amplified band, or even just along to CDs, there will always be singing.

There will always be some quiet time for praying. If you don't feel like praying, just being in a time of quietness can be good.

There will be some words to say - in some churches very few, in some lots. They are normally written out in bold.

There is normally a talk or sermon. Depending on the church this could be five or fifty minutes long - but shorter rather than longer is the norm.

There may be Communion. If you would like to you can have a blessing - go up to the rail but keep your hands down in front of you. If there is Communion you will be asked to 'share the Sign of Peace' with those around you. This means shaking your neighbours' hands while saying 'peace be with you'.

Most churches have refreshments at the end of the service, and would be delighted if you would stay for them!

These things tend to stay as constants whatever style of CofE church you go to - even if the style of worship varies considerably.

Hope this helps!

The late Sunday morning service is Sung Eucharist and sunday school with teas and coffee after - it looked the most family friendly. But I would be staying with DD in the church rather than her going in the sunday school.

She's 5.5 and just curious really, we walk past the church a lot and she keeps asking if we can go in one day, and she was fascinated when she watched some of Songs of Praise so I thought we should just let her try it one day and see.

And thanks everyone

The Church of England is a church for all people. One of the requirements of the church as an established church is to serve the needs of everyone who lives in a parish.

Broadly speaking, Christian worship can fall into three categories - evangelical, liberal and catholic, and a mixture of all three. Evangelical Anglican churches put most emphasis on what is revealed about the Christian faith in the Bible. Liberal churches try to make sense of biblical teaching and traditional Chrisitianity in the modern context. Catholic churches put great emphasis on church tradition and the extra biblical teachings of the Early Church Fathers. One of the early Anglicans, Hooker, described these values as Scripture, Reason and Tradition.

High and Low really describes worship style. You can get high evangelical as well as low catholic, although would more often find these the other way around. A large church may be both high and low, but have a common key value. For example, my church is evangelical, but we have four services all at different "heights". regardless of which service you attend, the teaching will all be biblical and mission focussed.

If an Anglican church says it is in the catholic tradition, I would expect it to have communion in most services, for clergy to be robed, and for clergy to be styled Father. If it called itself Anglo Catholic it would also have lots of gestures (genuflecting and making the sign of the cross), candles on the altar, and perhaps bells and smells. They would probably have a Lady Chapel in their sanctuary, veneration and reservation.

Lots of good advice and info here, which I won't repeat, but just to say that one of the things I like about the CofE is that it's really un-prescriptive. So even if you go to a high-ish church (as I do) you will find that some people (in the congregation, I mean, rather than the priests) will make the sign of the cross, for example, and others won't, and no-one will look askance at you. Likewise, if you go to a Eucharist (communion) service and prefer not to go up for communion, that's fine. Just stay in your seat and no-one will raise an eyebrow.

Likewise, even though a 'higher' chuch service might feel more formal initially, it may well be very welcoming/tolerant of people who need to move around during the service, people (children, or adults with LDs, for example) who make noise... 'formal' in terms of the style of service does not necessarily mean dull and disapproving (in my experience).

All you can do, really, is give it a go and see how it feels to you. All I would say is that I'd maybe think about letting your dd go to the Sunday School. You would obviously need to find out how it works, but in my experience she wouldn't 'miss' the whole service. If it's a Sung Eucharist service she'd certainly be back in for the communion part, and possibly also for part of the beginning of the service. (In my church Junior Church - from about 3 or 4 up to young teens - are out of the service till just before the communion, but in others they may just go out during the sermon or some other configuation...) At 5.5 I reckon she'd get more from that than from sitting listening to a sermon aimed primarily at adults. Alternatively, if you really don't want her to go to Sunday School, ask whether they have activity packs for kids (again, my church does and is happy for kids to sit on the floor and colour, or whatever...).

I hope you and she have a great time.

I was taught at an RC school, so this is from an RC perspective and could be completely wrong.

Anyway what I was taught is that in an RC church the communiun host becomes the actual body of christ. In the CofE it is represetetive of the body of christ.

The Church of England is a church for all people. One of the requirements of the church as an established church is to serve the needs of everyone who lives in a parish.

So true. Some relatives (RC had a house fire) the RC priest came to pray with them. The local vicar got his teenage girls to clear out the wardrobes so my relatives teenage girls had something to wear. She said "We're RC", he said "I know, but you are still in my parish and you are in need"

Again from the RC perspective here -- where I grew up (in Ireland) there was a low church CoI and a high church CoI and never the twain did meet. In fact, the RC community had more to do with members of both CoI congregations than the high and low church congregations had to do with each other. My neighbours went to the low church and my mum (RC) now does lawn bowling at the high place. The neighbours would never be seen dead there. Probably an Irish anomaly. I found it all baffling, as RC means RC the world over, with certain variations of style but not substance in the liturgy.

I wasn't going to send her to the Sunday School more because she is interested in going in the church building and seeing what happens in it - I thought it would be interesting for her.

It is purely in the same way if she expressed an interest in something else age-appropriate really, rather than me especially wanting to encourage her to have a faith/become a regular churchgoer, IYKWIM.

But I do like the rector and it would be nice for him to see me bring DD to the church (sorry if that sounds shallow!) but I don't have faith myself. I am happy for DD to find out more about religions though and if she wants to attend I am happy to facilitate it. Kind of the opposite of those 'my MIL is trying to convert my child to religion' threads I suppose

It sounds like we will be welcome, so thankyou for all the responses.

Ah, I see what you mean, Moaning...

I guess you can play it by ear: i.e. go and take colouring or something in case she gets bored during the sermon so she can see what goes on, and if she wants to go back and try out the Sunday School she can...

FWIW, I think your attitude is just right. Let her explore and find out what it's all about and she can make an informed choice for herself when she's old enough.

Oh, and you'll definitely be welcome.

Perhaps they have a booklet on the history of the church, that you could share with her? We produce a leaflet at our church, explaining the history.