Christian practices Flashcards
What does the word church mean?
The building where Christians meet, Christians of a certain type (Roman Catholics) and all Christians around the world
What does denominations mean?
Groups within Christianity
-Roman Catholics
-Church of England
-Evengelical church
-Baptist church
-Orthodox church
Features of a Roman Catholic church
- The priest welcomes everyone
- Only the priest talks
- They shake hand with each other as a sign of peace
- Read the bible and the creed together
- Singing worship songs
- Highly decorated church to show their love for God
- Share bread and wine
Features of Evangelical Protestant church
- Study the Bible
- Beliving anyone can have a message from God
- Plain, large buildings, they worship from heart
- Singing dancing and raising hands
Features of a Quaker Christian church
(society of friends)
- Anyone is free to give a message
- Old buildings
- Welcome children
- Don’t need to dress smartly
- Listen in quite prayers (Bible recitation) letting the words flow inside them
- People are free to sit anywhere
- There are no instructions you sit quitly and listen for yourself
Social and community role of the church
- Providing homeless shelters - because Jesus was homeless
- Providing food banks - because Jesus fed 5000
- Mentoring ex-offenders - because in the parable of the sheep and the goats says that by visiting prisoners you are visiting Jesus
- Space for support groups
- Support for parents like providing parent cources - because Jesus said let the children come to me
How do Christians pray?
Give examples from the lords prayer
Praise - Our father in heaven your name is holy
Ask - Give us the food we need and forgive us our sin
Confess - And don’t let us give into temptation
Thank - We are thankful for the food were about to eat
The lords prayer was when Jesus was talking to the crowd
What is liturgical worship?
(set prayers)
This is when worship follows a structure and is the same eveytime (everyone knows what to say and the same amount). Believers read out liturgy and performs rituals.
For example:
* In Catholic church the eucharist is lituergcal worship
* Bible reading
* Reciting the Nicene creed
* Prayers
* Lords prayer
Written down and memorised
What does the word liturgy mean?
The precribed set of words and rituals that take place during a church service
Evangelical/Informal worship
This is where worship has no set structure. Pentecostal churches rely on the holy spirit which makes worship even more unpredictable
Some christians sing, dance pray and some even fall down and speak in tongues
Some christians emphasise that the Church is a gathering for belivers not just a building
Individual worship
This is where Christians worship alone in addition to worshipping together. These Christians believe that private worship is important to build their relationship with God. Some Christians worship God solely on their own and do not even attend church
The Bible says you should do both
Church of England attendence is decling maybe because more people pray at home
What are silent prayers?
This is where people pray in silence and only speak if they feel the holy spirit is leading them to, so they don’t have leaders. For example Quaker churches
They know God is with them and have times of peace and restings in Gods presence. This means prayers are completeley personal, it doesn’t matter if others understand or agree
Explain the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector
The pharisee who is a influential teacher of Jewish law and religion prays loudly to himself saying that he is better than the tax collector and enjoys attension and thinks he is very holy and the tax collector (who people hated as they were known to steal) was also praying at a distance and beats his cheast and cries out loud asking for forgiveness and mercy.
Jesus points out that that the tax collector is right in the eyes of God.
Why is Baptism important?
- It’s one of the seven scaraments
- It’s important to salvation
- The inward grace is reciving the holy spirit, being cleansed of original sin and being welcomed to Gods kingdom
- For catholics baptism is the first sacrament required to access all the othes
- Roman Catholics believe that if a baby if a baby is not baptised and dies it goes to hell
Why do Quakers reject sacraments?
They believe
* Jesus did not intend for baptism to become a rigid constraint for poeple
* Rituals are a distraction and they become a focus of worship with the inward grace forgotten
* There is no need for it
* God can speak directly to ones heart
What is infant baptism?
Getting baptised as soon as possible
It symbolises a new beginning and represents a baby becoming a member of the church
Alhtough a baby cannot decide to follow Christ for itself, a baptism shows that the child is included as a member of the church family.
In the Bible it tells a story of a prison guard deciding to become a christian and getting his children baptised
Symbols of infant baptism?
