Worldwide church service to be held in Great Hall
October 4, 1996
Technology meets religion this weekend.
Iowa State Collegiate Presbyterian Christians will mix technology and World Communion Sunday for a worldwide church service in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.
Lori Adams, campus minister for the Collegiate Presbyterian Church, said five cities around the world will be using satellites to broadcast and participate in the church service from 9:30 to 11 Sunday morning.
While World Communion Sunday is been a long-standing tradition for Christians, this is the first time it will be broadcast internationally at ISU.
The service will be held by satellites in Ames, Iowa City, Neenah, Wisc., Capetown, South Africa, and Caracas, Venezuela. “Each will have a special part in the service,” Adams said.
“We hope people will gain a greater understanding of diversity of worship styles of different cultures while still maintaining connectedness as Christians,” she said.
Christians from all of the cities will join in the same hymns, liturgy, readings of the same scriptures and communion, Adams said. The theme of the church service is: “Celebration of Life-A Year with Latin Americans.”
Susan Wahls, a greeter and usher, said the event is taking place to “symbolize the fact that we are world Christians. We aren’t American Christians, we are world Christians.”
The idea is that many of the Christian denominations will participate as a symbolic gesture, taking communion together, Wahls said.
ISU’s service will be Presbyterian, but it is open to the public.