my catholic protestant anglican weekend
by JVS on Jun.15, 2010, under 2010
This past weekend I was part of a Roman Catholic wedding, preached in our deeply Protestant church, and then co-baptized a baby with an Anglican priest (I covered the Father and the Son and he covered the Holy Spirit… just joking!). I did the baptism the way we always do, and he added two Anglican traditions onto the end of the sacrament (a sign-of-the-cross blessing and a candle ceremony). It was beautiful. While I noticed all of the nuanced differences (Catholicisms at the wedding – confession, liturgy, etc; and a bit more of a salvific tone to the Anglican blessing words) it was still wonderfully encouraging and hopeful. I just finished reading a part of James Hunter’s How to Change the World, where he speaks of the neccessity of church unity to meet that end. If we can’t play nice among ourselves, how can we ever expect to relate meaningfully to the rest of society? So true. I still can’t get the gentle graciousness of that Roman Catholic Deacon out of my mind; he bent over backwards to be inclusive toward me. After the co-baptism in our church, the Anglican priest said, “Thank you so much for including me in this.”
June 17th, 2010 on 2:07 pm
Wow, I was in the middle of a post and I somehow deleted it!
So instead of re-writing it all I suppose I’ll just keep it short and say that I agree with you.
If we could all honour and respect our different ways of worship we’d be a lot closer to the way “church” was supposed to be.
Afterall, isn’t our church’s vision about the everywhere God in everything? So why can’t be be present in a Catholic ritual as much as in the way we do church as much as in a movie as much as in the bible as much as in…. etc.
June 16th, 2010 on 2:09 pm
Dear Pastor John,
I discovered your church through Youtube (!) this week, while searching for various links to Feist.
As a thoughtful, passionate Catholic I have found it so encouraging to listen to your talks and videos especially on the arts and the way that ALL culture can be a sign of God’s beauty, power, passion and great love in our world. I have gone through several phases in my faith and I suppose now I am less fearful, defensive and more open and generous these days. I see and hear many things from NewHope that chime with my heart. It sort of says “it’s ok to love things in the world and see God working through it” – something I believe and I think Catholic ideas support but so often we and many other churches don’t really express. Maybe its fear?
Thank you so far for your thoughtful and wise words!
Pax!
Paul