The Catholic Church and Anglican Church

After the reformation, the church was split into the Catholic and Protestant. There are many different kinds of protestant churches, especially the Anglican Church I visited, is very similar to the Catholic Church as Anglican was a part of the Catholic Church. Therefore it is interesting to compare between these two churches.

Firstly the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches are not different religions but different denominations of the one religion. The Anglican Church, Saint Gabriel, is the Church of England is a Protestant denomination of Christianity which was established by King Henry VIII of England. In 1534 he broke away from the Roman Catholic Church with the Act of Supremacy, which declared the king of England to be the head of the Church of England. As it is the Church of England, Christians acknowledge that they are the part of the church commence in the 18^th century. [1] Such as when the bishop or a priest lays his hands on the people, the laying on of the hands is from the way back from Christ, the connection with the Christ which never been broken for more than 2000 years.[2] The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. Its leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. The history of the Catholic Church is traced by the Catholic Church back to apostolic times and thus covers a period of nearly 2,000 years, making it one of the world's oldest institutions. [3]The history of the Catholic Church is an integral part of the history of Christianity and of Western civilization.

[4]The Anglicans believe in God and the creed which has the teaching of the Christ and Baptism. Catholic beliefs are based on the Holy Bible and Sacred Tradition interpreted by the Church's teaching authority and detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Catholics believe Jesus is fully God and believe the pope is infallible when speaking with the authority of Peter on religious matters. Obviously Anglicans don't. [5]Also, the Pope has greater authority over the Catholic Church than the Archbishop of Canterbury has over the Anglican one.

The liturgy between the Catholic and Anglican Church is totally different. The Anglican Church starts with three songs which are very traditional hymn on the printed sheets, not setting in song books. After the singing, the priest read a prayer book which is the common title of a number of prayer books of the Church of England and of other Anglican churches, used throughout the Anglican communion.[6] For this reading, every Anglican and Catholic Church has the same reading every Sunday. The communion is happened in the Anglican Church as having a bread and wine. [7] The meaning of the communion for the Anglican Church is that the bread and the wine become the body and blood of Christ just like the Catholic Churches. On the other hand, the Catholic Church mass is silent against the Anglican Church.[8] The Catholic liturgy uses signs and symbols whose significance, based on nature or culture, has been made more precise through Old Testament events and has been fully revealed in the person and life of Christ. Mass is the centre of Catholic worship. The Words of Institution for this sacrament are drawn from the Gospels and a Pauline letter. Catholics believe that at each Mass, the bread and wine become supernaturally transubstantiated into the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. In addition, Catholics are not permitted to receive communion in Protestant churches because of their different beliefs and practices regarding Holy Orders and the Eucharist. The Church teaches that Christ established a New Covenant with humanity through the institution of the Eucharist at the last supper. [9]Because the Church teaches that Christ is present in the mass, there are strict rules about its celebration reception.

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[1]“ Anglican History.” [Internet], http://atheism.about.com, 30 May.

[2] “Catholic Church.” [Internet], http://www.catholic.org, 4 June.

[3] “Catholic Australia.” [Internet], http://www.catholicaustrlia.com.au 4 June.

[4] “Anglican Church of Australia.” [Internet], http://www.anglican.org.au, 30 May.

[5] “Basic Catholic Belief.” [Internet], http://www.ancient-future.net, 21 May.

[6] Collins, D. A member of St Gabriel’s Anglican Church, 9 May.

[7] Ibid 6

[8] “Catholic Liturgy.” [Internet], http://www.newadvent.org 4 June. Ibid 2

[9] Ibid 8

A comment on Keely's blog entry

www.keelybishop.blogspot.com

As Keely and I’ve been to the same church, we have very similar views on the Anglican Church. She has varied information about the Anglican Church such as history, music, core beliefs, a bit of governance and liturgy. Firstly, she talked about the song, are used in the church. I agreed with her, according to her information, they use the old hymns, wise words which talk about worshipping God. Also the songs are only played by organ. All these conditions are for concentrating the services, as Keely has written. But the lady, I interviewed said if they are group of talented young musicians then they will be used. Also there are lots of individuals but they don’t want to form together. If she put this information as well, it would be more detailed information. Furthermore I feel the lack of her feeling and opinion about the church. She didn’t express her opinion about the observation of the church. According to my blog, I represented my feeling of the songs of the church, interesting stuff for me and what I thought after the service.

There is a similarity between my experience and hers. As she noticed many candles which symbolizes that God brought the light into the darkness in the church, I also noticed that when I entered the church. On the other hand, she has talked about communion in the Anglican Church, whereas I haven’t. I didn’t noticed the way they do communion, which is that before the giving of the bread and the wine the priest hits his heart 3 times, the people then kneel in front of the priest as he goes around feeding the bread to them and giving them a sip of wine. I think this was not interesting to me as I couldn’t notice. It is interesting, although Keely and I went to the same service, but we have got different observations for the church.

