Catholic

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Catholic Studies Course
The Holiness of the Church
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The Church in the Creeds

• Nicene Creed
• One
• Holy
• Catholic
• Apostolic
• Apostles Creed
• Holy
• Catholic

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Holy

• Set apart for the worship of God
• Close to God
• Only God is Holy of himself

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The People of God

• Ekklesia assembly
• Entire people of God
• Local community
• Liturgical Assembly
• All three manifestations of the church are
  essential.
• The Church is part of Gods plan from creation,
  and revealed in stages through scripture

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The Body of Christ

• Rom 12.4-5 For as in one body we have many
  members, and all the members do not have the same
  function, so we, though many, are one body in
  Christ, and individually members one of another.
• 1 Cor 10.16 The cup of blessing which we bless,
  is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
  The bread which we break, is it not a
  participation in the body of Christ? Because
  there is one bread, we who are many are one body,
  for we all partake of the one bread.
• 1 Cor 12 12 For just as the body is one and has
  many members, and all the members of the body,
  though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one
  body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all
  were made to drink of one Spirit.
• Ephesians 5.23

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The Bride of Christ

• Ephesians 5.22 Wives, be subject to your
  husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the
  head of the wife as Christ is the head of the
  church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As
  the church is subject to Christ, so let wives
  also be subject in everything to their husbands.
  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the
  church and gave himself up for her, that he might
  sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing
  of water with the word, that he might present the
  church to himself in splendor, without spot or
  wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy
  and without blemish. Even so husbands should love
  their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his
  wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own
  flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ
  does the church, because we are members of his
  body. "For this reason a man shall leave his
  father and mother and be joined to his wife, and
  the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is
  a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to
  Christ and the church however, let each one of
  you love his wife as himself, and let the wife
  see that she respects her husband.

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Unity and Schism

• Unity of Church at its birth Pentecost
• Early disagreements Acts
• Theological debates in early Church
• Councils e.g. Nicaea keep unity
• 1054 Schism between East and West
• Culmination of extended estrangement
• Chiefly over papal primacy and filioque
• 16th Century The Reformation(s)

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Signs of Unity

• Baptism
• The Eucharist
• Creeds
• The Scriptures
• Authority Apostolicity

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ARCIC The Gift of Authority

• Exercise of authority is at service of personal
  faith within church.
• Bishops have a distinctive voice in forming and
  expressing the mind of the Church.
• Universal primacy, exercised collegially, is
  integral to episcope at the service of universal
  communion.
• The ministry of the Bishop of Rome assists the
  ministry of the whole episcopal body, promoting
  the communion of the local churches in their life
  in Christ and the proclamation of the gospel.
• The Bishop of Rome offers a specific ministry
  concerning the discernment of truth.

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Present Reality and Future Hope

• The Kingdom of God
• Eternal life
• The Church

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The Three States of the Church

• The Church Militant here and now
• The Church Expectant those who have died and
  continue on their journey
• The Church Triumphant the saints in glory
• All three states are part of a single Church
  which has an essential unity and holiness

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The Pilgrim Church

• Called to preach the gospel and grow in holiness
• The sacrament of salvation