If you have attended a wedding or funeral service in a Catholic church, you might have heard the priest’s announcement that Holy Communion was reserved for those prepared for it.
A friend of mine likes to compare this to inviting guests to your home and when the table is laid, telling them that the food is only for family members.
At a rare discussion in Nairobi last week, titled: "Luther, Reformer of the Catholic Church?” Dominican priest Kevin Kraft proffered a titillating response to the criticism, which left his audience in stitches. He likened giving communion to non-Catholics to endorsing premarital sex: “We know that sexual relations are a beautiful thing, a gift of God; but before marriage, there is not yet a covenant.”
Projecting Pope John Paul II’s theology of the body, Fr Kevin, who is a member of the International Ecumenical Movement-Kenya (IEM-K) that co-convened the roundtable discussion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya, described intercommunion as “out of place because there is not yet a covenant of love”.
Although the ecumenical movement seeks Church unity in line with Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel, in which Jesus prayed “that all may be one”, Fr Kevin was categorical: “We’re not yet married. Our churches are engaged, and there’s a desire, and the desire is good, but we are not fully at the stage of a covenant or intercommunion.”
Ms Eneibi M-Gwam spoke for non-Catholics in the hall when she took issue with the communion rules that some consider discriminatory.
“That is the body and blood of Christ, which should be given freely to whoever would want to partake of it,” the Lutheran from Nigeria said.
Intercommunion – and it emerged that it is not quite a free-for-all affair even in the Lutheran Church – was one of the hottest issues during the three-hour session in Nairobi to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation marked across the world last week.
The Catholic Church ex-communicated Martin Luther after he nailed 95 theses (statements) on the door of the Wittenberg Church in Germany, in October 31, 1517, and refused to recant when ordered to do so. That was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation that was driven by the printing press, which made the Bible accessible to the masses, making reading and interpretation of the scriptures easier.
The big leap towards unity was made when Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) between 1962 and 1965. It was open to Protestant theologians and the media as observers.
Over 50 years since Vatican II, Fr Gilles is convinced that huge strides have been taken towards church unity, itself a contentious concept. The priest’s interpretation seemed to be more literal: “If we don’t move forward and make that step to more integrated Christian unity, we are missing the boat and we are not faithful and we are sinful. If we continue to be separate churches, we are not faithful to the Gospel. We should be working together, praying together and… we should receive at the same table the bread of life and the cup of salvation.”
Fr Gilles had a strong supporter in Judge Lee Muthoga, who described the breakaway of the Church as “a mistake which needs to be corrected”. This, Judge Muthoga said, should be seen within the concept of a reformed and continuously reforming church.
There were those who championed unity in diversity, with each denomination bringing its strengths into the union – like retired University of Nairobi don Gerald Wanjohi. “Reformation should make us humble and that even though we belong to different denominations, we come together to respect each other.”
The Religious Studies scholar said “it’s very difficult to interpret” what Christ meant by one church. To him, the concept meant we don’t break down our churches in order to build one, but rather, to see what good there is to borrow.
Rwandan Presbyterian Minister Ananie Nduwamungu, who presides over an interdenominational French service at St Andrew’s Church, Nairobi, voiced his own struggles with the communion issue.
“The Church is one and I’m convinced it is the same Church. All those who have a testimony of following Jesus Christ, crucified, are my brothers and sisters,” he said.
However, it has been difficult to convince a Catholic congregant and a Pentecostal to take communion at his service.
“Our faith is one; the Creed is one. We also have to love one another and live out our faith accepting each other. That’s what is expected of us from above,” he said.
Ms Amelia Vasco Nanjate from Mozambique – who is a member of the international Catholic lay movement, Focolare – queried Christian faith.
“What are we doing to bring life in our churches that can link us as Christians? These roundtables are everywhere, but what are we doing to live as Christians?” Those, for her, were more fundamental questions than intercommunion, which appeared to have taken an inordinate proportion of the available time.
Clearly, Fr Gilles fears that the brotherhood – and sisterhood – of the Church may be a long time coming might just be true. Or was it just that the younger and the older generations of Christians understand the Reformation differently?
In an interview with Lifestyle, Lutheran Church Minister Isaiah Obare felt the Church had not played its role of teaching the youth the foundation of their faith.
