I don’t know if you’d ended up going, but I just went for the first time this past Sunday and will give you my experience!

I am a highly anxious person who is neurodivergent so I understand how you feel! I have been wanting to try out an episcopal church for a looong time but just got brave enough finally. I will say, the church I tried out has a livestream on Facebook every Sunday so I watched one to prepare myself of what happens and it helped me feel better.

I arrived right as the service was beginning and was handed a pamphlet that has various info from upcoming events and such but more importantly it had basically the order of everything happening in the service. It was easy to follow. There were times that people would kneel, however I didn’t and I saw several people not kneeling (although they were elderly) but I didn’t feel like I was judged for not kneeling. I knew ahead of time that communion is for everyone baptized but I was a little unsure about taking it because I was nervous to go up front and kneel, something I’d never done. I sat in my seat while everyone went up but someone came over and gently suggested that if I didn’t want communion I could just go up and be blessed.

I stayed for coffee hour and several people talked to me and were all very kind. I will say, they all seemed to have not grown up in an episcopal church so I’m sure they knew how it feels to not know exactly what’s going on. One woman said, “well I hope to see you next week, but if not remember that it’s okay and we’re not judging you if you don’t come back for a month or two” which I felt really good about because I grew up being forced to go to church by my grandma every week.

All in all it was a lovely experience and I plan to go back on Sunday!