Fordthought
  • Blog
  • Word of the Week
  • Dig Deeper

w/c 13/10/14: Sacrament

12/10/2014

 



1. a ceremony regarded as imparting spiritual grace

2. An outward sign of an inward mystery

Picture
The term sacrament is a rite (religious event) of particular significance in the Christian church. Often these mark a change of status and are “rites of passage” – but the most common of the traditional sacraments can occur any day of the week and is participation in Holy Communion.

They are predominantly associated with the Roman Catholic Church which describes them as: "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions."  (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1131-1134)

The Catholic Church teaches that there are seven:

·         Baptism

·         Confirmation

·         Eucharist (Communion)

·         Penetance (Confession)

·         Anoiting of the sick (Last rights)

·         Marriage

·         Ordination


Picture
When a believer participates in a sacrament they are not outwardly altered - however the belief is that they have been altered in the eyes of God. This is most obviously seen in Catholic attitudes towards marriage. When the couple have become "one flesh" in the eyes of God they cannot be separated by any action of mankind. This means that divorce and remarriage is tantamount to adultery. Scraments are an outward sign of an inward, invisible, mystery.


The observant of you will have noted that all seven are not achievable by one person as you cannot be both ordained and married in the Catholic faith. However, when they were formally agreed at the Council of Trent (1545 – 63) it was set out that as a whole they are necessary for salvation as they were instituted by Christ himself.

This final point was disputed by the Anglican Church when it split from Catholicism at the Reformation and eventually this Church only formally recognised two: Baptism and Communion. They reasoned that these two are the only ones that are set out by Christ in the Gospels. There is also much more division in the Anglican Church about their importance. Some “high” Anglicans take them very seriously and might in fact advocate the use of all seven sacraments, whilst other “low” Anglicans only see them as symbolic and not necessary for our relationship with God. The Anglican Church is a broad Church!

Picture
Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury) celebrating Holy Communion
For scholars studying these events in believers’ lives there has often been a great deal of interest in their role as “rites of passage” – a term coined by Arnold van Gennep (d. 1957). These events mark and manage the transition from one status to another in a person’s life. They could focus on range of transitions; birth, puberty, coming of age, marriage and death. They exist in all major faiths and play a crucial role in maintaining the values and hierarchy of religious or cultural groups.

As the West has become a more secular society it is interesting to note two things about rites of passage: Baptism and marriage have, to a relatively large extent, been maintained and remain important to many families who no longer go to church on a regular basis. Meanwhile other secular alternatives have arisen to take the place of, and supplement traditional rites; Baby-showers, 18th birthday parties, retirement parties amongst others have all become common place.

Can you think some other secular rites-of-passage? What is your experience of the sacraments? Can they really have an effect on our salvation? Or are they just a way of the Church maintaining its authority?


Comments are closed.

    Archives

    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Absolutism
    Agnostic
    Analogy
    Animal
    Apophatic
    A Priori
    Aquinas
    Article
    Assisted Dying
    Banking
    Bertrand Russell
    Book Review
    Buddhism
    Christianity
    Cosmological
    Covenant
    Dawkins
    Debate
    Design
    Diaspora
    Dig Deeper
    Dukkha
    Epiphany
    Equality
    Euthanasia
    Existentialism
    Fallacies
    False Dichotomy
    Family
    Fertility
    Genesis
    Hajj
    Higher Education
    Hindu
    Hinduism
    Holocaust
    Hospice
    Human Rights
    Human-rights
    Hume
    Islam
    ISRSA
    Judaism
    Justice
    JWT
    Lent
    Life After Death
    Love
    Martyr
    Messiah
    MOOC
    Narnia
    NDE
    News
    Nirvana
    Ontological
    Plato
    PPE
    Pro Choice
    Pro-Choice
    Pro Life
    Pro-Life
    Prophet
    Reformation
    Relativism
    Religion
    Rights
    Sabbath
    Science Vs Religion
    Secularisation
    Soul
    Sport
    Stewardship
    Surrogacy
    Teleological
    Temple
    Ten Commandments
    Theology
    Viability
    Via Negativa
    Vision
    Warfare
    Wittgenstein
    Word
    Word Of The Week
    Word-of-the-week

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos from sneakerdog, Steve Slater (Wildlife Encounters), Art4TheGlryOfGod, johndillon77, dustinj, Charlie Davidson, ineffable_pulchritude, LisaW123, jamee.khairul, Abode of Chaos, Dunleavy Family