Tell Me I Am Right To Feel Weird About This

[Sojourner]

OK, I just got home from a [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenebrae_(Maundy)"]tenebrae [/url]and anointing service at a local parish. Absolutely gorgeous service. Beautiful choral music, several readings. Probably one of the most beautiful non-Mass services I've ever gone to.

At least, until during the reflection, when the priest got up with a local rabbi and both of them talked about the beauty of interfaith relations and told us the collection would go to support the city's interfaith forum, which fosters communications and respect between various faiths: Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian, and so on.

Now, I am not entirely opposed to interfaith respect and communication. However, this was GOOD FRIDAY, when we are supposed to be remembering the passion and death of Christ. Somehow the whole interfaith reflection and asking for donations to support an interfaith forum seems grossly out of place.

Am I wrong?

[aalpha1989]

[quote name='Terra Firma' post='1233008' date='Apr 6 2007, 10:26 PM']OK, I just got home from a [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenebrae_(Maundy)"]tenebrae [/url]and anointing service at a local parish. Absolutely gorgeous service. Beautiful choral music, several readings. Probably one of the most beautiful non-Mass services I've ever gone to.

At least, until during the reflection, when the priest got up with a local rabbi and both of them talked about the beauty of interfaith relations and told us the collection would go to support the city's interfaith forum, which fosters communications and respect between various faiths: Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian, and so on.

Now, I am not entirely opposed to interfaith respect and communication. However, this was GOOD FRIDAY, when we are supposed to be remembering the passion and death of Christ. Somehow the whole interfaith reflection and asking for donations to support an interfaith forum seems grossly out of place.

Am I wrong?[/quote]


not that i'm an expert on any subject....

but here's my .02. it does sound a little weird to me...i think maybe that would have been better left till after the service was done. it should have been focused on the passion and death of Christ, you are right. i would feel weird about it too....i'm not sure they necessarily did anything [i]wrong[/i] since it wasn't during the actual Good Friday Communion Service. i just think maybe the service would have been more effective had it been delayed till after the service...does that sound right?

[Sojourner]

[quote name='aalpha1989' post='1233019' date='Apr 6 2007, 10:01 PM']not that i'm an expert on any subject....

but here's my .02. it does sound a little weird to me...i think maybe that would have been better left till after the service was done. it should have been focused on the passion and death of Christ, you are right. i would feel weird about it too....i'm not sure they necessarily did anything [i]wrong[/i] since it wasn't during the actual Good Friday Communion Service. i just think maybe the service would have been more effective had it been delayed till after the service...does that sound right?[/quote]
Yeah ... something like that would have been better maybe. It was just so odd to have it where it was ... made me go

[Guest T-Bone]

It doesn't sound a little bit weird. It sounds very very weird.

[cappie]

Totally out of place

[Piamaria]

[quote name='cappie' post='1233054' date='Apr 6 2007, 09:48 PM']Totally out of place [/quote]

What he said.

[Sojourner]

good to know you all concur.


so what is the appropriate thing to do about it? Is it worth bringing up to someone?

[mortify]

That's a good question, is this a parish you normally attend? The easiest solution is to stop going there, find a better parish, and pray for the one you left. Might not be the best thing though, I'm not sure who you could talk to about this. Godspeed with your endeavors though

[Mateo el Feo]

Do USCCB or Vatican guidelines exist for interfaith meetings or "interfaith services" done in a church santuary?

Just to put things into context: in what ways did your church actually observe Good Friday?

[Theologian in Training]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought there was only supposed to be one collection and it was supposed to be for the Holy Land. And, not to defend your priest, but we did pray for those who do not believe in Christ, those who do not believe in God, and the Jewish people as well, maybe he was trying to make it more concrete? But still, there is a time and a place, that was neither the time nor the place.

just my .02

[Sojourner]

[quote name='mortify' post='1233200' date='Apr 7 2007, 12:12 AM']That's a good question, is this a parish you normally attend? The easiest solution is to stop going there, find a better parish, and pray for the one you left. Might not be the best thing though, I'm not sure who you could talk to about this. Godspeed with your endeavors though [/quote]
This is a parish I sometimes attend, but not regularly. It is a large, well-established parish.


[quote name='Mateo el Feo' post='1233204' date='Apr 7 2007, 12:18 AM']Do USCCB or Vatican guidelines exist for interfaith meetings or "interfaith services" done in a church santuary?

Just to put things into context: in what ways did your church actually observe Good Friday?[/quote]
I don't know about guidelines. But, this wasn't really an interfaith service ... the only part of it that was interfaith was the reflection. And the offering.

This was the schedule for the day:
9:15am - morning prayer
Noon - stations of the cross
3:00pm-Celebration of the Lord's Passion
7:00pm Tenebrae

[quote name='Theologian in Training' post='1233209' date='Apr 7 2007, 12:24 AM']Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought there was only supposed to be one collection and it was supposed to be for the Holy Land. And, not to defend your priest, but we did pray for those who do not believe in Christ, those who do not believe in God, and the Jewish people as well, maybe he was trying to make it more concrete? But still, there is a time and a place, that was neither the time nor the place.

just my .02[/quote]
You may be right on the offering, I don't know. The offering they took at this same service last year went to send several members of the interfaith forum to the Holy Land ... maybe that's the connection?

And I am more than willing to hear defense of this, because while it was odd and felt out of place it really was more the time and place of it that was off rather than the content. Nothing that was said was contrary to what I believe about how we should be dialoguing with people of other faiths. It just felt weird talking about it when we talked about it.

Edited April 7, 2007 by Terra Firma

[Anomaly]

I suggest you don't post about it here getting tons of condemnation for opinionaged posters and go talk to the priest about it. Even if it isn't your regular parish, you owe that much respect to the man.

Catholics can get all twisted up over the littlest things. Face it. There is no 'perfect' Catholic parish/service/mass/church/etc. out there.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Anomaly' post='1233322' date='Apr 7 2007, 07:45 AM']I suggest you don't post about it here getting tons of condemnation for opinionaged posters and go talk to the priest about it. Even if it isn't your regular parish, you owe that much respect to the man.

Catholics can get all twisted up over the littlest things. Face it. There is no 'perfect' Catholic parish/service/mass/church/etc. out there.[/quote]
Oh don't worry ... I wouldn't handle it by bashing him over the head with it. And maybe you're right that I shouldn't have posted about it here. I just felt really odd about it ...

[homeschoolmom]

You went to tenebrae without me?

[Anomaly]

Terra,
One of the reasons why I am not Catholic is because they are always up in arms about 'something' wrong in the parish/church/mass/priest/ etc., etc. That seems to be minor. So theirs 2 collections. A rabbi was in the Church before mass was over. The Government want's illegal immigrants to pay fines or comply with a law before getting help. Meanwhile, the lay don't believe in the Real Presence, you have to make an appointment to have your confession heard, and Bishops won't protect the most vulnerable, children, by allowing their brother Bishops to defy common sense, moral principles, clear teachings ofthe Church.

Talk to the priest and get and idea of his intent. I've been reading Matthew this week. Read chapter 9, then read from chapter 22 to the Crucifixion. It'll probably give a better perspective on what to do.

Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).)

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"

He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.' You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

He went on to say, "How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother shall die.' Yet you say, 'If a person says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is qorban"' (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things."

He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile."

When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable.

He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) "But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile."


Then in Chapter 22 or 23, Jesus tells the Pharisees what the most important commandments are. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind. And lover your neighbor as yourself.

Now what is/was/could be wrong about the second collection and the interfaith group? Talk to the priest about it and try to find out what his thoughts and intents were.

Edited April 7, 2007 by Anomaly