Catholic Music Director for Presbytarian Church, and our conversation...

[spiritblows]

I was talking to the fellow who does the music for our Sat Vigil Mass. He’s an awesome Masters of Music with 4 kids, 6 and under, wife in graduate school, struggling to get started in life etc. One thing he does is that he’s the paid Director of Music at a large First Presbytarian Church in a nearby city. He sounded a little embarrassed when he disclosed this job he does (gets paid $10,000 a year for, he confided) I personally have no problem with it, it’s better than playing in a bar, as far as I’m concerned.

Since I have some experience with Presbytarians, we had an interesting conversation. One thing he said is that he wishes that we Catholics could have more vibrant ministries. He said the Presbytarians really have a lot going on all week long. I mentioned how nicely they dress for church, and he agreed. He said that they sort of overdo it a little, but we both agreed that we Catholics really are pretty slack in that dept.

We talked about the illogic of Calvinism and the theory of predestination, and both agreed that it didn’t make any logical sense. But, I said that I thought that most people going to the Prebytarian church went for social reasons, and theologically were more like non-denominationals. Really, I don’t think most people belonging to denominations are really much in touch with the philosphical foundations that started their sects, but belongs because of family and social ties. This is probably true of Catholics as well. What do you think?

 

[jschwehm]

Yep…I agree.

Jeff Schwehm
www.catholicxjw.com

 

[BrianH]

I would concur with the statement about people not being in touch with the philosophical foundations. In a Methodist church, you can go years without the pastor even mentioning Wesley…at least from my experience.
BH

 

[Kotton]

BrianH:

In a Methodist church, you can go years without the pastor even mentioning Wesley…at least from my experience.
BH

Don’t work that way in the Lutheran church, I’ve heard Luther referred to a number of times. At the vesper service for Advent they had four ‘monks’ come up the aisle chanting in English, and the pastor said they were fortunate for Luther gave them the liturgical prayers in the ‘peoples language’.

I married into a Lutheran family and go there for special occasions.

 

[BrianH]

Interesting to note the difference between Lutherans and Methodists…it does not surprise me though…My wife was raised Presbyterian and could not tell you the first thing about Calvin…and yes she listened
BH

 

[spiritblows]

Well, I went to a Presbytarian Church many years ago, plus I briefly attended another one about 3 or 4 yrs ago. All of the sermons were general Protestant Christian ones in nature. They were extremely generic, and I never heard a peep about John Calvin or predestination.

Another thing that this Catholic Music Director of the First Presbytarian Church and I spoke about is the Presbytarian love of Democratic forms of government. They run all of their meetings modeled after Congress or City Hall. This fellow said that the Catholic Hierarchial model looked like a triangle when drawn on a piece of paper, but the Presbytarian model looked strange because it was too top heavy with all those elders running the show. I told him that I thought that the Catholic model was more organic and that it was a dangerous thing to put too much power in the hands of the busybody churchladies. I think that the Catholic hierarchy is based on how the Heavenly Kingdom is set up.