After a hiatus of a couple of years, my Episcopal church is once again having parishioners “speak in tongues” for the Pentecost reading, Acts 2:1-21. I’ll be reading just a small portion, Acts 2:12-14:
12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Ar neltë illi quantë elmendo, ar úmer tancë, quétina minë i exenna: Mana tëasin
13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. Exi quenter yaiwessë: Neri sinë nar quantë vinya limpëo.
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: Mal Péter, ortala as i minquë, ortanë ómarya ar quentë tienna: A neri Yúrëo,ar ilyë i marir Yerúsalemessë, na sin istaina len, ar lasta quettanyannar:
Don’t know yet what other non-English languages will be heard, but in years past it’s included Spanish, German, Russian, French and Czech.
At one of the Episcopal churches I’ve been a member of, the organist was Jewish.
I’ve never heard of this reading in different languages for Pentecost custom. But I’m not a cradle Episcopal - grew up Southern Baptist. Left all of that but the old hymns behind. Discovered that the Episcopalians were the fun Christians in college. Now I’m a doubter, but still a member of an Episcopal church - one that includes many gay members and couples. We also have a divorced female priest and have wine parties for Easter.
Nor have I, and I have some background in the Episcopal church. Actually I don’t remember anyone ever speaking in tongues at our church. Had some exposure to it at Pentecostal churches, and it seemed to be something that was supposed to come to you rather than being planned— someone would start it “spontaneously” and others would join in with their own babble.
And yes, if you’ve never been exposed to it and are wondering, it is completely bizarre to be in the midst of—and while I’m aware of the phenomenon of glossolalia, the “speaking in tongues” I personally witnessed always struck me as rather forced. (But then, most of the time so did prayer.)
I don’t really speak it anymore, other than a few phrases. But han-gul is phonetic, and I have a Korean New Testament. So I can go to the correct verses, write it out phonetically in Roman script, and hope no Koreans are there to hear my terrible accent.
Our congregation does the readings simultaneously, not concurrently, to give an idea of the confusion the first hearers of the Word heard when the Holy Spirit “lit up” the disciples.
well he’s back, the dean of our cathedral, Father Lipscomb grew up Southern Baptist. Talk about a change!
My church–which is United Methodist–has been known to have people pray the Lord’s prayer in multiple languages–I know at least one year we had German, Swahili (or another African language) and French. All but the French were spoken by native speakers.
But, but, we can’t risk anything that might resemble glossolalia–someone might think we were Pentecostalists.
I’m not joking–although I’m not sure how many people would be likely to mistake an average United Methodist church for a group of Pentecostalists, glossolalia or no glossolalia.
