I was raised a Catholic. As a Catholic we go to church on Sunday. Our church is a bit more conservative than Christian churches. We go there and sit in the pews waiting for the priest and the altar servers to make their entrance. It is usually quiet before church starts although one knows the atmosphere of the church. Not only does one smell the incense but one sees the all the stain glass windows littered with images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, angles, and other biblical characters. One thing I’ve found out about Catholic churches is that they always have the images or sculptures of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. There is also an area in the church that has multiple candles that parishioners can light in memory of a loved one or in respect to Jesus, the Virgin Mary, God, and so on. One other thing that is a given at a Catholic church is the open access to the Holy Water. Up at the front there is the alter were the Priest will lay out the bread and wine to do the blessing for communion. Behind the alter is usually a large sculpture of Jesus on the cross. To the side of all the pews is where the choir sits. Once church starts we do our blessings and great one another. We have two readings from the bible and then the priest does his sermon explaining the readings. After that we take the bread and wine and then do our closing song. This is what I was used to. So going to my friend’s church was rather outside of my comfort zone. My best friend Jess is a very devout Christian. She loves her church very much and has repeatedly asked me to visit her church. So I did for this assignment. The first thing I noticed is that her church didn’t even look like a church. It looked like a business building to me. It had no stain glass windows nor did it have the fourteen Stations of the Cross anywhere. They didn’t even have holy water out for people to bless themselves as the come in and as they leave. Once in the church I noticed some similarities. They had pews just like my church and they also had a raised stage for the sermon. Although I noticed these similarities I was also aware of the large differences. Unlike I was used to the church was rather loud and noising as soon as you arrived. Everyone was talking to each other about everything. It wasn’t just conversation about church or religion, but about their date last night or the barbeque that their paling for their neighborhood or their new flat screen TV. I felt so uncomfortable. To me when one is in church one throws away all worldly things and solely concentrates on the spiritual side of one life. Once the pastor arrived I notice a striking difference between the wardrobe and behavior of a priest and pastor. A priest wears formal holy robes for his sermon while a pastor wears whatever he wants. A priest is much more formal, but welcoming of everyone, while a pastor treats everyone as if he is going to hang out with them later that day. The pastor gave one reading and then explained it in his sermon, but then he made the whole church get up and interact with one another in a spiritual exercise where we had to tell our group what we are thankful for and what we are praying for. I’m used to the idea of prayer is sacred and personal so I obviously found this exercise very uncomfortable. Though out the whole time they had a band be the choir, but when they played and sang everyone treated it like a concert and I found that odd. I have no problem give compliments to where it is deserved, though it felt like people were concentrating too much on the band and not the words of the song. I may be bias though because I’m just not used to their style of doing things. Overall they did give the same information and explained the information for the church goers, although they both have strikingly different atmospheres and practices. Personally I prefer my more traditional Catholic church.