The following is a review of the main features in the March edition of the Kirk's editorially independent magazine, Life & Work.
Side by side
A plea for Protestants and
Catholics to work side by side rather than seek unity is made in this month’s
Life & Work. In a guest editorial this month author Harry Reid writes: "The
Roman Catholic and Protestant identities are separate. Why cannot we just accept
gently that that’s the way things are, and always will be? But let us do so in a
spirit of openness, respect and enlightened understanding." The answer to the
"sickness of sectarianism", says Reid, is rather that "we should accept our
differences". As a Kirk member Reid also says there are many things that the
Roman Catholic Church is much better at and cites liturgy, religious art and
family life as examples. But he also adds: "As a Protestant I reckon I am
capable of rejecting hierarchy, infallibility and many other aspects of Roman
Catholicism, while appreciating and even venerating all it has given, and
continues to give, to humanity."
A merry heart
A plea for the Church to be more
humorous is made in Life & Work’s cover feature. Ron Ferguson says laughter
in church is a good thing: "I don’t mean that ministers should be comedians; but
they should not take themselves too seriously, or even their pet images of God."
Jesus, he says, "used humour in the form of holy wit, exaggeration, unflattering
comparisons and irony as a way of vividly capturing spiritual things."
Extracted from the Church of Scotland website