The trend ought to worry the Church because there is a generational gap between those who know the background and those who don’t.
He described the Reformation as taking the Church back to its roots – the Scriptures – since “at some point it [the Church] had deviated and incorporated human and non-biblical traditions.”
A major Reformation issue on whether one is saved by faith or through good works also featured in the forum.
Fr Gilles acknowledged the centrality of baptism and of the Bible as some of the main ideas of Luther that fed into Vatican II.
At the time, Luther posted his theses, the Church was exploiting the purgatory doctrine to fundraise for the construction of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Luther challenged the doctrine, saying, “I don’t find this at all in the Bible.” In Thesis 86, he said: “Why does not the Pope, whose wealth is today greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build this one basilica of St Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?”
The gift of the Bible to lay Christians is probably Luther’s greatest legacy to the Universal Church. During the discussion, retired University of Nairobi professor Jesse Mugambi underscored the importance of Christians reading the Bible in their languages.
He disclosed that Kenya’s foremost biblical scholar, John Mbiti, had, for the first time, translated the New Testament from the original Greek to Kikamba and had it printed locally.
Over five centuries later, the animosity generated by Luther’s 95 theses has largely dissipated.
“We have made a lot of progress in the dialogue — so much so that the Catholic bishops and the Lutheran leaders in Germany decided to make a common statement for the year 2016 — the beginning of commemoration of the Protestant Reformation,” Fr Gilles said.
The document that captures the far the Church has come is titled, “Healing the Memory and Witnessing to Jesus Christ”, and was launched in September last year.
It acknowledges the inspiration of Luther and the other reformers and recognises Vatican II as the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement, when leaders of other churches “witnessed a new transparency, fresh air and sincere desire for renewal”.
Pope Francis, regarded as a great ecumenist, bolstered Protestant-Catholic relations when he joined Lutherans in Lund, Sweden, on October 31, last year, for the launch of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Dr Ezekiel Lesmore, a Nigerian pastor at the Lutheran Cathedral, testified to the Pope’s ecumenical spirit. He spoke of a recent encounter with the Pope when he said to him: “Brother Lesmore, pray for me.”
But there is work to do, as Ms Audrey Masitsa, told Lifestyle: “It’s unfortunate that the Reformation brought so much division among Christians to the point where even though we believe in one God, we attack each other so much. A more united Christian front would be ideal,” she said, acknowledging that achieving Christian unity is still a long way off.
Fr Gilles believes that oneness of Christians is being undermined by some bishops and their flock, against the Pope’s wishes. Maybe Church leaders are ready to go further, “but they feel there’s a lot of opposition in the pews.”
During the discussions, the moderator, Dr Ng’ang’a Gicumbi, sought to debunk the myth that Luther was faultless. “Some commentators have linked him as (sic) the father of Nazism because he had a special hatred for the Jews. [But] we are not looking at a person who was an angel.” Still, Dr Gicumbi noted Luther’s respect for dissent.
He listed the power of informed dissent, the power of internal dissent and of dissent based on faith as some of Luther’s strengths.
The dissent, Dr Gicumbi said, was grounded in “real faith in Jesus Christ”. Luther was also backed by “the power of conscientious dissent,” which enabled him to stand his ground when princes and bishops ordered him to denounce his views against the church.
Luther was bolstered by the power of shared dissent of the people, which led to full blown reformation.
At the Nairobi forum, Fr Maurice Schepers, also a member of the IEM-K, pushed the beginnings of the modern ecumenical movement much further than Vatican II. The movement, he said, resulted from a plea by African and Asian Christians in a meeting in Edinburgh 1910, when they told fellow Christians from Europe and the United States: “Please don’t export your disunity to us.”
OCTOBER 31, 2017 marked exactly 500 years since Martin Luther kicked off the Reformation that shook up Christianity to the core.
The root of his so-called 95 theses that it is claimed he nailed to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, the man’s action would end up creating a major schism in the church which was marked by splintering of congregations.
Martin Luther might have never known but his action would later give rise to a motley of religious beliefs starting from the ultra conservatives to the outright radical with diverse teachings.
However, none of these teachings has gripped the world as the “prosperity gospel” that attracts hordes of followers.
Some of its famous proponents internationally include Benny Hinn, TD Jakes, Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer among others. Locally, names like Allan and Kathy Kiuna, James Ng’ang’a, Pius Muiru and Teresia Wairimu come to mind.
