View Single Post
  #20 (permalink)  
Old 07-11-2007, 10:22 AM
Scott's Avatar
Scott Scott is offline.
Puritanboard Graduate
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,911
Thanks: 8
Thanked 30 Times in 16 Posts
This looks most relevant to us:
Quote:
Fifth Question: Why do the texts of the Council and those of the Magisterium since the Council not use the title of "Church" with regard to those Christian Communities born out of the Reformation of the sixteenth century?

Response: According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery[19] cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called "Churches" in the proper sense[20].
It is interesting that they have a pretty clear answer on what makes a church. Protestants often do not. There is much disagreement and confusion on this issue. If an unordained guy gets some people together, calls the group a church, and starts doing some churchy things (eg. "preaching" and singing), is the organization a church? Most evangelicals would say yes. Many people on this puritan-themed board would say yes.
__________________
Scott Roberts
Ruling Elder, Lakeside Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Southlake, Texas