Unam, Sanctam, Catholicam et Apostolicam Ecclesiam

I suppose now I should take a little time to explain my previous post. I gave five points of why I remain on my side of the Tiber despite my love for liturgy and the historical church. My first reason was that I believe too strongly in the Holy Catholic Church.

Though I have only been a member of 4 churches my entire life, I have had the privilege to visit and worship with many friends from other churches. I have worshipped in Independent Christian Churches, Independent Baptist Churches, Southern Baptist Churches, United Methodist Churches, Churches of God of Prophecy, Roman Catholic Churches, Disciples of Christ Churches, CREC Churches, Evangelical Presbyterian Churches, PCUSA Churches, PCA Churches, ARP Churches, Evangelical Free Churches, and probably many others I can't recall.

But I have never worshipped outside the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I have been sprinkled with holy water. I have been in a church where the pianist fell in the floor grunting like a pig. I have seen crutches lining the nave of Ste-Anne-De-Beaupre in Quebec. I have seen people healed at a Pentecostal tent revival. I have seen the wrist bone of Saint Anne. I have seen a pastor dress up as the apostle Peter for a sermon. I have seen an entire congregation stand to their feet and march in circles around the santuary.

For all of our eccentricities and foibles; for all of our slips, errors, and differences we are the Bride of Christ. We are the Catholic Church. When I partake of the Eucharist each week, I am in immediate communion with the Body of Christ where I am, but I am also in communion with the entire Holy Catholic Church: all these places I have mentioned and more. Christ prayed that His Church would be one even as He and His Father are One. And it is. Our prayer now should be that where the Church is right, God would establish it; where it is corrupt He would purify it; where it is in error, He would direct it; where there is anything in it amiss, that He would reform it; and that where it is in want, He should provide it. We pray that by this, the Holy Spirit would make us all one in visible unity, just as the Church is one in spiritual reality. This must be done for the sake of Christ who died and rose again for His bride, the Church. And it cannot be done by any group of any kind (from the ignorant, backwoods independent-fundamentalist-1611-KJV-only pastor to the Pope at Rome) simply saying, "We could fix all this if everyone just joined us. We have the answers."