Ritual becoming Ritual

[ordos45]

My mother and I were driving through town and moving at about a mile an hour through heavy roadwork. We began to speak of Church, and the seemingly mounting opinion that the Contemporary Service is splitting the Church.

You see the Contemporary Service has many many more people than the Traditional Service. However, almost forty people go to both services. Most of the people who only go to the Traditional Service have expressed views that the church is bowing to the pressure of youngsters to give them the Contemporary Service aka "the Devil's music".

So I think that in the Traditionalist Service, I would wilt. Ritual would become ritual. Here is what I mean. Ritual for ritual sake is stagnation of faith. When ritual loses meaning, and becomes something just to do...that is when ritual is useless. For with the stagnation of faith as ritual becomes only ritual, so does one's faith stagnate and die.

Or in simpler musings in parable form. A man goes to Church every Sunday, he takes Communion. He does not think of going to Church or taking Communion, he has done so most of his life, and thus does this without ever thinking of it. This is just his Sunday morning routine. He never gives thought to the true reason for taking Communion or going to Church. Over the years he just keeps going, slowly his attendance slacks off, as he slips away from the true reason for going, faith in Christ. Because of this ritual being only ritual to him, his faith has stagnated, and failed him. He has wandered off from the path of Christ, and it will be very hard for him to stumble upon it again.

Now, I believe this parable aids greatly in explaining my views. Or how about this set of equations showing the degredation.

Ritual=Faith and Meaning to Believer

Ritual=Ritual (something to do.)

Ritual=Stagnation

Stagnation=Death of Faith

That's my rant at the moment.

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I wrote that to myself and went, darn, nowhere to post it. Then I thought of this board.

[Egeides]

Some will answer you that Church is only a ritual for them. Would you believe they could put all the ritual out and form themselves a way to live their faith, let's say in little groups of studies and praying for exemple?

[exatreide]

empires dont suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. its when they have become established that aims are lost and repleaced by vain ritual

[nemafakei]

*Conflict* of rituals promotes concentration in ritual itself, and not on the faith. But some tradition give structure by which to realise religion.