| READER'S EXCHANGE |
Church
Visits
I'm
enjoying your series on your visits to the various denominations around Den-
ton. I especially appreciated your open- minded treatment of the
Unitarian-Universalists.
I'm hoping for an article on the United Church of Christ. —Indiana
I
really
enjoy your articles on the different denominations. I have so much to learn.
—Louisiana
Your
article on the Episcopalians was very interesting. — Missionary in Italy
As a
life long member of the Church of Christ, it is extremely refreshing to find
someone who shares my belief relative to tolerance and consideration of
other religious beliefs. I would like for you to forward all of your earlier
publications per- taming to visits made by you in other churches.
—Oklahoma
I
read
with great interest your visit to the Episcopal church, and look forward to
more of these accounts. We were in Spain last month to visit our daughter
and were pleased to worship with the Roman Catholics on Easter Sunday. — Canada
(Ouida
and I have been pleasantly surprised by the vigorous and positive response
to my series on my visits to the churches. We interpret it as an expression
of the hunger Church of Christ people have for a broader fellowship that is
denied them. It is common for a person to spend an entire lifetime in our
churches and never see anyone in the pulpit except our own ministers, and
they are made to feel they've Committed a sin if they visit any other church
except for a wedding or a funeral. So, I will
continue the series indefinitely, for there are lots of churches, and, as
experienced as I am in ecumenicity, I still have new experiences, such as
recently at an Eastern Orthodox Church, which I had to leave Denton to
visit. The priest allowed me to remain for a private ceremony of infant
baptism, which was an elaborate service that took almost an hour and was
rich in tradition. I saw for the first time how meaningful such an
experience can be to the family and the community of believers. The infant
was immersed (up to the head) three times and in the nude. The priest then
asked the child, "Are you in Christ?" His godparents answered for
him, Yes (because he was part of the believing community), and the
godparents vowed before God and the church to guard over the child's faith
for life. At last the godparents placed the infant, now clad in glowing
white, in the arms of his parents, duly baptized and confirmed, and the
community rejoiced. I was touched. Afterward the priest asked me what I
thought. "Lots of tradition, I presume," I answered. "Two
thousand years' worth!," he replied. And when I said, "A Greek
Orthodox may be our next President," he smiled. It was a great
experience. I'll be telling you more about it. But I thought of that Greek
community a short time afterward when I witnessed a baptism at a Church of
Christ in the same city of Dallas. We did it in about eighty seconds and it
was no big deal. But we're not yet 2,000 years old — or are we?
However that may be, the Orthodox Church in Russia is this year 1000
years old. —the Editor)
The
great tragedy of the Christian religion lies in the identification of the
kingdom with the institutional church, whose leaders are its interpreters
and rulers. Assuming the role of God's representatives they have used the
Bible to erect structures of authority and systems of doctrines to
manipulate people into conformity. Taught to have a high regard for the
Bible, believers have been led to place ultimate dependence on those who
interpret it as authority figures. The result is that the Bible itself and
the authority figure become objects of faith and not the gospel, which
created the Bible. —Norman
Parks,
Murfreesboro, Tn.
Frank
Worgan of England said that in Ghana there are absolutely no divisions among
the brethren. Whenever differences arise they get together and find a
solution short of division. I asked him how this was possible, for in
America we know more about division than unity. He gave as an example a
difference about using multiple cups for communion. They allow each one to
decide for himself, having different cups on the table. Our brethren in
Ghana have learned more about truth and right conduct than we have. Thank
God, they understand that which causes our brethren to turn up their noses,
namely, unity in diversity. - Arnold
Hardin, Dallas Tx.
Please
pray for me and our congregation. With freedom being so liberating,
especially from being in bondage so long to traditionalism, I am afraid that
a few among us may not be able to handle it. Freedom can be a scary thing. I
hope that the false security that many derived from a legalistic system of
keeping rules can be realized in the person and sacrifice of Christ. — Texas
Our
Second Annual Chorus Festival is June 4, 1988. Ten Church of Christ choruses will spend the day rehearsing and