You can listen to this episode and the interview with Reverend Perkins on the Podcast episode.

The History

Years ago I remember reading a book called "The Autobiography of Henry VIII
". It was a fictionalized account of King Henry the VIII, going over the events of his life from "his" perspective. Really the authors, but you get the idea.

I had heard church history back during my church going day that went something like "Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife, and the Pope wouldn't let him. So he saw that Luther was forming his own church, and decided to do the same thing."

The book showed a different side, a Henry VIII who certainly had his personal problems, but saw his own break away from the Catholic church as defending the purity of Christianity. He wasn't seeking to destroy the church, but defend a faith he had seen corrupted.

Some of this came through my interview with Reverend Perkins of St Matthews Anglican Church - and some more.

The Experience

Visiting St. Matthews was very much like visiting St Stephen Catholic Church, or even Christ the King Lutheran Church. The services opened with the congregation singing hymns, with a litergy read proclaiming the faith in God, in the Nicene Creed regarding the nature of God, the a sermon by Pastor Perkins. Afterwards was the Eucharist - the blessing upon the hosts and wine that the members would come up to partake of on their knees.

Odds are, members of other directly Catholic derived faiths would find themselves at home right here.

What I Found Beautiful

One thing I did find unique regarding the experience was the personal nature of the service. In the other services, if my memory services me correctly, there was a general blessing upon the Eucharist, perhaps repeated for groups of people.

In St. Matthews, that blessing on the host was repeated for each and every single person - every one got that personal moment before their partaking of the host and the wine. I'm not sure if that was particular to Anglicanism in general or just this church, but I liked that personal moment that each member could have, to hear the words spoken just for themselves.