Writing in The Gospel Coalition, author and church elder Joe Carter says: “The prosperity gospel (also known as the ‘health and wealth gospel’… is a perversion of the gospel of Jesus that claims that God rewards increases in faith with increases in health and wealth.
This popular brand of the gospel has always come in the spotlight with comparisons often made with more “traditional” churches like the Catholics or Anglicans.
For example, in a recent expose, Costi Hinn, nephew and former employee of world-renowned Israeli-born televangelist Benny Hinn, told Christianity Today magazine: “Growing up in the Hinn family empire was like belonging to some hybrid of the royal family and the mafia. Our lifestyle was lavish, our loyalty was enforced, and our version of the gospel was big business.
Though Jesus Christ was still a part of our gospel, he was more of a magic genie than the King of Kings.”
Like many prosperity gospel churches, the Hinn clan dismissed criticism affirming that they were being persecuted for their faith like Jesus and Paul.
The famous preacher’s nephew would have his moment of epiphany when on a missionary journey in Greece 15 years ago. By this time he was working in the ministry as a “catcher” — someone who stands behind the people being prayed for and catches them before they fall.
“That year was a whirlwind tour of luxury: $25,000-a-night royal suites in Dubai, seaside resorts in Greece, tours of the Swiss Alps, villas on Lake Como in Italy, shopping sprees at Harrods in London, and numerous trips to Israel, Hawaii, and everywhere in between. All I had to do was catch people and look spiritual!,” he says.
In Kenya, the place of prosperity gospel remains a subject of debate. The operating word here is lifted from the book of Malachi Chapter 3 and verse 10 which says: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.
Test me in this,” says the Lord “and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour blessings that there will be no room to store it.
“Bishop” Victor Kanyari, for example, and his 310 teaching, which seems to be anchored on the above scripture, was revealed as a con in an investigative story. He exhorted his followers to “plant a seed” of Sh310 which would later multiply when God blesses the giver.
Although he would later end up in ignominy after a TV expose found that he was using unorthodox means in praying and receiving money from the faithful, a defiant Kanyari of the Salvation Healing Ministry Church took to a popular TV show to defend himself saying that he was a true minister of the gospel.
Apostle James Ng’ang’a of the Neno Evangelism Centre, a leading proponent of prosperity gospel, has also often sparked controversy. From a divorce case and allegations of drinking and wamanising to facing charges following a fatal road accident in Limuru.
Also in the same category is Jubilee Christian Church Bishop Allan Kiuna and his wife Rev Kathy Kiuna.
The two are never the type to run away from controversy and usually take their detractors head on, a trait that may have earned them enemies.
Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben. His father was a copper miner.
Luther studied at the University of Erfurt and in 1505 decided to join a monastic order, becoming an Augustinian friar. He was ordained in 1507, began teaching at the University of Wittenberg and in 1512 was made a Doctor of Theology.
In 1510 he visited Rome on behalf of a number of Augustinian monasteries, and was appalled by the corruption he found there.
He became increasingly angry about the clergy selling “indulgences” – promised remission from punishments for sin, either for someone still living or for one who had died and was believed to be in purgatory. On October 31, 1517, he published his “95 Theses”, attacking papal abuses and the sale of indulgences. Luther had come to believe that Christians are saved through faith and not through their own efforts.
This turned him against many of the major teachings of the Catholic Church. In 1519-1520, he wrote a series of pamphlets developing his ideas – “On Christian Liberty”, “On the Freedom of a Christian Man”, “To the Christian Nobility” and “On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church”.
Thanks to the printing press, Luther’s “95 Theses” and his other writings spread quickly through Europe.
In January 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther. He was then summoned to appear at the Diet of Worms, an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire.
Luther went into hiding at Wartburg Castle. In 1522, he returned to Wittenberg and in 1525 married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, with whom he had six children.
In 1534, Luther published a complete translation of the Bible into German, underlining his belief that people should be able to read it in their own language.
Luther’s influence spread across northern and eastern Europe and his fame made Wittenberg an intellectual centre. In his final years he wrote polemics against the Jews, the papacy and the Anabaptists, a radical wing of the reforming movement. Luther died on 18 February 1546.
