The Church as One

The topic for our readings centered on notion of “The One Church.”  During Catholic liturgies, the congregation recites the Nicene Creed after the homily.  It is a profession of faith that has a line that announces and affirms belief in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”  Francis A. Sullivan S.J. seeks to establish what is meant by “one” as understood in Scripture and official church teachings.  He speaks particularly well about the issues that the early Christians faced in terms of unity.  During his ministry, Paul wrote letters addressing the tension between Jewish Christians who kept Jewish laws and believed in Christ with the Gentile converts who did not follow the customary Jewish traditions but still believed in the gospel.  This was a great challenge for Paul, as the two groups did not have much in common outside of their being newly converted.  This led me to consider my own ministry as an educator - am I promoting a vision of unity in the classroom and what lengths do I go to in order to promote it? Am I extending an invitation to all students of all backgrounds and abilities to full and active participation not just in the classroom and school community, but in the larger context of the Church?  According to Lumen Gentium describes the visible bonds and unity of the people of the Church “through profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion” (p 14).  What of these can apply to my classroom?

In addition to having a shared faith as grounds for being united as "One Church," I especially liked how Sullivan points out Paul’s sense of communion included in sharing of gifts, especially to the poor.  From Sullivan’s perspective, the sharing was not a one-sided distribution of gifts.  He calls it “mutual sharing-of spiritual goods coming from the older Jerusalem church, and of material goods, coming from the richer Gentile churches” (43).  I am sure that in this case, each group valued what they received and felt worthy knowing that they could contribute something important to the overall Christian community. In the spirit of sharing, I came across this video, an experiment that recorded the reactions of children when they realized they received unequal food portions.  Perhaps in the Christian world there would be no need for the experiment as it should be an expectation.  I do not think the makers of the video were necessarily promoting the idea of Church, but I thought I would share the video nonetheless as it does make a point and is cute! As for my praxis, I can ask myself what mutual sharing and exchanges occur in the contexts of my ministry?  What are the implications of a shared faith in the gospel by the various members of my school community, including my colleagues, administration, students, and parents?

What readings and thoughts prompted reflection for you in your own ministries that connect to the idea of “One Church?”

How do you others perceive "One Church?"

There's Hope

Good morning class! Reading you guys’ posts is making my morning. While I agree with, and share Rose's passion towards the church re-aligning its focus back to the works of Jesus, I struggle more in the area of realizing and addressing the causes which may have led to the “shift” of focus in the first place. So, this leads me to what Daniella and Moe were discussing about camps. I have had the fortunate misfortune to have a very diverse religious background. Being raised Catholic by well-intended but miss-guided partakers of the faith, along with sprinkles of Baptist ideology from occasionally going to church with friends and family members who were not catholic, to trying to find my own way into the Pentecostal faith, and then finally settling into becoming Baptist; allowed me to visit those camps which are spoken of.  In the end, I realized that it was not about religion, but about relationship with God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

To me camps were created to separate one person’s true agenda from the other. In order to cover up the fact that you have strayed away from what God called have called you to be, you start another camp. Sometimes camps are started because of the cover-ups; members do not want to be a part of it. Whatever the reason, we are losing the war, because the “church” is too busy fighting individual wars, and many are against themselves. My use of the word church refers to page 46 in Rausch’s description of the church being Trinitarian. That’s why the passage in 2 Chronicles 14 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+7%3A14&version=KJV), allows us to know that God knew we were going to turn away from one another, so He gave us the solution on how to win this battle against our enemy.

I would like to pose a question… on page 92, the 3^rd paragraph of Dulles’ writings, he talks about the church not being spoken about in the bible as service oriented. If one indeed sees the church as the body of Christ, or Believers of Christ, shouldn’t it be about service? What do y’all think? As for an answer to your question Rose, unfortunately, I cannot think of a community that exemplifies a metaphor of church, because there is always a conflict of interest between God’s way, and the ways of this world (government). I don’t want to seem like gloom and doom. In fact, I am quite hopeful that god’s people will get it together, because the Lord hears the cries of His people. I am going to leave you guys with a little song that cheers me up when I am beat down. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COE6YHIK-pU&noredirect=1)

Quiz! What is your model of church?

Dear Class, as you engage with the materials this week, here is a helpful online quiz to test which model of church resonates with you the most. Have fun :-)
Blessings,
Daniella