When we visited Cologne, we attended a service at the Cologne (Köln) Cathedral. It was very different to a Christian reformed service from Michigan. I think this was mostly due to the fact that it was a Catholic service so they obviously did things a lot differently. In my home church we sing hymns occasionally but a lot of the songs are more modern worship songs. In the cathedral it was exclusively hymns. The atmosphere is also very different. My home church is much smaller and everyone knows each other, it feels like a meeting with friends. The Catholic service was much more formal and quiet. There was also different customs such as the burning of incense that I was not used to. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but the service felt more or less just like a traditional church service albeit with a few differences that I mentioned above. I liked that fact that, despite being in a world famous place of worship, it didn’t feel egotistic. It was about God, not the people or beautiful cathedral.
It was kind of off putting with all the people waiting to get in after the service was over. There were so many people there for the building but not the church. It seemed more of a tourist attraction than a place of worship. That made me sad. It seems more like a relic of a bygone era than a current place of worship. I wish it didn’t feel that way but it did. It reminds me of when someone gets famous and everyone wants to meet them but no one wants to know them.