Today, as part of my SEITE training I visited The Chatham Memorial Synagogue with other SEITE students.

We were met by Gabriel Lancaster who informed us of some of the important beliefs and practices of Judaism before showing us the inside of the synagogue.

The picture does not really do the building justice, it looks beautiful inside, but you can pick up from the photo how very similar in many ways it is to a church. I found myself To be quite surprised by this. I am not sure what I was expecting, but a church like structure was not it.

There were prayers on the wall as you would see in a church, including a long prayer for the Royal Family.The stained glass windows would have looked amazing although it was dark!

There were some interesting differences and interesting stuff I learnt. Although the synagogue is used, in essence the centre of Jewish worship is the Jewish home itself. It is here that through meals and story telling that the faith is passed on and the young are educated. Even on their central festival, Passover, the synagogue only runs a brief service – and this is with a hospitality aim. The thought behind it is to be available for ‘strangers’ as no one should be alone on Passover. If people were they would come to the short service and then be invited to join with a family in their home.

One major difference struck me. The leaders ran their service from the reading desk which you can see at the bottom of the picture in the middle of the synagogue surrounded by the lights. It s from here that the Torah is read and service led.

I learned tonight that Synagogue means ‘house of discussion’ and that rather than preach, the scripture is read and then the people like to discuss and argue what it means, the implications for living today and do on. It seemed to me to be a very healthy, affirming and inclusive way to learn about God.

In some ways it is not too far removed with what we are attempting with new expressions and alternative services – it seems we are trying, maybe without realising, to get back to our early Judaism roots of discussing and learning from each other rather than listening to the ‘expert’.

Tonight I started to think that maybe there is something in looking at the history of my religion which will equip me to work today.

It’s fascinating to think that we in church are looking to be more inclusive, more discussive, less directive and more enabling in how we look to God, how we receive from God and how we interpret and apply God’s standards to our everyday lives.

I have always struggled with the idea of the up-front expert, and never been sure of the value of the sermon as the only way to educate and impart knowledge. I know that for me personally I learn a lot more in discussion with others and trying out theories and ideas on each other than I do in a listen to the sermon setting.

It’s incredibly interesting to think that this has been happening in many a synagogue around the world for thousands of years; the simple reading of scripture and discussing it meaning and implicaion – ensuring that we have God earthed in our (personal)history (a comment made by a friend, Iori, at SEITE tonight which I like)

So … church history, history of faith – all of a sudden I love it!