Liturgy! What the heck is liturgy?

If I rub some of you the wrong way, I truly do apologize, it not my intention. In pointing to and publicizing views and ideas outside of our normal realm of thinking, one might conclude that I am dissatisfied with our fellowship. Not at all! There is no place I'd rather be! But, I do think we would all be blessed by gaining some appreciation of what's going on in circles outside our fellowship. (Disclaimer: I'm mainly speaking to those of us who grew up in the CofC heritage and have never experienced much of anything else, I acknowledge that there are a number of folks who worship with us now, but have roots in other backgrounds) Please separate in your mind the difference between appreciation and endorsement. We can learn much from a deep and spiritual man like Henri Nouwen without endorsing the Catholic tradition of which he is apart. And we must recognize how foolish it is to think, "Well if he's Catholic, he can't have anything worthwhile to say to me." There is nothing to fear from understanding where another religious person is coming from.

I'm not talking about doctrine, although its difficult to dissect doctrine from this discussion. I'm talking about appreciation like "music appreciation." My college music instructor taught me to appreciate a whole world of music that was previously unknown to me. The experience forever changed me, but I didn't come away converted to the classical period.

I desire to somewhat intelligently answer questions like: What makes an Episcopalian tick? What is the driving force behind Methodist theology? Why would anyone want to be Catholic? I think its literally impossible for us to grow in appreciation of our own heritage without being willing and able to appreciate that which is not us.

Two Cities has a very interesting post written by a man from the CofC heritage (I appreciate it, not endorse it). Check it out here! If you read it, my title will make sense.