- The child is clothed in white garment to show they are free from sin
- The child is anoited with chrism (holy oil) on the cheast and between the shoulders as a symbol of strenghth
- The parents and godparents make baptismal vows on behalf of the child
What is adult baptism?
A symbol of a new beginning, not that the person has been born but that they have been BORN AGAIN
Christians believe that when they chose to believe in Jesus, their sins are forgiven, it makes them new, clean and pure
Why might people get baptised as a adult?
Jesus was 30 when baptised
When they are older they actulally understand christianity
Babies are innocent of sin
Symbols of adult baptism
Believers being fully immersed in water to symbolise that they have buried their old life and the emerge from the water that they are brand new , born again
Water washed away the sins
Professed thier faith saying that they have chosen to follow Jesus and that they are proud of their chioce
Why do Christians celebrate christamas and one way they do
Chritamas celebrates the birth of Jesus (incarnation)
Singing carol - Expressing worship in thanks for sending Jesus
Why do Christians celebrate Easter
Easter remembers the death and resurrection of Jesus
Easter sunday - celerbration of the ressurection in exchange of easter eggs
What is the Eucharist?
Where Christians remember the last supper where Jesus broke the bread and shared the wine.
It is one of the 7 sacraments
Roman Catholic views on the eucharist
Once a week or more
They believe that they literally become Jesus’ body and blood. This is called transubstantiation
They do it to bring gods grace to us
When children are old enough to understand it they have their first communiion and a big party
Angelican protestant beliefs on eucharist
Once a week
They are still bread and wine, but Jesus is physically or spiritually present in them, consubstantiation
We share out the symbol of Jesus’ body to remind us that we are the bidy of christ
Evangelical Christians views on the eucharist
Whenever you like
They believe that it’s still bread and wine, we’re remembering Jesus sacrafice for us, memorialsim
We want to remember that jesus gave up his body and blood for us to save us from our sin
‘do this in memory of me’
The salvation armys views on the eucharist
Almost never
The bread and wine mean nothing
They don’t think Jesus was meaning to start a whole tradition and makes men and women unequal. Its fine if other churches enjoy it though
The mass
- The sevice must be led by a priest
- The sevices are liturgical and include set prayers and reponces
Pilgrimage
Christians are not required to go but some think it’s important
* Some christians go on pilgrimage to seek healing, forgiveness or to connect with God and so deepen their faith
* Seek to build relationships with each other, learn from one another, pray together and build christian community
Holy sites in Christianity
Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem. they often choose to visit key places in Jesus’ like and see where he did miracles like walking on water and they follow follow in Jesus footsteps
They say these journeys brings the stories to life and makes the bible more relavent to their lifes
Walsingham
a small vilage in the England coutry side
A rich widow said she had seen a vision of Mary, she was taken in spirit to Nazareth to the home where Jesus lived as a child
Mary spoke to her and told her to build a replica in Norfolk. She was promised ‘whoever seeks my help there will not go away empty handed’ the small wooden house she built soon became a place of pilgrimage
Some people have reported miraculous healing after visiting Walsingham
Taking time to walk there to show God they are making time and space
Tazie
Village in France
It was a ecumenical pilgrimage
If it was possible to follow Jesus like the disciples
They grow there own food and are self sufficient
Over 100000 young people from around the world make pilgrimage to Tazie each year. They live in tents, read Bible and sing songs
The holy land
Israel/Palastine
The land in the middle east where Jesus lived
They pray, sing songs of worship, read Bible, some people even get baptised
Some people feel like they go on new spiritual land and some feel like it’s just just mocking and its for money
For Britain is a Christian country
- All our national holiday are e.g Christmas and Easter
- Laws are based on Christian teachings, such as shops closing early on sundays
- The church of england is a part of our government and the head of the church is the Queen
*
Against Britain is a Christian country
- Only 10% of the uk goes church
- Britain is multi-faith county and other religions like Islam are growing
- Non-religious people help the needy as much as churches do
- Just because someone ticks ‘Christian’ on a census does not mean they are an active Christian
Persecution in Christiantiy
The Christian church is often persecuted which means that Christians are punished and sometimes killed because of their faith like in Iraq
It can also cause the church to grow rather than damge it because people are more commited under pressure
