The town of Lincoln can boast of several historic homes and businesses along Great Road in the village of Saylesville. The Eleazer Arnold House dates back to 1693 and the memorable Hearthside House was built in 1810.
The Saylesville Meeting House, erected in 1703, was also among the venerable edifices recently opened to the public. This plain wooden building offers a rather grim interior. The ground floor pews face a central open space. A gallery above, formerly reserved for slaves, has been converted into rooms for religious education. There is no altar, communion table, nor other focal point. A guide noted that the lack of religious ornamentation was deliberate since this was a Quaker meetinghouse (and so not actually a church). The faithful simply sit facing one another, awaiting the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Although marriages would occasionally be celebrated in the meeting house, there are no set rituals or liturgies in the Quaker religion. Most astonishingly, Quakers are not even baptized. Quakers place themselves entirely at the disposal of the Spirit. Vocalizing the Spirit’s promptings is the heart and soul of their religion.
Quiet contemplation and inspired utterances are certainly not limited to the Society of Friends, as Quakers are rightly called. Just about every religious community encourages some communal prayer. The Quakers however have taken a portion of Christian tradition and made it the whole of their observance. Sacramental, doctrinal and hierarchical concerns do not intrude into their weekly meetings. Years ago a classmate at Rochester’s St. Bernard Seminary referred to this situation as “fractured Christianity,” highlighting one aspect of the Christian Gospel while diminishing or even omitting much of the fullness of revelation.
The Salvation Army does a masterful job dealing with social inequality but is low on the scale of liturgical observance. Baptists are masters at reading and preaching the biblical word but shun the incarnational aspects of Christianity as their bare churches indicate. Anglicans and Lutherans offer impressive liturgies but can be rather ambivalent on traditional doctrine. Presbyterians and Congregationalists exalt fellowship while ignoring the hierarchical features of church life. The Mennonites, Moravian Brethren and Amish nobly spurn the attractions of this world but seem little concerned with the rituals and dogmas that have guided the Christian faith for centuries.
Mistaking the part for the whole has led to the proliferation of the many Protestant sects over the past 500 years. These several ecclesial communities project a sometimes powerful but sadly incomplete embodiment of the Christian message. Roman Catholicism happily and uniquely illustrates that personal charisms need not lead to ecclesiastical division. The church can indeed be one and catholic.
While the multiple aspects of the Gospel message have received wide-ranging emphasis or neglect over the years, Roman Catholicism alone has maintained a united religious pluralism chiefly through her religious orders and congregations.
All Saints’ Day bears ample witness to this. St. Vincent DePaul and his Daughters of Charity squarely faced the poverty of 17th century Paris staffing homes for orphans and lepers while the Cistercians monks at LaTrappe were re-dedicating themselves to the worshipful recitation of the Divine Office. St. Francis and St. Dominic were preaching to the masses along the roadside while St. Albert the Great and St. Bonaventure were arguing dogma and doctrine within Europe’s universities. St. Elizabeth of Hungary and St. Margaret of Scotland used their royal prerogatives to assist the needy while St. Gertrude and St. Hildegard devoted themselves to cloistered contemplation and Scriptural reflection. St. Theresa of Lisieux relished the daily grind of convent life while the Venerable Charles de Foucault tended to North African tribesmen.
Pope St. Pius X was combatting Modernism through Vatican decrees while St. Damien of Molokai was dressing sores on a Pacific island. St. Charles Borromeo scrupulously advanced the cause of the Council of Trent while St. Isaac Jogues and St. John de Brebeuf were converting the Hurons in French Canada.
The charisms, ministries and offices found among the saints of Catholicism defy categorization. Yet their loyalty to the church’s sacraments, the church’s traditions and the church’s structure is undeniable.
In fact their personal fidelity to the fullness of revelation found uniquely in the Catholic Church was their strength. Their talents enriched the faithful without fracturing the church.
