"Denominitarianism?" You say? What's it mean? Okay! I got this idea for a new denomination of Christianity, and here's how it works!
Christianity is pretty splintered, as we know. Some people are like "what's the deal, we're all one holy body of Christ, right?" Others are like, "you people are going to HELL." I think we can find a way to embrace the best in both views, indeed, in all the views! Education is, as usual, the key.
Now this is a multi-step plan, I admit, but a pretty simple idea on the face of it. First, all the Church elders of the new denomination get together and pick out the single most prominent 52 Christian denominations. Then, map out the liturgical calendar: 1 denomination for each week. It keeps rotating, so nobody gets a monopoly on Christmas or Easter or whatever. I admit it would be a little tricky, but they could certainly work it so that each denomination gets to host each key holiday at least once every 52 years.
So each week, the whole congregation gets to experience being something else on Sunday! Or Saturday, for the handful of Christian denominations that choose to swing with the Judaic Sabbath. Each week, on the Lord's day (whichever), the members of the entire Church observe and worship as one, according to the belief and practice of the denomination for that week. For the more obscure sects, it'd be sort of a combined-purpose service: there would be a ten, fifteen minute "crash-course" on the particulars before the service proper, and from there you'd just wing it! Any responsorial chanting or what not, they'd have a pamphlet for you with the words printed out.
This would de-demonize a lot of your weirder divisions of the Church, I think. And at the same time, Denominitarianism would celebrate the rich differences we share, differences that ultimately ought to unite us, while still preserving some semblance of what sets us apart.
The best part, the bonus part, is that from Lord's day to Lord's day, during the week itself, each member of the Church would be free to identify as ANY denomination they wish - for the whole week (it's got to be the whole week, now - no flipping around every other day)! If you want to immerse yourself in the upcoming Sabbath's denomination, to better get into the spirit - cool! If you want to soak a little deeper into the waters of the previous week's creed - equally cool! If you have a favorite "go-to" denom that you like to revert to, in-between Sabbaths - It Is Allowed.
The whole point is, you would never end up locked into one intolerant worldview that proclaims all other believers in Christ to be equally, irredeemably damned. You would only hold that worldview on say, roughly half the Sundays of the liturgical calendar. And then you could move onto something else!
Isn't that a great idea?! Who's with me!?
Christianity is pretty splintered, as we know. Some people are like "what's the deal, we're all one holy body of Christ, right?" Others are like, "you people are going to HELL." I think we can find a way to embrace the best in both views, indeed, in all the views! Education is, as usual, the key.
Now this is a multi-step plan, I admit, but a pretty simple idea on the face of it. First, all the Church elders of the new denomination get together and pick out the single most prominent 52 Christian denominations. Then, map out the liturgical calendar: 1 denomination for each week. It keeps rotating, so nobody gets a monopoly on Christmas or Easter or whatever. I admit it would be a little tricky, but they could certainly work it so that each denomination gets to host each key holiday at least once every 52 years.
So each week, the whole congregation gets to experience being something else on Sunday! Or Saturday, for the handful of Christian denominations that choose to swing with the Judaic Sabbath. Each week, on the Lord's day (whichever), the members of the entire Church observe and worship as one, according to the belief and practice of the denomination for that week. For the more obscure sects, it'd be sort of a combined-purpose service: there would be a ten, fifteen minute "crash-course" on the particulars before the service proper, and from there you'd just wing it! Any responsorial chanting or what not, they'd have a pamphlet for you with the words printed out.
This would de-demonize a lot of your weirder divisions of the Church, I think. And at the same time, Denominitarianism would celebrate the rich differences we share, differences that ultimately ought to unite us, while still preserving some semblance of what sets us apart.
The best part, the bonus part, is that from Lord's day to Lord's day, during the week itself, each member of the Church would be free to identify as ANY denomination they wish - for the whole week (it's got to be the whole week, now - no flipping around every other day)! If you want to immerse yourself in the upcoming Sabbath's denomination, to better get into the spirit - cool! If you want to soak a little deeper into the waters of the previous week's creed - equally cool! If you have a favorite "go-to" denom that you like to revert to, in-between Sabbaths - It Is Allowed.
The whole point is, you would never end up locked into one intolerant worldview that proclaims all other believers in Christ to be equally, irredeemably damned. You would only hold that worldview on say, roughly half the Sundays of the liturgical calendar. And then you could move onto something else!
Isn't that a great idea?! Who's with me!?
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