greatest error of the Protestant tradition
Sam Metcalf has a great post about the role of orders:
“The primary engine of spiritual vigor and missional vision within Roman Catholicism has been the religious orders. the Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Sisters of Charity, Jesuits, etc … The orders, actually unnumbered, have been, and remain to this day, the backbone of the Catholic Church.
Figures are hard to come by, but best estimates optimistically put the worldwide number of women in orders close to 800,000 and about 200,000 men. The Statistical Yearbook of the Church puts total Catholic adherents at slightly over 1 billion at the end of 2004. That means that those committed to religious orders number around .1% of the total church. That is point one percent.
What is amazing is the phenomenal impact that such a small number exercise. The influence of those called to apostolic vocations far exceeds their numbers.”
I agree with Sam with his statement:
“One of the greatest errors of the Protestant tradition was the reaction of the reformation to these Catholic structures.”
Sam’s post was most helpful in the light of the launch of our order in an established church setting.
Read more here
July 19th, 2006 at 6:29 am
I agree with Sam Metcalf on this point. Coming from a High Anglican Church in Christchurch that had strong links with the Community of the Sacred Name, an Anglican Nunnery, I see the bonuses of such women.
Sister S helped me and my predecessor run our Youth Group. She was young, energetic and spoke at the youth’s level. She was from Tonga but had lived most of her youth in Fiji.
At CSN it is obvious that the Nuns were getting older and that those who were young were from the Islands. My concern is that if we rely too heavily on these orders what will happen when they become irrelevant, and will this happen?
Thank you for such an interesting post Dan, it has made me think.
July 19th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Blue Shoes - it was Phil that made this post. I think we will have to bold type the author’s name
July 19th, 2006 at 9:33 am
The reason the Prots didn’t like the orders weren’t the orders perse’ but the doctrine behind it. It lacked biblical support.
Moreover I do not believe Mr Metcalf has given a lot of thought behind his thinking of an organisation.
Centralised organisations have no place in the Church. It is decentralised organisations that can deal with growth not centralised ones hence we see in the N/T a highly decentralised organisational structure.
July 19th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Decentralised like, say, the Anglican church?
July 19th, 2006 at 10:55 am
Tall Skinny Kiwi was over in England last year (apparently after a bit of a European jaunt) and he was at a service where Peter Greig spoke about a loosely connected order known as the Mustard Seed Order.
This from Andrew:
The vow-making was connected to this quote, he said. He also mentioned a dream in which there were thousands of rings, worn by young people who had taken this vow, and on the ring it said something like (and i cant remember the exact words) “none of us live for ourselves”.
Pete Greig got up and shared a little about vows - how people like Mother Teresa had taken 10 years to think through her vow. He mentioned others as well. And then he told everyone that he was taking this new vow tonight along with some of the others.
Pete also talked about the building - the building we were in - how the Clapham Sect had started here, William Wilberforce had preached here, Issac Watts had lead singing here. In fact, we sang one of his hymns as part of the worship.
I think there is a whole lot to be said for movements such as this and for religious orders and associations. In our Anglican tradition we have nuns, brothers and of course priests, but we also have lay orders such as the 3rd order of St Francis and the Society of St Luke (healing and wellness) - we have lay and clergy associatoins such as Cursillo and it seems that those who are involved in these groups, orders, associatoins are the ones who are the most active in their parish and in the diocese.
Where ever Cursillo has gone it has brought lay renewal and devotion to the gospel. I for one think orders are a great thing.
July 19th, 2006 at 11:49 am
No Dan, the Anglican denomination still has reformed its structure it inherited from the Catholics which itself borrowed from the Army of the day!
July 19th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Homer, what’s your take on orders (lay and or clerical) in this day and age? Do you feel they add ot the life of the Church?
July 20th, 2006 at 9:55 am
It is all up to the church involved and I do stress church not denomination!
July 20th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Can you relate it to your church experience at all?