Church in Dublin

This last Sunday I was able to attend my first church service in Ireland. Out of the two churches recommended to me I decided to check out Grosvenor Road Baptist Church first. It seems all churches start here at 11:00 so we had plenty of time to get there. The church, pictured above, is in one of the two areas we are looking to live. The sanctuary seats approximately 225 people and the service was full with people of all ages. They had a missions team there this week from Canada and the US. The team came to help do some work to the church building and teach English to foreigners. The service was very nice. They played hymns on the large organ (pictured above near the right top of the sanctuary) and some more contemporary songs with a small band. There was much prayer throughout the service. Almost all the prayers and all the worship was lead by a woman and though the prayers were very good it was odd to be led in prayer by a woman during church. The Scripture reading was also done by a woman. They also had a time during the service where a person gave their testimony. I am not sure if that is a regular thing. The Pastor gave a very good sermon out of Judges 13 and brought out a number of things I did not know or had not thought of when I have read it before. The Pastor seems to be a good Bible teacher and really shines with joy in the Lord and love for Him. At the end of the service they had communion. It was a little different than I am used to. They pass around a big hunk of bread and you tare a small piece off and all take the bread together. For the wine they pass around a tray of the little juice cups but when the tray gets to you, you take your cup and drink it, put the empty cup back, and then pass the tray on to the next person. I am not sure why they do it that way instead of taking it together. A little old Irish lady was sitting next to us and asked if we went to a Baptist church back home. We told her we had gone to a Presbyterian church. She leaned over to Matt a little later and told him the Presbyterian Churches there have communion only once every three months.

A few people noticed we were new and came and talked to us and were very friendly. I am not sure how many couples there are our age at this church but hopefully we'll meet some soon. We talked to the Pastor after the service and he was very nice. He told us to come next Sunday as they are having a bring and share lunch after the service and said it would be a good opportunity to meet people. When we left we got our first rain since we've been here. It was a light rain and did not last very long but it did cause us to hurry home!