Multi-Faith Worship Spaces

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Originally uploaded by iBjorn.

On Saturday I went on a multi-faith worship spaces field trip with my Current Worship Leadership Issues class. We drove to a church in Richmond, on No. 5 Road and met there. All of the five places of worship that we went to were on that road, many of them right next door. This has raised the nickname of Highway to Heaven for the road. Most of my class was there, plus some other people from around the Fraser Valley.
The first place we went to was a Muslim mosque. It seemed kind of old, and was very undecorated. I found the talk that our guide gave us very informative however. I was amazed at how much they really have in common with Christianity. It is weird that there is so much fighting with them when they are not that much different. The guy there kind of made some jabs at Christianity though, but none more than one of us would do at them.
The next place we went to was a hindu building. The whole place was so much different. Everything was so decorative and bright and flashy. I don't really care for that style though. It just seemed so overwhelming. The religion was also so much different and hard to get a grasp of. Islam was so similar to what I believe that it was easy to understand. But in Hinduism everything is flowing with energy and love and extremely relative. The lady giving the talk also emphasized happiness.
Next was on to Sikhism. I had no idea about anything from this religion, but it was really neat because we actually got to go to a Sikh wedding. It was so different and colorful. There was also a huge emphasis on music and that was all that really happened. They played music and the bride and groom walked around this altar thing with this guy with a feathery brush dusting this thing.
Our fourth stop was another Muslim mosque. It was so much different than the other one. It was basically the seeker sensitive version. It reminded me a lot of Peace Portal. They were also very hospitable there and had a PowerPoint presentation and a Flash movie to show us. This also had stained glass windows and an art show going on in the foyer.
Finally we went to a Buhhdist temple. This one was much more public than any of the others and people were coming and going and they even had a tour guide. The idols here were huge and there was so much money put into everything. It was an amazing campus. We were also free to walk around where we wanted to and do whatever.
Overall a pretty overwhelming day, but so good. I learned so much about other religions and it was cool to see all the many ways that people worship.