I am not sure, but think this started with the mega churches that seat thousands. When that comes to my parish, I am out of there. Why can’t the Church just stay Catholic, as from some of the innovations parishes are just following the protestants.
If I wanted to be a protestant I could find thousands of them. Is there no end to this mess?
Pretty soon they will have stages and bands playing and everyone clapping and prancing around on stage. At least when I have attended mega churches that is what I see.
It is a slippery slope that some parishes are going down. At least that is my opinion.
Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Bernadette
No, that’s not true at all.
Many smaller Protestant churches started using projection screens back in the 1960s and 1970s to put the words of hymns up on a screen, often along with beautiful pictures of sacred scenes or nature. It was called “multi-media,” and I thought back then that it was very beautiful. The idea was to get the congregation to get their heads out of the hymnal and look UP to God and think about Him, and also to emphasize the words of the hymns rather than allowing people to get caught up in the music and the “feelings.” Evangelical churches especially emphasize complete understanding–they tend towards easily-comprehensible sermons in the language of their congregation and a de-emphasis on emotional hype with no substance.
Catholic churches have used the same principle for centuries, decorating their churches with portraits, statues, and beautiful architecture that draw a worshipper to look up, up into heaven. Even the ceilings are decorated in many Catholic (and older Protestant) churches.
My problem with projecting the words of hymns onto a screen is that there is no music, so those of us who rely on music to sing have a difficult time. But Catholic missallettes do the same thing–print the words only with no music. I really dislike this practice and think it is one of the things that contributes to poor singing. But then, that’s my bad–I just have a very hard time singing by ear. I have to learn to pay attention and exercise and try to improve my “musical memory” skills, which are extremely poor.
The big megachurches use screens because it’s more practical than putting thousands of hymnals into the pews. In fact, many of the megachurches don’t even have pews, they have chairs. The problem with chairs is those built-in racks for hymns (under the chairs)–when people tilt their seat forward or back (many people do this out of habit without even thinking about it), the hymnals fall out–clunk! Distraction!
Also, in the megachurches, everything is new and untattered and nice, and hymnals begin to look shabby after only a few months of use. The megachurches do not like to have anything that looks “shabby” in their buildings. They want to be new and pretty and fresh and give the appearance of success and excitement.
Also, the megachurches are trying to get away from any traditional church trappings because these tend to scare away the unchurched. Megachurches are attempting a “new way to do church,” and they are trying to attract the non-believers and others who have never been interested in “church” and “tradition.” There are quite a few people like this in the U.S., people who would never enter the doors of a “church,” but who are willing to enter a “worship center” or a “community gathering place” that doesn’t look like a church.
I know some Catholic criticize this. Well, how do you propose to reach out to our secular society and draw them to Christ? They have to start somewhere, and IMO, if these churches get someone in the door and learning about Jesus, they are doing more good than harm. The problem is, of course, that Christians are leaving their own traditional churches and going to the megachurch, and that’s not good.
Another reason that churches use screens is that sadly, many churches have discovered that people vandalize the hymnals. In the church that I grew up in, the hymnals were being vandalized with Satanic or pornographic drawings and messages. So it’s safer to just not use them. I’m not sure why this doesn’t happen in Catholic churches–maybe the Presence of the Lord Jesus is enough to deter vandals from even coming into the church, let alone vandalizing a hymnal.
