A repost of mine from Web Parish: the Asbury blog.
Over the last few years, but extremely concentrated since coming to Asbury in August, I have drifted away from my evangelical Protestant upbringing and found life inside more "catholic" practices. At one point in time it was something that concerned my family, but after I got married they realized that I wasn't going to enter a monastery. Since I have been here in Wilmore this path has continued, maybe even on a more intense path. On the opposite side of things, after much prayer my wife and decided to go back to the free church tradition that I was raised in.
I was having a conversation with a friend about all this a few days ago and came up with the phrase "pumping some of the bathwater back in", referencing the phrase dealing with throwing babies out with the bathwater. Even though I had it backwards it stuck and has stayed in my mind since then.
With the level of communion that Asbury has with the more liturgical traditions I figured there were others dealing with this. After all, the exposure we have here from the "papal chapel" last semester,to the students that attend the Greek Orthodox church in Nicholasville and the sheer reading knowledge that many have dealing with the RCC and Orthodox tradition this seems to be a theme running at Asbury. I know there has to be those that don't agree with it, but there are also those who are happy to have various levels of practice inside these traditions. To me, it seems that ecumenicism may be a developing doctrinal distinctive at Asbury.
So how do we view these inside of our Protestant structure? Are these just a practice for us while in seminary or are some of us trying to figure out how this can fit into the local church at our individual denominational level?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
An intersting discussion has started a few posts down at "Preaching to the Choir", if anyone wants to jump in feel free.
