ABSTRACT
On a Sunday morning churches in our community, including the Unitarian, are filled to overflowing. Most have two services and some have three to accommodate the crowds. The length of the service is limited to one hour. Children attend for the first part of the service and listen to a story-sermon that is geared to them but interests the elders as well. The children then file out for a brief Sunday-school session, more activity-centered than academic, that concludes at the same time the church service lets out. The service is conducted in English; the words are comforting and inspiring. Hymns are simple and familiar, with the melodies the same ones the worshipers have heard from early childhood. Congregation singing is lusty. The choir is composed of fellow congregants who enjoy performing. Their contribution is warmly received by the audience of friends and relatives. The sermon in a liberal denomination is usually directed to a personal issue with which congregants have wrestled. It attempts to demonstrate how they can derive help in grappling with this problem with insights from their faith. One who attends the service a single time, even someone of a different religion, will understand and feel comfortable with the proceedings, so much so that he may well decide to return.
