CHRISTIANITY

BACKGROUND

At the beginning of the third Millennium, there are now reckoned to be over two billion Christians in the world, all of whom follow the person and teachings of a single man, who walked the roads of Judea and Galilee in the Middle East two thousand years ago.

The term Christian was first given to followers of Jesus Christ in Antioch during the first century of the Common Era. Before this, Christians were known as Followers of the Way, and it was understood that this Way was the path laid down by Jesus Christ in his teachings and life-example. The signposts to this Way are to be found today in the words of the Holy Bible and in the Traditions of the Church. Christians therefore follow Jesus, believing that He is the source of both individual and global salvation.

Christians were originally seen as an offshoot of Judaism, but as more and more non-Jews became Christians, it became more and more a faith that stood rooted in Judaism, but nevertheless unique and distinctive in its own right.

Christianity came to these Islands in the earliest days through the Roman Empire. Originally, the earliest churches managed to interpret the Christian faith through the local Celtic ways. However, as the Roman Empire fell and the Holy Roman Empire grew: as the power of the Emperor lessened and the power of the Pope (which is what the Bishop of Rome was known as) grew, the influence of the Roman Church also came to Great Britain. It was Augustine who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 597 CE, and this was a Church under the authority of the Pope.

Through the centuries that followed, the church became very diverse, to the point that today; there are many different ways of worshipping. The different Christian groups are known as denominations. In the UK, a survey revealed that 40,000,000 people still regarded themselves to be Christians, though many of these would not necessarily practise their professed faith. At the last count, in England and Wales there were 44,699 registered places of Christian worship.

CORE BELIEFS

People who are Christians believe in the one and only God: the creator of the universe. In the Holy Bible, He is described in many ways, ranging from unfathomable power and infinite might in one hand, to loving care, gentleness and compassion in the other, who takes the greatest of interest in the minutest aspects of his creation. He didn’t merely create a clockwork machine that He is watching run from a distance. God is involved and interested.

Christians believe in God who loves his creation like a parent. He nurtures, cradles and sustains what He has made. This is why Christians call God, Father.

God is experienced in our lives as human beings through His loving hands - God has touched each of us through being born as a human being. He knows and understands how we feel. He did this through being born to the Virgin Mary. In Jesus, God has experienced all that we experience. This is why we call God, Son.

Christians also experience God through his life-giving breath that brings our souls to life. This breath has the power to transform, to re-create, and to mend that which is broken or in pain. This is why we also call God, Holy Spirit.

This understanding is not three gods but One single and united God - in Trinity (Tri-unity).

Christians have at the very heart of their faith the understanding that humanity is essentially sinful, in that it will opt for the selfish choice most easily. We believe that salvation; healing and restoration with God and one another cannot come about through mere human effort.
A place in heaven cannot be earned.

It is for this reason that God was born in our midst through Jesus Christ, so that the way and the means for salvation might be provided for all of us. In Jesus’ life, he opted for the self-less choice every time: He put the world first.
Jesus challenged selfishness and hollow religious ritual. He questioned power structures and ways we oppress other people for our own benefit. Jesus not only walked a life of peace, service and love, but he also pointed out what was wrong in the way we lived. Because of this he became a big threat, to the point that Jesus was put on trial, and sentenced to be crucified.

The death of Jesus the “God-man” on a cross is a central belief of Christians that sets us apart from other faith-groups who hold Jesus up in esteem. However it is from this topsy-turvy state of powerlessness, that power to transform death itself comes. Jesus, being sinless (having been obedient to the will of God throughout his life) was a perfect sacrifice. It could be said that death could not keep Jesus dead!

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead on the first Easter Day is the celebration of how death itself has been transformed, so that there is now nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

SCRIPTURES AND WORSHIP

The most important Scriptural texts of the Christian are to be found in a collection of 66 books known as the Holy Bible. 39 of these books are the Hebrew/Jewish Scriptures, which Christians call the Old Testament. The remaining 27 form the New Testament. The original languages of these two collections of books were Hebrew and Greek respectively, although these days the Bible has been translated into a vast number of languages, so that it is possible to read the Christian Scriptures in ones own everyday tongue.

There are many different types of book in the Bible, ranging from history to story, from poetry to letter. The life of Jesus is to be found in the four Gospels (which means Good News) named after their authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

One of the earliest Christians, whose name was St Paul, wrote several letters included in the New Testament, which powerfully described how through Jesus Christ, ALL that divides us from one another and God, has been totally removed.

St Paul said this:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who saved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35-39

Worship in the various Christian traditions is in essence, a way of saying thank you to God for this gift that St Paul describes. “Salvation”, having been achieved through God’s initiative, enables the Christian to embrace the challenge to live a life that demonstrates this unconditional love that God has shown for us.

Putting it another way, worshipping is our response to God, who reaches his hands out to us. By worshipping, we place our hands back into His, so that we can walk together from then on. There are no real templates that say ALL Christians must worship in this or that way, but:

living a life that loves and cares for others;
singing hymns of Praise and songs of Devotion;
reading the Bible;
hearing teaching on Christian living;
praying and
remembering Jesus Christ's own self-giving in the Holy Communion serviceare all-important components of Christian worship.

