re ethnicity in worship jerryl payne writes to sublimate a culture for the sake of what you perceive as unity seems antithetical to the very message of inclusion that you preach i agree with the exception that i don t preach ignoring our cultures the body as a whole must be unified the question is shall we be a melting pot boiling ourselves down to one legitimate expression or shall we be more like a stew maintaining the textural integrity of the expressed diversity while upholding the unity of thought it released all churches from the use of the latin mass unity to allow them to speak to the people in the common language diversity in revelation we see that in the first century church there was one congregation in each major city so there was one unified church now in each city there were people of different cultures naturally they formed something of a stew with different members having different heritages nevertheless they were one body they met together sometimes as smaller groups in their homes and sometimes in bigger groups in places such as the temple courts now in a particular city then and now you will find that there is a common language associated with that region for instance in rome latin was spoken in the united states today english is spoken so it would make sense that congregations in different cities would speak the common language and not necessarily latin naturally you would expect the lead evangelist to preach in the common language in the first century church there were probably many people in the congregation who could speak a given tongue to translate the message for people of foreign ethnic groups today however you don t see people speaking in tongues to translate sermons even in so called pentacostal churches we do have a modern day equivalent though bi lingual speakers now in the unified church of which i am a member sometimes called the international churches of christ when we all meet together on sundays there are headphones on people who don t speak english from which they hear an ongoing translation of the sermon in their native tongue neat idea huh now we meet in different size groups in a random sort of way on sundays so sometimes there will be a meeting of only haitians or of spanish speaking people for example who will hear an evangelist preach in their native language in addition we meet in small groups a couple of times during the week for bible discussion groups and devotionals so someone who speaks a different language will almost always be with people who also speak his language assuming the congregation is large enough for those meetings as for the people who speak the common language they can keep in touch with their culture if they want but they will also have equally deep friendships among their church relationships with people of many various nationalities has the purpose of the church been thwarted by this action the action of letting catholics worship in a native language instead of latin indeed not see my second paragraph in response to the second clipping of your article however if you mean the action of forming denominations based on a culture then the purpose of the church has been indeed thwarted i ll assume the second possiblility when answering your next clipping rather i believe it has been enhanced for paul exhorts us to become as one of them that we might reach them thus if a person or group of people feel more comfortable among their own shall we not give them a place where they can feel comfortable with their heritage and still l ove god my guess aaron you have met some needs of people certainly by helping them to be proud of their cultural heritages when most denominations didn t yet you have largely isolated yourselves from having quality christian friendships outside your nationality and your denomination we shall certainly give people a place to feel comfortable with their heritage however we will do this in a way that does not destroy church unity but rather encourages friendships among all disciples this is the approach of some of the groups that you cite it sounds like these groups have wonderful intentions but they are going about things in the wrong way and names like the african methodist episcopal church still make me cringe although not as much as before i understand that there was more racism in the past that caused such groups to be formed but now we should try to unite i know that it s hard for many people on this newsgroup to imagine there being only one body of people on earth but it is quite possible and i am working to make it happen however what might be a smaller step towards unity would be taking the word african out of your denomination s name then perhaps someday a long time off you can also remove the methodist episcopal part also and simply be part of the church with regard to inclusivity i note tht your sig emits from mit as you know the tute is religiously and culturally diversified and not everyone who comes there is immediately comfortable with english much less american culture what shall be the conduct of the campus churches then shall there be one church for the sake of unity or shall the organizations like kcf be useful in helping students new to america make the transition in culture language and thought there shall be one church for the sake of unity and it shall be useful in helping students new to america make the transition in culture language and thought we shouldn t make a new denomination to try to solve problems the whole denominational mindset only causes more problems sadly in the ame church we retain african cutlure at the root of our expression but we are by no means exclusive since you live in cambridge i invite you to visit the local assembly there thank you for the invitation that shows me that you indeed have the heart to spread the gospel of jesus as well as take part in your cultural heritage thank you also for responding to my post i know all too well how they can be very time consuming the whole idea of celebrating your culture is paved with good intentions but i still feel that you must restore and preserve unity at the same time my own church the boston church has the acapella singing that you mentioned in your post yet doesn t limit expression of my mexican culture even though i am in the mit campus ministry and not the spanish speaking zone i have made a commitment to god that i will go to the sunday services of my church because i know that my brothers and sisters here are fully devoted in love for god as his disciples i don t believe in tongues as you may have already picked up on because of my understanding of biblical christianity however i am certainly willing to visit your congregation provided that it doesn t interfere with my normal worship since you also live in cambridge i also extend an invitation to you to visit our services as often as you like you can meet the mit students at the student center across from mass ave at am on sundays to leave for worship or simply call me after wednesday night to find out where the service will be held on a particular day my number is but will be in a few weeks from now and for the rest of the summer our service normally last from am to noon but occasionally are later or earlier times per year let us always strive to reach all with the gospel by any means necessary as we move from milk to meat the petty things of the world that temporally separate us will dissolve away and we shall stand with our naked realizations that god has shed his grace on all of us his delightful creation definitely let s also strive to grow in obedience to the lord through being men and women after god s own heart aaron bryce cardenas net net mit undergraduate student u s aaron b cardenas environmental engineering ie snail mass ave aaronc athena mit edu mail cambridge ma good for two weeks speak to one another with psalms hymns and spiritual songs sing and make music in your heart to the lord always giving thanks to god the father for everything in the name of our lord jesus christ ephesians
