Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Brand of Faith
Watching everyone around me receive communion at Langham Church on Sunday after a fire-and-brimstone sermon by Paul Blackham about God wiping the unrepentent from the face of the earth in the Final Days, with Jerricho forshadowing events (and they did put to death by the sword men, women and children) as God's Will, I felt a little saddened that I could not partake of the communion with these Good People. But here was no communion - the division of the church, a fault of man - whose fault exactly? is now lost in the mists of time -- probably a bit of everyone's really - did nobody any favours. Here was fragmentation. The Anglican church continues to reel in the aftermath of its homosexual scandals, with other protestant denominations tactfully avoiding each others gazes and keeping stoically silent on the whole issue. And did the reinventing of the religion, by man, for man - with offending bits snipped out from history -- really and truly serve the will of God? Should the sins of humanity - presumably a wayward cardinal / pope somewhere along the line, and an equally wayward revolutionary castaway priest / king - really impact on the potential salvations of scores of people hundreds of years in the future?
Don't like your flavour of Christianity? Well, found another!
Listening to the Apostles Creed recited (or rather, read from paper) at All Soul's I recoiled as I inadvertently mouthed "We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church" whilst everyone else said "united". Surely All Soul's used to say Catholic as well? I remember it from my first years here. So even here the censorship continues, the apostles creed being watered down to a more politically correct form. More palatable for the consumers.
And the communion, conspicuously grand in its relative rarity was, in comparison to the daily communion of the Catholic Mass, truncated and tersely reworded. (But the music, oh the music. The Anglican church really does its music well...) Perhaps the Old Way took too much time? Perhaps "Do this in memory of me" is all that needs to be said, during communion. Perhaps it's just the thoughts that count. Perhaps we won't need a host anymore in the future to eat? After all, it's the thought that counts.
Perhaps we won't need a physical communion then. Perhaps we can just think it.
Perhaps we can just junk it.
I can't help but feel that there could have been a better solution, back then, other than breakaway.
And that perhaps even now there could be a reunification. Somehow. I can't for the life of me imagine how. But the Church Leaders, the nebulous figures at the fore whose job it is to dream up grandiose plans like this don't appear to be helping the cause much. And their individual flocks follow their individual shephards, each along different routes towards different destinations. Perhaps one day there could be a shared communion, and everyone could learn from everyone else. Perhaps one day there could be a Holy and Undivided Catholic Church again - Catholic in the sense of the word from before the protestant movement. Not a brand-name to denote uniqueness. Just a brand-name.
Or perhaps not.
Watching everyone around me receive communion at Langham Church on Sunday after a fire-and-brimstone sermon by Paul Blackham about God wiping the unrepentent from the face of the earth in the Final Days, with Jerricho forshadowing events (and they did put to death by the sword men, women and children) as God's Will, I felt a little saddened that I could not partake of the communion with these Good People. But here was no communion - the division of the church, a fault of man - whose fault exactly? is now lost in the mists of time -- probably a bit of everyone's really - did nobody any favours. Here was fragmentation. The Anglican church continues to reel in the aftermath of its homosexual scandals, with other protestant denominations tactfully avoiding each others gazes and keeping stoically silent on the whole issue. And did the reinventing of the religion, by man, for man - with offending bits snipped out from history -- really and truly serve the will of God? Should the sins of humanity - presumably a wayward cardinal / pope somewhere along the line, and an equally wayward revolutionary castaway priest / king - really impact on the potential salvations of scores of people hundreds of years in the future?
Don't like your flavour of Christianity? Well, found another!
Listening to the Apostles Creed recited (or rather, read from paper) at All Soul's I recoiled as I inadvertently mouthed "We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church" whilst everyone else said "united". Surely All Soul's used to say Catholic as well? I remember it from my first years here. So even here the censorship continues, the apostles creed being watered down to a more politically correct form. More palatable for the consumers.
And the communion, conspicuously grand in its relative rarity was, in comparison to the daily communion of the Catholic Mass, truncated and tersely reworded. (But the music, oh the music. The Anglican church really does its music well...) Perhaps the Old Way took too much time? Perhaps "Do this in memory of me" is all that needs to be said, during communion. Perhaps it's just the thoughts that count. Perhaps we won't need a host anymore in the future to eat? After all, it's the thought that counts.
Perhaps we won't need a physical communion then. Perhaps we can just think it.
Perhaps we can just junk it.
I can't help but feel that there could have been a better solution, back then, other than breakaway.
And that perhaps even now there could be a reunification. Somehow. I can't for the life of me imagine how. But the Church Leaders, the nebulous figures at the fore whose job it is to dream up grandiose plans like this don't appear to be helping the cause much. And their individual flocks follow their individual shephards, each along different routes towards different destinations. Perhaps one day there could be a shared communion, and everyone could learn from everyone else. Perhaps one day there could be a Holy and Undivided Catholic Church again - Catholic in the sense of the word from before the protestant movement. Not a brand-name to denote uniqueness. Just a brand-name.
Or perhaps not.
