Introduction
Our series on the main articles in the Apostle's Creed continues today looking at the second two descriptors of the Church found in the ancient creeds. The creed we use in worship today has a short description of "the holy catholic church" whereas the longer Creed, the Nicene Creed - used by Anglicans, Orthodox and Catholics each week, and ourselves occasionally, contains a longer description of the Church. It describes the church as being "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic." Philip looked last week at what we mean by saying the Church is One and Holy. Today we will concentrate on being Catholic and Apostolic.
Once a Catholic?
When we hear the word "Catholic", various images come to mind. We think of smells and bells, of popes and saints, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and martyrs. We think of that church whose headquarters are in Rome and from whom the Church of England broke away in the 16th Century. We assume that the word is associated with this church and we wonder why it is in the creed we recite each week. Maybe we think that Andy is secretly trying to reconcile us to Rome! The first time I attended a Holy Communion service in the Church of England I was very shocked that they recited the Nicene Creed like we did in the RC church and, moreover, they also said they believed the church was "one, holy, catholic and apostolic". So why didn't they recognise the Pope's authority was my question.
Yet the word "catholic" has nothing to do with Rome. The Greek word used is "kath' holou" meaning "referring to the whole". In Latin the word "catholicus" was used to translate this word, and the Latin word means "universal".
So when we say that we believe the Church is Catholic we mean it is universal. It is open to all people, at all times, in all places. We see two ways in which we are universal.
Universal not Particular
The term "catholic" is a later one but was coined to try to describe the reality spoken about in the New Testament. The first time the phrase is used "the catholic Church" is in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred in Rome around the year 110. He said, "where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church". Other 2nd Century writings clearly see a universal Church which is given expression in local congregations. However, when the Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity the term came to mean the Imperial Church as it became the only legal religion in the Roman Empire. By the end of the 5th century the Church was well-established throughout the Roman Empire - which was then the limit of the known world - and saw itself as catholic or universal.
At no point does the New Testament use the word catholic when it describes the Church. However, it does understand the term ekklesia, or Church, as meaning both a local congregation and also something which transcends that local congregation. An individual congregation is not the Church in its totality, but it does, nevertheless share in the totality of the Church.
This is easier to see when we think of our own denomination. A first time visitor coming to our own Church is not visiting the whole of the Fellowship, but we represent the whole denomination to them. If they leave us with a good impression of our worship, our preaching and our people they will assume that this is indicative of the whole denomination. Conversely, if they are not impressed by us it is likely they will have a poor impression of the whole Fellowship. This notion of representing the whole, of totality, is what is meant by this term catholic.
Thus the first sense of the word "catholic" is a universal and all-embracing Church which is given expression in its local Churches but whose whole is greater than the sum total of its parts. The term is descriptive and not propaganda. Of course on this description one wonders about the catholicity of many churches which claim to be universal and all-embracing. If a church rejects any part of God's own people, be that part the lgbt community, women, or a racial minority, then they are not being catholic.
Sound Doctrine
The other way in which the term "Catholic" was used in the Early Church was to stress the orthodox, or sound doctrine, preached by the Church. St Augustine was the first to use the term in this way. He was arguing against a breakaway sect in North Africa called the Donatists who wanted the Church to be holy and uncontaminated by sin. Augustine, realised that the Church will always be a mixed community of saints and sinners - just as we are mixed people not entirely saints and not entirely sinners. He emphasised that to be "catholic" was to teach correct theology, based on the Scriptures and agreed by the whole church.
MCC as a Catholic Church
In these senses, we can claim to be catholic, or at least part of the Catholic Church. We aim to be universal and all embracing. Indeed the hallmark of our catholicity is the warmth of welcome we give and the way we seek to call people to discipleship that many other churches don't want. Beign Catholic is about opening the doors of our hearts wide in welcome. Secondly, we are catholic in that our teaching is orthodox and Biblically based. We teach that which the Church has always taught - this is why we use the classic creeds of the Church to remind ourselves of these beliefs.
Apostolic
The final hallmark of the church is that it is apostolic. Here there is a greater divergence between the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant understandings. In the non-Protestant world to be apostolic is to recognise that the Apostles were the leaders of the Early Church and they ordained people to be their successors, who would have oversight of the churches. These overseers were called Bishops. To be apostolic, therefore, is to have a ministry which can be traced back to the apostles. This sort of "hand me down" view of the what is called apostolic succession, got the Anglican church into all sorts of a muddle. When Elizabeth I ascended to the throne she was, in effect, a Protestant Queen in a Catholic country. All the Catholic bishops fled and she had great problems finding one to ordain her. The Roman Catholics then doubted that her new Archbishop of Canterbury was ordained properly and so they held that the Anglicans didn't really have proper orders. Many Anglicans nowadays don't consider the ministry of Free Churches to be proper as they weren't ordained by bishops.
Protestants, however, have a quite different view of what it is to be apostolic. For Protestants the sense is more on the idea of doing the same work as the apostles. It is seen as an idea stressing that the Church is founded on the strength of apostolic work and witness. In the New Testament the word apostle came to have two meanings: one who has been commissioned by Christ, and charged with the task of preaching the good news of the new realm of God and one who was a witness to the Risen Christ or to whom Christ revealed himself as risen.
In the first of these definitions it is clear that all Christians are, by their very nature, apostles. A later meaning and one promulgated in the House Church movement, is that an apostle is one who has either founded a local congregation or one who has authority over a group of congregations. In the second, House Church sense, our Elder, Cecilia, has an apostolic ministry, along with the other Elders, as she has a type of authority over the churches in our region.
Other Christian thinkers say that being apostolic is a matter of doing the same work of the apostles, preaching the risen Christ, welcoming people into the Church and being living witnesses to the truth that the Gospel is for all people. To be both evangelistic and missionary is to be apostolic.
It is in this functional, not theological, sense of the word that MCC is an apostolic church. We do not claim, nor seek, to have orders of ministry which are regulated by Bishops and notions of apostolic succession. We do not confine the celebration of either of our sacraments just to clergy, and we clearly teach that anyone who is trained may lead worship and preach. The apostolic work of MCC is around spreading the gospel and the news that God's love and acceptance extends to all, even us!
Drawing it Together
So, when we say that we are Catholic and Apostolic we are saying that we are open to all types of people. More, we are saying that when the Pope closes his church and ministry to certain types of people he ceases to be truly Catholic! When we say that we are apostolic we are saying that we are commissioned to do the same work as the apostles - to spread the good news to all people. In this sense we are both Catholic and Apostolic, and proud to be so. So the next time someone points a finger at me and calls me "catholic" I will thank them and take it as a compliment.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.