Dr Beck, you wrote: "I'm calling these frictions "cultural" as there isn't anything deeply theological at stake in a natural knee-jerk distrust of something new, alien, or foreign being introduced into your ecclesial ecosystem. No big biblical or doctrinal issue hangs in the balance when you light candles. Nor does sitting in silent prayer on a Sunday morning. But such things are culturally weird for some churches."
I'm not so sure this is a good starting point. Being a "convert" [I hate that word, but it's useful] to Eastern Orthodoxy from NI Churches of Christ, I might argue that deep theological issues are in fact the bridge too far in low churches dabbling in the practices. In the Orthodox Church, there are deep, theological underpinnings for these practices, each building upon the other to edify and support the entire purpose of the Church in its liturgy and life. Individuals' lighting candles, prostrations, fasts, and prayer rules are every bit as theologically significant in the life of the church as a whole as the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. None of them are practices for their own sake nor for the sake of any individual apart from the whole.
For churches in the name of "formation" or "discipline" to appropriate these practices outside of their context and theological environment (Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican or whatever) can be, if you will pardon the perhaps overstated language, dangerous. It may not lead you where you think you are going, besides causing friction in the congregation which isn't equipped to address it. This may be what you will be discussing in your future posts, so I'll just leave it at this.
As a former Catholic/now Episcopalian, I think this is significant. Nothing in our liturgy is there by accident. Taking a practice out of context and using it in a denomination that was founded on explicit rejection of some of the theology of sacramental/liturgical forms of Christianity is going to rub folks the wrong way.
Low church Protestants rejected practices like candles, elaborate liturgies, etc. for solid theological reasons. Your casual churchgoers might not be able to articulate why they are uncomfortable with something like candles or chanting the psalms, but they have a point—it’s not part of the whole fabric of their church ecosystem.
Dr Beck, you wrote: "I'm calling these frictions "cultural" as there isn't anything deeply theological at stake in a natural knee-jerk distrust of something new, alien, or foreign being introduced into your ecclesial ecosystem. No big biblical or doctrinal issue hangs in the balance when you light candles. Nor does sitting in silent prayer on a Sunday morning. But such things are culturally weird for some churches."
I'm not so sure this is a good starting point. Being a "convert" [I hate that word, but it's useful] to Eastern Orthodoxy from NI Churches of Christ, I might argue that deep theological issues are in fact the bridge too far in low churches dabbling in the practices. In the Orthodox Church, there are deep, theological underpinnings for these practices, each building upon the other to edify and support the entire purpose of the Church in its liturgy and life. Individuals' lighting candles, prostrations, fasts, and prayer rules are every bit as theologically significant in the life of the church as a whole as the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. None of them are practices for their own sake nor for the sake of any individual apart from the whole.
For churches in the name of "formation" or "discipline" to appropriate these practices outside of their context and theological environment (Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican or whatever) can be, if you will pardon the perhaps overstated language, dangerous. It may not lead you where you think you are going, besides causing friction in the congregation which isn't equipped to address it. This may be what you will be discussing in your future posts, so I'll just leave it at this.
As a former Catholic/now Episcopalian, I think this is significant. Nothing in our liturgy is there by accident. Taking a practice out of context and using it in a denomination that was founded on explicit rejection of some of the theology of sacramental/liturgical forms of Christianity is going to rub folks the wrong way.
Low church Protestants rejected practices like candles, elaborate liturgies, etc. for solid theological reasons. Your casual churchgoers might not be able to articulate why they are uncomfortable with something like candles or chanting the psalms, but they have a point—it’s not part of the whole fabric of their church ecosystem.
I’m lighting a candle and praying for illumination while awaiting the rest of the conversation. JD