My very first thought was, "This sounds like a church!" An organ was playing. That seemed kind of wrong to me because I associate organs playing with church service. I wasn't expecting it. Then, they had a choir. That seemed very un-Jewish, too. Maybe I'm incredibly naive, or maybe Southern Reform congregations have taken on churchish aspects, or maybe I simply didn't realize how much Christianity and Judaism are alike in external respects. I'm curious about it. Anyway, we sat down in theatre-like chairs while the organ played, and I thumbed through my prayer book. Then the rabbi and cantor went to the twin pulpits.

The service consisted of singing, readings from the prayer book including call and response from the audience, a lecture or sermon by the rabbi (his topic was the movie Contact), some solo singing by the cantor (which I kept thinking of as his arias), a reading from the Torah by a kid, prayers for the dead, and a final bout of everyone singing. I liked the reading from the Torah best, even though I don't understand Hebrew. I sang along when I could (the prayer book has English translations) and read along in English when everyone else did. We stood up and sat down a lot, which reminded me of Catholic mass (my only previous experience with getting up and down throughout services). And finally, everyone said Amen a lot, which surprised me most of all.

During the service, kids came and went. I suppose they had to go to the bathroom. I was never allowed to leave once we got into church so I thought it was noteworthy that these kids didn't have to hold it in for an hour. Some congregation members helped with the readings from the pulpits. Bizarrely, one of the woman who read had on a yarmulke! I thought that was just for men. I liked the gathering afterwards, with food and drink and lots of chatting. I felt comfortable even though I didn't know a soul. Isn't that odd? Everyone was very outgoing, wishing each other Shabbat Shalom and greeting newcomers. Children ran around, dodging in and out of the adults' legs, people ate the delicious fruit and cakes and gossiped, and it was all very cheerful.

I am interested in attending a Conservative service sometime, if I can find someone to go with me. Orthodox is probably not for me, but the Reform service was sort of bland. Still, the sense of community was very strong, and I do mean to go back at least once. I haven't been to any kind of religious service since I was 20 or so unless it was a wedding, or I was being paid to sing with the choir. I don't miss it. I'm insatiably curious, however, so I'll probably keep looking into my Jewish heritage including attending services for a short while.