Dear Nandita, >From my end I will definately say that it is not whether the Church should change with the changing times,but The Church is changing with the changing times. There are so many things which can be observed as compared to the past. 1)As a child I remember the priest offering mass by facing the main alter.Today he faces the people. 2)The Holy Eucharist was celebrated in latin only.Today the church has changed its attitude towards this and so we find that if you go to gujarat the mass is celebrated in Gujarati.In Goa it is in Konkani and so on. 3)In the past on Good Friday people mostly would dressup in black.Today the church is emphasizing that it is not a day to be sad but instead to be happy because it is due to good friday that the doors of Heaven were opened and Easter Sunday followed. 4)Alowing Lay people to distribute Holy Communion. Earlier only consecrated hands were supposed to touch the Tebernacle. 5)Fulfilling the obligation i.e. Sunday Mass. Today the church allows you to go for Mass on Saturdays to fulfill your Sunday obligation. 6)Today even if you attend a funeral mass on Sunday,or a mass celebrated for christening,you need not go for a special or routine mass held as per church timings on that Sunday. 7)In Goa most of the churches have the Passion of Christ celebrated during Lent with the statue of Christ posing in different forms thus giving us a deeper meaning and understanding of the sufferings undergone by christ for our sake.But today the new churches built in Goa and are doing away with this system,all because the church has decided to change with the present times. 8)Having death anniversary masses and blessing of the graves is now restricted to the first year only.So much so that the church discourages to offer masses for the dead with the title like third death anniversary or say fifth death anniversary and so on,but instead the church says this mass is offered for the soul of so and so. 9)Distributing Holy communion on the palm rather than the tongue is a vital change. 10)Priests are given the facility to move around like civilians with pants,shirts and t-shirts.(The choice being totally of the priest)as compared to the past when we always found them with cassocks. 11)Nuns are also given the facilty to change to sarees and skirt-blouses. 12)Earlier if a nun had to leave her congregation she had to wait after intimation of her desire,till it was confirmed by the Pope.Today she can just intimate and leave.No need to wait. So Nandita,I think I have expressed quite a bit and to cut short I would like to say BYE,but before that I would like to tell you that a Cynod has taken place in Goa last month almost after 50 years.One of the aspects of the Cynod was to discuss the various changes required by the Church for the benefit of laity. WITH THIS I WISH YOU ALL THE VERY BEST FOR THE DEBATE. WITH LOVE AND PRAYERFUL WISHES, GREG
--- nandita carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Friends, > > I am writing to you after a very long break.This > time it is with a favour.I am going for a debate to > Auckland University and my moot is...'Should the > Church change with the changing times'And I am > affirming.I was wondering if any of you have > material from all our previous debates that we have > had ,on Joynet.Or if not, it would also appreciate > fresh comments....any ideas for this topic... > > Looking forward to hearing from you, > > Love in Jesus, > > Nandita Carvalho, > > New Zealand. > > > > --------------------------------- > > --------------------------------- > > Yahoo! Movies > - Vote for your nominees in our online Oscars pool. > --0-1929177837-1015846335=:31979-- > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! Movies- Vote for your nominees in our online > Oscars pool. > > **************************************************************** > This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth > mailing list. > To unsubscribe, send a mail to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To subscribe to this mailing list, visit > http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet > For automatic help, send a mail to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > In case of any issue related to the mailing list > contact > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > **************************************************************** > ________________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