MILESTONES

The journey we travel through life is not just a journey for God and towards God, but is a life with God as well. When Jesus returned to heaven after His resurrection from the dead, the Holy Spirit filled the friends of Jesus whom he left behind. All who said “yes” to the good news of God’s embracing love through Jesus, from then on, would have that same spark of God in their hearts too.
He helps us to opt for the right choices, and to love in the unconditional and selfless ways that Jesus loves. This is something that Christians seek to do from the earliest days of their lives and at various milestones along the way, would promise to live such a life to the best of their abilities.

Birth

Many Christians initiate their newborn children into the life of the Church, through the Baptism service. This is a service that involves promising to follow Jesus Christ; living a life that is Jesus-oriented and seeking to grow in the Christian traditions.

There are some other Christians who would mark the birth of a child by a service of Thanksgiving and Dedication, which would allow for the child to be baptised later on, when s/he could make the promises independently.

Marriage

Christian marriage is all about the giving of one person to another, who is witnessed by the two families and the community - it is a very public occasion. The phrase "two becoming one" is an important phrase in the marriage service, which is presided over by the minister or priest. It is normal these days for Christians to be monogamous.

Death

When a Christian dies, it is believed that the soul of that person leaves the body and joins God. The funeral service therefore is a service that enables family and friends to say goodbye to the deceased who has gone to be with God, and to bury or burn the body that is left. There are no stipulations favouring cremation or burial - Christians practise both, though some Christian traditions prefer not to cremate.

DIET

There are no food rules in Christianity: it is left to the individual to choose whether they will be vegetarian or not. Some Christians still however keep certain rules, like eating fish only on Fridays, fasting at certain times in the year (Lent, Advent, Holy Days, before Holy Communion) and not drinking alcohol. It is not widespread though.

LANGUAGES

Christianity is a global religion, and the importance of being able to worship in the vernacular is seen as a top priority in most churches. Although Latin used to be the liturgical language in the Church, it is used much less these days. English is the norm for the vast majority of Christians in this country, although a Punjabi Christian fellowship would of course use Punjabi!

FESTIVALS

Christian festivals have varying levels of importance, depending on which denomination or tradition one is thinking about. To some, there may be something to celebrate, something to think about, and someone to remember, on every day of the year. To others, the only day that matters is Sunday, and there are no other real festival times at all. Most Christians live somewhere in between these two extremes.

(1) Advent, Christmas and Epiphany

The Christian year begins at the beginning of December, with the season of Advent. This is a month of penitence and preparation before the festival of Christmas on the 25th December, which celebrates the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. A festival called Epiphany comes shortly after Christmas (12 days after), and celebrates variously, the visit of the Wise Men (Magi) to Jesus, the baptism of Jesus and the first miracle of Jesus (turning water into wine at a wedding).

(2) Lent, Holy Week and Easter

Sometime in the early Spring (depending on when Easter is, which is set by some obscure formula involving the position of the moon at a certain time), Lent happens. This is a period of 40 days of special observance. Some people fast, some give something up; some pray more - it's very much up to the individual what one does during Lent. But Lent leads up to the central focus of the Christian year - Holy Week. This begins with Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. Maundy Thursday recalls the Last Supper that Jesus had with his friends. Good Friday is the day of remembering the death of Jesus on the cross. Easter Day is on the third day after Good Friday, and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

The Ascension of Jesus into heaven happens 40 days after Easter Day. On the 50th day (7 Sundays after Easter) the festival of Pentecost is celebrated. This used to be the Jewish Harvest festival, but is it remembered in the Church as the time when God sent his Holy Spirit as a helper. Another old name for Pentecost is Whitsun. The Sunday following Pentecost is known as Trinity Sunday.

There are many other days that are important to some, and of little importance to others. Some of these are Saints Days, but there are also others, like Harvest Festival and Remembrance Sunday, which many people in the community join in with, whether or not they are normally part of the church.

LOCAL PLACES OF WORSHIP

These are very numerous and of many different varieties! They are mostly identified by titles involving words like: Church, Chapel, Fellowship, Tabernacle, Minster, Abbey or Cathedral. The main denominations we come across are:

Church of England/Anglican
Roman Catholic
Methodist
United Reformed
Baptist
Various sorts of Pentecostal groups
Orthodox

There are however, a rich variety of flavours of worship even within one denomination, and there are some others not mentioned above.

AFTERWORD

Since Jesus Christ walked the earth, there have been 2000 years of tumultuous history, and many libraries full of large books (many with small print!) trying to describe what Christianity is all about, which makes this small attempt look rather over-general!

There remain huge divisions and barriers that need not be there, amongst different groups of people - even within the Church. The challenge to love as Jesus loves still remains, maybe more than ever. When we achieve such a level of selflessness and service that means that our love is purely for the benefit of someone else, then the Kingdom of God, which Jesus talked about so much, will be firmly established in this world.