Tag Archives: Roman Catholic

Mass confusion as theological jargon creeps back in

The new “Plain English” Missal: Easier to understand… if you know Latin. Last year, the English Missal of the Roman Catholic Church wording was “updated”. In one place, the words “of one substance” were replaced with the far less well-known term, “consubstantial”. Consa-what? Even my spell-checker doesn’t reckon that’s a word! But don’t worry – […]

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Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Booval

Visiting Sacred Heart I have attended Mass at the Sacred Heart church in Booval three times, now. For someone who’s church experience is predominantly in Protestant churches, I found a few things to notice with interest. High Church I might start by saying that, although “high church” traditions such as the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and […]

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Has the Eucharist been redefined?

Does the Roman Catholic Church still hold to Transubstantiation as a doctrine? I attended Midnight Mass at the beautiful St Mary’s Church in Ipswich on Christmas Eve 2011. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will do it again this year. A couple of things caught my attention, and in my interest as a student of the […]

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One Church, Across all Time

If there is “One Church”, and there always has been only one, then surely it’s the same Church…? I stumbled across a wonderful expression of the “One Church” phenomenon in a theological textbook. I gladly receive it and add it to the wonderfully compelling image of “One Church”: we are part of the same church […]

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Church Leadership: Could Jesus be right?

What is leadership in the kingdom of God? The question of leadership in church life is a hot one. The Roman Catholic view, which consists of a single hierarchy of authority governing all aspects of church life, culminating in a single figure in the Pope, is profoundly different from the cell-church/home-church model consisting of as […]

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Titles: “Who do the crowds say I am?”, “Who do you say I am?”, “I do not accept human testimony”.

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet! How important are titles? I am given various titles by various people, but I never ask for them, nor insist on them. I am frequently called, and introduced as, “Pastor Kev”, and I have been referred to […]

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Ecumenism in Roman Catholic theology: Lumen Gentium analysed for Ecumenism.

Summary – Lumen Gentium as an Ecumenical document Lumen Gentium, (“Light of Nations”, Vatican II, 1964) changed nothing in the ecclesiology of the Roman Catholic Church, and it was designed that way. But the whole process of Vatican II, including this document, did prove to be a catalyst for ecumenical dialogue in many ways. Again, this […]

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What is Transubstantiation? When a Zebra is not a Zebra; it’s an Ottoman, but it’s still a Zebra.

What is Transubstantiation? The Roman Catholic theology of Transubstantiation describes the Bread and Wine ceremony (Eucharist) as “the actual partaking of Christ in person, hence literally”. Many Protestants consider it to be a metaphor or a mnemonic instead. Who is right? Firstly, let’s just acknowledge that people have died over this question. In the Reformation, at various […]

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How many churches are there?

Why are there so many denominations in the Christian faith? What’s the difference? Does it matter? I was wonderfully confronted by the living God in a little Anglican church, and came to faith. Since that time I have been quite involved in a Salvation Army church, a Churches of Christ church, a Pentecostal church, and a church that […]

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The Salvation Army and the Sacraments

Is the Salvation Army a Church? Originally, no. The Salvation Army originally denied that it was a church (“we are not professing to be a church” – Catherine Booth, War Cry, 2 January 1883). It came in for criticism because for a long time it did not enter into the debates between Christian denominations concerning the “Sacraments” […]

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Roman Catholic Decree on Ecumenism: “Unitatis Redintegratio”

The Roman Catholic Church… a Decree on Ecumenism… Really? In the 1960’s, the Roman Catholic church made a big effort in an attempt to begin to reverse the 400-year rift between herself and the Protestant churches, even acknowledging that there was fault on both sides. She made a range of statements demonstrating that she understood […]

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