St Gabriel’s Anglican Church

When I came into the church, there were lots of candles. The candles symbolise the light that God brought to the darkness. The candle is called the votive. If wanted to pray for somebody, light the candles and pray. [1]When the candles are burning, it reminds us that the Christ comes to us through the petition and it’s an ongoing prayer to God. Before the service, a prayer book and the paper which has lyrics on were given to me. It was interesting their service was based on the prayer book, not bible.[2] However the liturgies are based on the bible and the teaching of the Christ from the words of Jesus. At the beginning, they sing three songs that were played by organ and very soft and it sounds old for me. [3]The priest chooses the hymns that are suitable for the readings every service. I am familiar with contemporary music so the music, played in the church was awkward for me. There are no rules about specific types of music being played in the church. The lady we interviewed said if there are group of talented young musicians then they will be used. Also there are lots of individuals but they don’t want to form together. Although there are lots of Anglican churches with band, but at the moment, they’re focused on more of a traditional hymn. The reason is that concentration services. [4]They think the old hymns are talking about worshipping God, whereas most of the modern songs these days, such as Hillsongs, are more words of this generation.

This is how the Anglican churches are governed. As bible says, there are elders and Bishops etc, so are the Anglicans. The head of the Church is called the primate. They stay in the area where they were elected from but can be anywhere. The archbishop, Phillip Aspinal oversees the whole of Australia. He’s in charge of the structure of Australia amongst Anglican Churches. They do not believe in the Pope as he’s the head of the world wide Roman Catholic community, but the head of the world wide Anglican community is the Archbishop of Canterbury. This church has a priest with two messengers. The priest has the robe on which is significant. The colours could be red, yellow, green and purple. They use red at the moment as they’re thinking of the death of the Christ. The priest stands in the place of Christ to us, offering the sacrament and the sacrifice the Christ as mad for us. He is not standing as a husband, friend or a family. He is standing in front of people to represent the Christ. Therefore, they put on the garment to cover up themselves so that it is not him the others are focused on, but the Christ. [5]The man is covered as much as he could which represents the garment of the Christ when he was on the cross.

During the service, they read bible as the priest read a paragraph and the followers read the next paragraph. [6]There is another interesting thing is that all around the Anglican and the Catholic churches have the same reading every service. Also the priest with two messengers came to the centre of the church to read a testimony in the middle of service. [7]As portraying the gospel is very important, they bring the candles into the body of the church, which is in the middle so the gospel is shared instead of just standing in the middle, away from the people.

The Anglicans believe in God and the creed which has the teachings of the Christ and Baptism. They believe that there are people who have gone before us who have gone great works for God. They acknowledge Mary as the mother of the Christ, who has gone lots in the life of Christ, but not like the Roman Catholics do.[8] Therefore, she is important for them to serve, for the willingness she gave, in the response of that she was willing to be the mother of Jesus Christ.

The Anglican Church I went was very similar as the Catholic Church but it has own a historical origin and a different way to worship God. As I am Christian, believing in Jesus is the same point for every church, although there are many different kinds of churches and they have different theological understandings and liturgies. It was a great experience to know about Anglican Church.

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[1] Collins, D. A member of St Gabriel’s Anglican Church, 9 May.

[2] Ibid 1

[3] Ibid 1

[4] Ibid 1

[5] Ibid 1

[6] Ibid 1

[7] Ibid 1

[8] Ibid 1

Citipointe Church

The Pentecostal movement is by far the largest and most important religious movement to originate in the United States. [1]Beginning in 1901 with only a handful of students in a Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, the number of Pentecostals increased steadily throughout the world during the Twentieth Century until by 1993 they had become the largest family of Protestants in the world.

The Pentecostal Church, Citipointe is one of huge denominations. The church has many Christian people and a well organised system. When I visited the church, some people who are volunteers, welcomed me with shaking hands. It made me more comfortable being at the church. It has an oversight of senior pastors from around the country. The church has 15 pastors and every Sunday, they have a different pastor. Sometimes they invite famous speakers and preach to people. The operations board oversees the financial affairs, policies and property management of the COC movement. Citipointe was started by Clarke Taylor who a vision for the movement had called Australia for Christ. He was born in Queensland, Australia in 1937 and he was a farmer.[2] Clarke began in his house with 25 adults on 16 June 1974. Now this movement has become a huge denomination.

As a service is the main part of the church. They have some service areas for kids, teenagers, adults and other nationalities such as South African and Mandarin speakers. In my opinion, these different services imply their respect, in a way to give an opportunity to worship God for everyone. For the service, firstly they have a worship time with contemporary music by the band and singing gospel songs are written by Citipointe and others. Most songs are written by the people in the church. Some people could think loud music is not appropriate as worshipping in church. In my thinking the purpose is the same as worshiping God but there are different ways to worship God. This time was the best time of the service for me. The lyrics were great and have deep meanings. I think worshiping God through the music is one of ways to connect with God. [3]In addition, the church has a few albums, released by the musicians in the church. After worship time, the church news were told and then started preach. As the service was about relationship with Jesus, people in the church believe Jesus died on cross for our sins, so we can have eternal life. [4]Also they believe in having a relationship with Jesus and operating in the gifts of the spirit.

During the service, they prayed to God as connect with him. They bowed their head and started to pray. They think having relationship with God is the most important thing as Christian. So that the day I visited Citipointe, they prayed randomly whenever the speaker ask to pray together in order to communicate with God.

Citipointe church is free to share with God and has modern style services. These good points make people go to the church easily because it’s more contemporary than other old traditional churches. Also it was very impressive people can enjoy the services and worship God freely.

[1] “Pentecostal Church Origin.” [Internet], http://www.oru.edu/, 10 May.
[2] Fajzullin,S. A member of Citipointe Church, 2 May.
[3] Ibid 2
[4] Ibid 2