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Our church is nothing like a theatre
SIR – Pastor Iuventus (February 9) wrote: “It struck me that in most places there is little real sense that the church is other than a meeting place not unlike a theatre.” I go to the theatre or cinema perhaps twice a year and know no one in the audience other than the friend I am with. I am lucky enough, although in my 80s, to be able to drive to church every day. It is an Abba’s House and in it I find my brothers and sisters in Christ, with many of whom I have a closer relationship than some members of my distant family because I see them every day. One is just widowed, another has terminal cancer but can still get to church, another is recovering from a serious operation. We have joyful events too: a new baby has arrived, an exam has been passed or that operation has had a successful outcome. If we were in a family home would we all ignore each other, or would we lovingly speak? Yes, we are silent during the Mass, all of us talking to our most beloved brother of all – Jesus Christ – and then after Mass our conversations are similar to those our brother Christ might be having with us, if could he speak – encouraging, consoling, even hugging us in joy. A parish priest who is there every day, and has time to talk to his parishioners and really know them, might have the same sort of conversations. Alas, with many parish priests having to cover or act as a one-off supply priest, there is less chance of the clergy forming any fraternal relationships such as fellow parishioners can and do. The conversations Pastor Iuventus objects to are merely parishioners acting in loco Christi, which the visiting priest no longer can. Elizabeth Price (Mrs) Linton, Kent
