The doors, the doors!!
Submitted by Forgiven on November 11 2000 19:50:40
In reply to A Must Read! submitted by Gideon on November 08 2000 19:07:11
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Picking up one of the smaller items in the article Gideon submitted, I was fascinated by the initiation pattern for those thinking about getting involved with the gay group. The article speaks of the new people being kept apart for some time before finally being allowed to join in the main meeting. There is a curious parallel here with the pattern of the early church, where the Catacumens, the people who were seeking to join the community, were excluded from the Eucharist before the prayer of consecration; they were only allowed to attend when they had been baptised. Almost no remnant of this exists except in the Orthodox liturgy, where the shout 'The doors, the doors' is still uttered, although no meaning is attached to it - in practice people other than full members of the church are allowed to remain for the entire service. What fascinates me is the process of partial exclusion - and then final acceptance. We lack anything similar in the church today for the most part - there are seldom clearly defined memberships that are of substantial significance in churches these days. Partly a result there is no great sense of making a clear step of commitment to the life of faith, or of commitment to one another. Is this a pattern that offers us something to rediscover? |
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