HallamPhil wrote:... and the greater challenge is not how to render the song but rather how to ensure that outsiders will 'know we are Christians by our love'. Putting faith into action beond the enclosed space of worship is a focus for the Year of Faith which we are in danger of overlooking if we concentrate on embracing the easier liturgical and devotional stuff.
Absolutely. If there are four marks of the Church, there are (or should be) five of the Christian: liturgia, koinonia, kerygma, diakonia, martyria. Perhaps Mr Bear would like to start a new thread around these?
HallamPhil wrote:Thanks for the support John but let's avoid the exclusive jargon, eh?
I presume you refer to my use of five venerable Greek words. I would suggest that anyone who reads this blog has the wit to use Google or whatever to look them up. In this Year of Faith a little education to discover new depths of our Christian inheritance would not come amiss.
OK. Liturgy is liturgy. For koinonia and kerygma, see the Wikipedia articles. For diakonia, see the article provided by the World Council of Churches. Only martyria might briefly stump one: it means 'witness' and gives us the name 'martyr'.
Yes, I think that's probably closer. English is my second language – I'm a native Scouser. My favourite Greek word is oί πoλλoι as it describes those of us who don't speak Latin or Greek.
Rebuke accepted, O Wisest of Bears, but are we really that far off-topic?
This thread is about having high esteem for the pipe organ. And yet I can't see a single word here which explains why the instrument is more or less suitable for accompanying the assembly in song which is, after all, why it is there.
On other threads we have had debates about the suitability of Latin in the liturgy – again, no tangible reason is given for using a language which most of us don't speak. Now we have arguments presented in Greek.
These topics are not so far apart because, in each case, they leave the observer scratching his head.
