Wednesday, November 28, 2001
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Wednesday, November 28, 2001 |
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Experiencing the true spirit of unity By REV JOHN HATCHER On last Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School in north Fayette hosted an Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service and invited area ministers to participate. Father Paul Bryant, the school's chaplain, a delightful brother hailing from Ireland, facilitated our participation in the service and then hosted us to a delicious smothered fried chicken feast. Our Lady of Mercy School right now has a student population of 160, but that number will grow rapidly as the word gets out about this superior college preparatory school sitting right across from Evander Holyfield's huge estate. The administration is sharp and the faculty all look and sound like past merit scholars. There's an air of excellence and achievement as you enter the front door. But back to the Thanksgiving service. The participating ministers processed into the auditorium as a special chorale group and students sang a hymn. Father Paul graciously asked us non-Catholic ministers to say prayers, read Scriptures, and pronounce blessings over the student body. The whole ecumenical experience, I believe, was one of those blessings coming from the work of unity by good Pope John XXIII. Remember, it was he who convened Vatican II out of which came all sorts of good things, including reaching out to those who were not Catholics. I think if the truth is known, often time, Catholics have been more interested in unity than some of us Protestants. For so very long we Protestants in the south, particularly, thought of Catholics as a totally different religion. Serious. I remember when my sister fell in love with a Milwaukee Catholic who was on duty at Fort Benning. They wanted to get married, but not so little of a discussion ensued within my family. I remember a family conversation when it was revealed that although the boy's mother was Catholic, his father was a Lutheran. Someone in that "small" circle asked, "What's a Lutheran?" Well, my oldest sister, resident scholar on ignorance, responded, "It's another one of them out-law religions." Therefore, in my mind, limited by my culture, a Catholic was some sort of religious out-law. Fortunately, because two of my sisters married Catholics and became better Christians as Catholics than they were as Baptists, I learned that many devout Christians were also Catholics and that many devoted Catholics were indeed committed Christians. Unfortunately, not all my brothers and sisters in the Protestant world have come to know genuine Christians like a Father Paul who worship and serve through a Catholic church. I have a feeling, however, that if we were to take the time, reach out, and get to know one another like participating upon receiving an invitation we would discover Christ in one another. So, let me thank the administration, faculty and staff of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School for reaching out in the spirit of the Holy One who said, "They will know you are Christians by your love for one another."
The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of River's Edge Community Church in Fayetteville. |
