Connection with the Larger Church
BREAKING THE ICE:
Think about all the churches you have attended. What made each of them unique? How were they similar.
REFLECTION:
Once when I was a teaching a Confirmation class on the Apostles’ Creed, I had a student stop me. Why did we just say we believe in the holy catholic church? We’re not catholic, are we? I hope not, they have too many rules!
It can be easy for Protestants to stumble over that phrase. After all, there is a Roman Catholic Church, and in the secular world when a church is referred to as “catholic” it seems to imply that we are in communion with the bishop of Rome — the Pope. But if we are not Roman Catholics, why confess belief in the catholic church?
Protestants affirm the existence of the catholic church because the meaning of the term catholic is “universal.” It does not imply or command submission to the Pope. So for us to call the church “catholic” is merely to affirm that the one church of Jesus Christ is not limited to one geographical region, socio-economic class, age group, ethnicity, or gender. We are connected to the larger church.
And when we celebrate Communion or recite the Apostles’ Creed we are reminded of our connection to the church universal. We are reminded that we are members of one body of Christ. One Bread, One Body. And what a joy that is!
WRESTLING WITH THE WORD
PRAY
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;*
the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic** church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.