Here's a question for the ministry-minded...
Imagine you were going to move your (Protestant) church to a new building. The land's been purchased. The old one sold. Where do you meet in the interim?
There's a couple of buildings in town, but the local Catholic church has offered to let you meet in one of their churches for free.
What do you do?
8 comments:
Had a good think about this one last night while feeding the youngest member of the family.
I'm not going to tell you yes or no, just make comments for you to consider. And I am assuming that this might be your church...
I think that it depends a great deal on how similar the Protestant church and the Catholic church are - depends on the diocese and how evangelical the Protestant church is...
Would you be happy for any of the Protestant flock to get mixed up and end up going to a Catholic church service?
Would visitors to the Protestant church be put off by the fact that it was in a Catholic church?
There seemed to be a lot more going around in my head last night when I was thinking about this... must have been too late... must have been gibberish!
Actually, it's not my church, but it is a real-life situation. Had me thinking for some time now, and wanted to see what others thought! :)
So have you come to any conclusions yourself?
I would meet at the local catholic church!!! ...however I guess if there were weaker brothers/sisters amongst after discussion and explanation etc., we may not. It is a issue of whether the 'weaker' will stumble or not I think.
But maybe I just think 'simply'!! You know me...
You know I wouldn't get caught in a 'Reductionistic Twist' over something like this...
Without knowing all the particulars, I would tend to say meet in their church - what a lovely offer on their part by the way - but I know that this offer would also cause much discussion........I am doing a lot of thinking about Christian unity at the moment, but it is by no means fully formed in my head yet.
Seeing as this is only a temporary arrangement until buildings get built, I would see if there are any school auditoriums or something similar that could be used on Sundays. Or Saturdays, if they're SDA.
Then again, the Catholic church is offering a building for free, which is hard to beat...
This one needs prayer :)
This is an issue I struggle with. Yes, it is an extremely nice and generous gesture to provide a building to another group. Yet I still have grave problems with it because it ties the two churches together in ways that I think are unhelpful. God wants his people to be united, yes. But when the differences between the groups are too great, uniting is actually syncretistic and dangerous. Here’s what I mean:
1. The beliefs of the Catholic church are in some ways idolatrous. Take for example the veneration of the host – in many Catholic churches there is an alcove where a portion of the bread/wafer that has been “turned into Christ’s body” is left for people to pray to. That’s an idol. The Immaculate Conception of Mary (that Mary was born and lived sinless) effectively elevates her to something more than human. The church building in question has a large statue of Mary at the entrance to the church. The Pope still issues “Papal Blessings” – a slightly reworded version of the indulgences that had Luther so incensed.
2. The Catholic church doesn’t believe any Protestant church is legitimate. The current Pope has made that abundantly clear. So when “cooperating” with them, their intention is that we will ultimately “rejoin the fold”. Anglican – Catholic dialogues have had this intention.
3. The community is already confused about church differences, and this clouds the issue too much. It effectively says that we don’t think there’s any difference between us.
4. It lays down a difficult precedent to break. In future years when the Catholic church wants to have joint services or Mass, how can you say no? How can we be in one breath saying that these beliefs are wrong when we are cooperating so closely with them? It compromises the ability of the church to stand back and be impartial.
Ray Galea's put out a good book called "Nothing in my hand I bring". He's written as someone who grew up Catholic, and has set out in a really readable way what they believe. I'd recommend it highly!
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