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Post by Noelfitz on Mar 8, 2009 22:00:58 GMT
Last week I attended the World Day of Prayer service. It was an interdenominational service prepared by women from Papua New Guinea. It was very moving to be part of Christians, mainly women, from all over the world praying together. The instructions were that the service was not to be altered, thus the same service was in different countries and cultures. The service was carefully written so that all Christians, those who follow Christ and believe he is Lord, saved us, suffered died and rose again, could join in fellowship and prayer.
However part of the service was a meditation, given by a Catholic who attacked the Catholic Church, complaining about its practice of not encouraging non-Catholics to receive communion in a Catholic Church. I felt it was a pity that this negative note spoiled the service for me. Am I unreasonable and over-sensitive?
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Post by Michael O'Donovan on Mar 9, 2009 22:17:43 GMT
However part of the service was a meditation, given by a Catholic who attacked the Catholic Church, complaining about its practice of not encouraging non-Catholics to receive communion in a Catholic Church. I felt it was a pity that this negative note spoiled the service for me. Am I unreasonable and over-sensitive? Not in the least. Did the organisers know that this speaker was going to attack the Catholic Church? If they did, then the event was a sham from the beginning. And did he or she, even if nominally Catholic, show any sign of understanding what the significance of the Eucharist is for Catholics?
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Post by Noelfitz on Mar 10, 2009 20:22:40 GMT
Michael,
many thanks for your reply.
To be fair I doubt if the organizers had any idea of what the meditation would be about. The speaker was asked to have his talk a maximum of ten minutes and he greatly extended this to the annoyance of local organizers.
The wording of the whole service was very carefully chosen. One could fault the definition of Church. It seemed to imply that members of the Christian Church were all believers in Jesus who accepted Him as our Saviour and believed in his passion, death and resurrection. The importance of baptism was implicitly noted.
I spoke to the person who invited me to the service. She is a very committed Catholic. She flippantly said that criticism of the male dominated Church was appropriate.
I was going to mention to the speaker my disappointment with his talk, but my wife warned me not to do this. I always do what she tells me!
However I do think it was a pity that this ecumenical service was spoiled by an attack on the Church's ruling on the Eucharist by a Catholic.
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Post by Michael O'Donovan on Mar 10, 2009 21:51:05 GMT
Noel, I don't presume to question your judgment but I wouldn't go to something like that. Those events (I think) tend to be organised by self-appointed "committees" whose members are more often than not a bit cranky. Mass, Benediction and the Stations of the Cross (if you can find the last two) are a safer bet.
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Post by Noelfitz on Mar 11, 2009 16:18:12 GMT
Michael, Thank you for your advice. The person who invited me to the ecumenical service is a very active worker in the parish. She did note there were no ministers/priests of any denomination at the service.
It was moving to be part of a service that was being held all around the world in various Christian Churches/Ecclesial Communities.
I do believe in ecumenism and there is great cooperation and good will at present. When I attend a non-Catholic Eucharist I approach the altar for a blessing. I appreciate when non-Catholics at our Masses receive blessings at Communion.
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Post by monkeyman on Mar 11, 2009 16:43:23 GMT
Of course, Noelfitz, in thoery if this non-Catholic eucharist were to be of a protestant variety then the blessing would be the same as if a layman were to give you one. No harm in that I suppose but it gives the impression their minister is imbued with some sort of sacerdotal power which he doesn't possess.
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Post by monkeyman on Mar 11, 2009 16:46:37 GMT
also theirs is not an altar(which of course screams sacrifice) but a communion table even though I know some protestant communities are sufficiently ambiguous about the term ie some Lutherans and high anglicans.
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Post by monkeyman on Mar 11, 2009 16:51:36 GMT
Noel, I don't presume to question your judgment but I wouldn't go to something like that. Those events (I think) tend to be organised by self-appointed "committees" whose members are more often than not a bit cranky. Mass, Benediction and the Stations of the Cross (if you can find the last two) are a safer bet. Yes Michael in order to partake in ecumenism you really need the capability to be an apologist for the Church-Vatican 2 said as much otherwise this could be said to be an occasion where you are putting your faith at risk-if you are sufficiently unaware of the teaching of the Church and also where the other communities digress with Rome especially.
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