A new way to be Church
In our previous post we very briefly recounted the problems of the last 50 years that have transformed vast portions of the Institutional Church into something other than a Christian based entity. We also discussed increasing political pressures and the likely upcoming effects.
So, how do God-fearing, Bible-believing, orthodox acting Christians survive and spiritually thrive in this increasingly corrosive environment?
One course of action is for the people of God to take their corporate worship underground, as the Church has done and continues to do in countries or regions of intense persecution [Communist China, Russia in the 20th century]. We, in the United States of America, have never had to do this before so in many ways this is new territory for us. Our whole life of Christian worship has been in an institutional context, subtly manipulated by Government regulations, dictated by lofty and generally inaccessible leadership bodies. In a phrase, Church was not done by us, it was done for us. Given the realities of the article referenced in the previous post [https://www.patheos.com/blogs/chorusinthechaos/sign-times-persecution-church/] that mindset is going to have to change if we are to retain our access to God through orthodox, Bible-believing worship. That is what we will discuss here.
By way of a little background. The founders of the North Idaho Oratory are former Episcopal clergy and former Anglican Church in North America clergy. We are the prodigy of Nashotah House Seminary, a seminary in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. We are Church Planters and have ministered at a number of Churches over a span of 30 years. Because of problems we saw in the above named institutions we resigned formal ties with these organizations to form the North Idaho Oratory. The Mission and work of that entity can be found on its website [https://warrenmuellerms.wixsite.com/mysite]. Over the last 2 years we have perfected the work of the North Idaho Oratory and now want to share in the face of the coming Church crisis.
We are proposing to form something we call the Liturgical Home Church Movement. The movement is envisioned to be a resource center to help those so inclined to form liturgical home churches of their own; for their families and possibly for groups of neighbors or other close personal associations. Many non-denominational Christians do not come from a liturgical church background. Those who do can come from a wide variety of liturgical worship backgrounds. The intention of the Liturgical Home Church Movement is to provide general resources and leadership so that groups of Christians so moved by the Holy Spirit to develop a home church for liturgical worship are not constricted into a set form of worship, but rather have the ability to develop a model of orthodox worship that accommodates their spiritual needs.
So what resources does the Movement envision providing? This is by no means an exhaustive list, but a starting foundation;
· Some basic tenants of faith all Christians should agree upon
· Basic Church beliefs that confer one Church is in Communion with another
· Basics of Sacramental Theology
· A model Eucharistic Liturgy with suggested options to tailor to local needs
· Suggested models for layout of a Chapel
· Suggested items to use in the liturgical rites
· Suggested music resources
· The basics of spiritual formation
· Developing spiritual resilience
· Basic elements of the Christian Life
· Selection of the Eucharistic Minister
The most controversial element of this whole exercise is the last item on that list, Selection of the Eucharistic Minister. Ever since the 2nd Century, the liturgical Church has taken very seriously the subject of selection of Eucharistic Ministers. In many Churches those selected are called Priests, in others Pastors, and in others a Minister. In many traditions, only a Bishop can confer upon another person the designation of Priest, Pastor, Minister of the Eucharistic liturgy and only their person can consecrate the gifts of Bread and Wine into the Sacramental Equivalents [Body and Blood of Christ in most traditions].
As the Institutional Church comers under secular attack and as the impetus to form Home Churches expands, how will the selection of Eucharistic Ministers be handled?
We believe this will need to be handled on a local basis. A group assembles to form a Liturgical Home Church, they will need to pray about who God is calling to be the Eucharistic Minister for the group. It is our proposal to provide guidelines about how this can take place so that the person selected by God through the action of His Holy Spirit is acknowledged by the group to be the right person.
We fully expect this approach to be vigorously attacked by the Institutional Church. We expect the whole concept of Liturgical Home Churches will be vilified by the Institutional Church. But given the dangers that are expected to come upon us in the near future, we believe it is a prayerful, rational approach to give the maximum number of devout Christians a sincere way to continue to worship in a devout liturgy and to receive the blessed Sacraments which so many very efficacious spiritual benefits.
More to follow.
Comments