I don't know about you, but I enjoy doing comparisons, especially with wine. So I got this brilliant idea ...I wanted to do a religious comparison today. We went to a United Methodist Church (the contemporary service), and then we went to the Kingdom Hall meeting. It was the Circuit Overseer's visit & a family member invited us. It has been years since I've been to a KH, so this seemed like it would be fun. I wanted to see what I felt like during and after each. I think the music was intensely different...I REALLY wish I remembered about my video ability on my phone for the 1st song, because the jw's performed their first new song out of the new song book. I had to try really, really hard not to laugh 
....it was pretty much a trainwreck. Nobody knew what note was coming next. The children were especially funny.
I felt a little teary eyed & overwhelmed 
while the Methodist choir sang & the congregation sang along. Heck, I didnt even know who Hosanna was until I just now looked it up. But it was just pretty cool to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXCoHxX1OC8
The meeting at the KH kind of reminded me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmxpftPFXZg
The song *they* sang brought another kind of tears to my eyes
Other things I noticed at the 2 worships: At the Methodist Church, the preacher had a microphone attached to his collar so he could walk around, make eye contact, and tell about some funny things going on in the world. P.S.....I was not invaded with demons when I walked through the door like the jw's will have you believe . There were just a few kids in the room & they seemed to be paying attention. People said "Welcome" and "nice to see you" as they passed us.
At the KH, we arrived just as they were singing the first song. I felt like certain people were staring, so I stared back.
2 rows from the front (we were 3 from the front), I noticed a family with two young boys who appeared to want to be anywhere but there. I kind of felt bad for them. It brought back a lot of suppressed memories. I saw the mother nudge her son & her face got blood-red just as he raised his hand to answer. He kind of stuttered at the end of his comment, then the audience chuckled (I HATED it when people did that to me...it felt like they were laughing *at* me. I didnt realize it was because I was just so darned cute ). Anyway, when that happened, the mom froze. When he passed the microphone back, the mother just looked ahead & didnt even smile or whisper "good job".
Omigosh, I almost forgot to mention : today's Watchower was on that article about people holding hands at the meeting and how it could stumble others. The comments during the lesson did not specify newlyweds who might be too affectionate, nor did folks comment about how sisters embrace each other in a group during the song. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/182223/5/November-15-Watchtower-Study-Edition-discourages-showing-affection-to-your-spouse They simply said that people should not hold hands during worship to Jehooba. I thought it was kinda funny though, since during the final prayer, I saw about 5 couples holding hands. They are so naughty! I was stumbled
Within seconds after the meeting's end, we were swarmed. 2 people who had slandered my husband's family in the past came up to say hi to him. LoL...he glanced at them and said "not today". Quite a few seemed very sincere with their "welcome backs". I was shocked though, just as we were about to walk out the door, an elder, who HAAATED me back in the day, came up and grabbed my shoulder and said "Oh my! its so good to see you! You look beautiful. Well, you have always been beautiful" . I was like "uh, okay, bye now". hehe.
Sorry for all the pictures and videos...the rest of my Sunday is pretty relaxed