Church #94 - St. Basil Melkite Catholic Church, Lincoln

This was a really cool experience - the first non-Roman rite I've been to since I was a kid. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's curious to see a different sort of Catholic Liturgy. The Melkite Church originates in Greece and has a lot in common with the Orthodox, but it's been in full communion with the Holy See since 1724. There are about 1.6 million Melkites in the world, mainly in Syria and Lebanon.

This might be the newest and most modern church I've been to so far - if memory serves, it was built in 1998. A couple of friends came with me, and I was grateful for the company, since we were clearly outsiders to the community. The church hall and sanctuary area are one huge room, with a partition dividing the two. As I expected, there are tons of icons everywhere, especially in the altar area. There's a gate in front of the altar that is opened at the beginning of the Mass. Before the Liturgy, the priest spent at least 10 minutes singing and chanting into his microphone as he went around getting the altar ready.

The Liturgy we attended at 11:15 was in both Arabic and English - the parish also has a 9am Mass that's entirely in English. It was well attended, with the vast majority of the seats filled. I wonder how far away some of the parishioners live. I felt very underdressed. The Church uses the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, which you can read about here. They have booklets with the Liturgy in English available when you come in, one of which I accidentally took home with me. I was very thankful that there were people sitting in front of us, so that we knew when to sit and stand.

The Liturgy featured lots of singing and chanting, and included a couple of elaborate processions around the church. It was mainly in Arabic, apart from the readings and the (excellent) homily. There was an occasional prayer in English, which allowed me to keep up with the Liturgy in the Missal most of the time. The parish has two priests and three deacons, most of whom were present on the altar. The deacon played a large and active role throughout the Liturgy, which clocked in at about an hour and five minutes. There were five altar servers, all male, a couple of whom appeared on the altar after the Liturgy had already started. Everyone takes Communion in the mouth; the body is dipped in the blood, which I'm told is the way the Roman Rite used to work as well. The Mass started and ended rather abruptly, without opening or closing processions. There are delicious rolls in plastic bags in front the altar, and everyone gets to take one home after the Mass. I had already eaten mine by the time we got out of the parking lot.