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abbycat
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| Joined: | Thu Jan 17th, 2008 |
| Location: | Maryland USA |
| Posts: | 221 |
| First Name: | abby | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Non-Denomational Charismatic, Lutheran, Orthodox Catechumate |
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Posted: Thu Jun 12th, 2008 01:41 pm |
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I have a lot of miscellaneous, probably rather dumb, questions which I'd like answered. As they come to mind, I'll post them, if it's OK. One I was wondering about ... can a Catholic attend church with family or friends at another denomination? what about at a non-denomational church? Can they take Communion?
abby
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David W. Emery
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Brownsville, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 2522 |
| First Name: | David | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic |
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Posted: Thu Jun 12th, 2008 01:58 pm |
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Yes, yes, and no. What is forbidden is “participation” in the beliefs and distinguishing practices of a different religion. Mere attendance at a Protestant/ Evangelical/ Non-Denominational service for social reasons is not seen as constituting “participation” in that religion. Receiving communion is, however, on the basis of the very specific differences in belief and perceived legitimacy, especially concerning the Catholic notion of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
David
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Steven Barrett
Member
| Joined: | Tue Nov 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | Hadley, Absurdistan, AKA , Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 1566 |
| First Name: | Steven | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic, Episcopal communicant, Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Thu Jun 12th, 2008 04:08 pm |
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I'd also be extremely attenuated to anybody in these denominational churches saying they wish they could "have the Real Presence" in their communion services, and then tell you that if you want to believe the little piece of bread can actually be the Real Presence if you want to believe it.
Sounds nice and homey. Right? Accomodating and all that sort of stuff that evangelical churches are well-known for promoting. I'm surprised that enough of them haven't gotten together (long enough without having a schism before their first service) to form something like the "American Church of Christian Accomodationalism." Not to be confused with the United Church of Christ (Congregationalists or their UU offspring) because the new church i'm playing with in this post is most likely to agree with us on most social issues, in sharp contrast to the Congy's and UUs; but I think you know where I'm taking this. Unfortunately, I'm not anywhere near its logical extreme in the eyes of many good and well-meaning evangelical Christians.
But wanting to believe in something and having their deepest hearts' desire, in our case, the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, is something entirely different.
I could be wrong, but if we could find a way to use the keys of the Eucharistic teachings, understand what actually transpired as mentioned when Peter confessed to Jesus as the Messiah and his being named by no less than Jesus as the Lord's vicar; the "hard sayings" in Jn. 6, the Last Supper and Jesus' prayer for unity -- and somehow enable more people to see why settling for nice sermons, symbolism over sacramental substance, and sincere beliefs in a personal relationship and walk with Christ are fine--but only up to a point because they leave people resting on an ephemeral versus an actual physical and sacramental relationship with God.
We could also discuss baptism and the mysterious evangelical side step of baptism as a sacramental necessity to becoming a full Christian as opposed to public altar calls and giving oral witness before one's congregation. So many times I've heard well-meaning and lovely (but firmly believing) evangelicals rightly place sincerity as secondary to taking the necessary steps to become a full believer. But then they pull up short when it comes to moving forward on meeting the full requirements of baptismal entrance and becoming born again Jesus explained to Nicodemus. And this is a major moment Protestants can't seem to resist falling back on (Jn.3:16) yet they just stop short ever so close... And, yes, sadly, all too many arguments resulted from this mysterious broken connection.
It's like getting a call from a friend complaining that his computer that he saved for years to buy won't work because he can't make a certain connection and doesn't know how to fix it. So you go over to help, ony to find out that it wasn't an internal defect in his computer's ability to work properly--but a crucial cable or wire's missing: and even after several hours of scouring the floor, neither of you can find it.
(The family's newest kitten will no doubt find it, and bring it to your friend, all nicely and thorougly chewed through.)
Hopefully some of the things I've listed above might help others help us all in our efforts to understand--and bridge-- the essential key differences between Protestant (esp. evangelical) services and Catholic/Orthodox Masses. No doubt some of our members from the more liturgical Protestant churches have faced challenges like this previous post-er.
If wishes were horses ... and beggars could ride, I'd take them all on a gallop to Rome for great Italian food, beautiful scenery, history and artworks, and best of all, the Greatest Teachers.Last edited on Thu Jun 12th, 2008 04:10 pm by Steven Barrett
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James Michael Curley to a young Thomas “Tip” O’Neill -- “Son, it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
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