One thing that has stood out to me as different between our experiences in the LDS church and the Episcopal church is how differently the two communities express respect for sacred spaces. In many ways this would be obvious the moment a visitor walks in. The Episcopal church uses a complex and traditional priestly uniform. For Mormon men and boys their priesthood dress code generally is indistinguishable from a business while shirt and tie or maybe a suit. Next you might notice the amount of art work on display. The LDS church bans all artwork from its sanctuaries and baptistries, viewing it as distracting from more important parts of worship. The Episcopal church, on the other hand, uses a wide variety of types of artwork notably including influences from Orthodox Christianity. The Episcopal Church also uses candles in their worship spaces. Lit candles, by contrast, are banned from LDS worship spaces.
The next thing you might notice is the noise level. While Mormon’s in practice might socialize a good deal in their sanctuaries and the many babies and small children are always making noise the ideal is always held out to be that in sacred spaces social conversations shouldn’t happen in worship spaces or should be whispered. In the Episcopal church there are fewer small children to make noise and children too small to keep quiet are often in a nursery during services. As a result the silent moments during worship are often more profoundly silent. However, socializing is not forbidden and is in even indirectly encouraged when the priest invites us to “Greet one another in the name of the Lord”.
In Mormon sanctuaries much of the physical act of reverence is defined by what you are not to do. Don’t speak, don’t laugh, don’t play on your smart phone, don’t run in the hallways, etc. There are few positive physical acts of reverence. Physical actions are restrained to make room for a reverent mindset, as a popular LDS children’s hymn states “reverence is more than just quietly sitting, its thinking of Father above…” By contract the Episcopal church has a rich tradition of using physical acts of reverence as well as a worshipful mental frame of mind. At quite a number of times and places people kneel, bow, genuflect, or make the sign of the cross to express reverence to God and to where they are.
The music is also different. In some respects a typical Episcopal and Mormon church might seem very similar with traditional hymns sung to organ music. One prominent difference is in the number hymns sung. A typical Mormon worship service might include 4-5 musical pieces if you count the prelude music. Virtually all of the music will be from the one and only approved hymnal. Special musical numbers are occasionally used but brass and percussion instruments are banned. Music is never performed during “the sacrament” or Eucharist for fear that it would be distracting from maintaining a mental attitude of reverence. By contract in an Episcopal service virtually the entire service might be performed to music depending on the tastes of the congregation. In our parish there could easily be as many as 9 or 10 pieces of music from either a small library of approved hymnals or any other source desired and we always have music during communion. Though Episcopalians are generally very fond of traditional organ music there are parishes who worship to jazz or hip hop music. About the only common form of worship music I am aware of that has little presence in the Episcopal church is praise band music.
What took me most by surprise in the differences between how Mormon’s and Episcopalians express reverence is that in our parish there is no rule against giving applause and if a special musical number or the organ postlude is particularly beautiful we very likely will give applause. In Mormon worship spaces applause is considered so inappropriate the ban is even mentioned in the official church handbook of instructions.
While my preference for the Episcopalian worship style is in some respects a matter of my own personal tastes, I think that the LDS church’s top down rules regulating how many things are done prevents local congregations from freely searching out ways to experience beauty in worship. If you explore the history of the LDS church you can find time periods where musical selections from outside of the one hymnal were allowed, artwork was not so tightly restricted, and music was performed during “the sacrament”. The personal tastes of the church leaders has become a list of centralized rules that have accumulated over time. While all these rules in some respects meet the social needs of the LDS church I think they have been over applied limiting the flexibility and beauty that could be experienced in favor of a very mental form of worship reverence. There are so many kinds of beauty to be experienced in worship. I prefer how the Episcopal church allows and encourages so many more ways to, as it says in the psalms, “worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness.”
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