Part B: Catholic Church and Citipointe Comparison

On two different days, two very different churches were visited not only for research purposes, but also as a learning experience. The first church, situated in the Brisbane CBD, was St Stephen’s Cathedral. This church is a catholic church, based on the ancient traditions and beliefs founded in the middle ages. The second church was Citipointe Christian Centre, in Carindale Brisbane, a Pentecostal Christian church based on beliefs established during the Reformation. The churches were distinctly opposite from each other in more ways than one, including the appearance of the churches. However, both are based on the same core beliefs in the salvation of Jesus Christ.
St Stephen’s, the Catholic Church, was the first visited of the two, and was an extremely eye opening experience. The building was beautiful architecture, and was in the shape of a cross. It featured stained glass windows, each of them telling an old story. Inside the building was old fashioned and traditional, with shafts of sunlight pouring in, everything was bright and open.
Citipointe Christian Centre however was really different. The building was large, open and fairly rectangular in shape. Inside was quite darkly painted and decorated, with dark walls, carpet and seats, but bright lights in various colours to light the stage. The colour scheme however didn’t reflect on the mood, all the people were warm and happy, and the atmosphere was young and energetic.
The services of each church couldn’t feel more opposite. On one hand, St Stephen’s was structured and a little robotic, as the arrangement of the service never changed. The place was completely silent other than the person giving the bible reading or prayer, there was no music, and no one spoke during the service. This shows that the congregation values respect for one another. The first part of the service had a very strict order, bible readings, prayers, bible reading, relating it to your life, then more prayer. The second part of mass, is offering. This is communion that they take and believe is the actual flesh and blood of Jesus, but it is only offered to members of the Catholic church. For those who are not official members, they may receive a blessing from the Priest. This part of the service was still quiet, no background music or noise was nearby. At the end of the service they sang one short hymn, the words of which were mostly not understandable. The Catholic church is obviously based around tradition, change is a foreign concept.
At Citipointe Christian Centre, the service could not have been more different. The people there are all warm and chatty, the service started off with a bang, the Church’s own band loudly playing their songs for praise and worship. Praise and worship in the church is very important, a time for each individual to get close to God before the message, and it goes for as long as the mood lasts. The music is powerful, and all written originally by the band. After the music, the announcements began, then the tithes and message. All of it was comfortable, although some people were talking and whispering during the sermon. This showed that respect wasn’t at the top of the list of importance, but the few individuals that did speak were mostly unnoticed due to the large amount of people.
The Catholic Church’s beliefs are also quite different to the Pentecostal church. The Pentecostal church believe in a personal relationship with God is the only way to salvation, if you do not know Jesus, then who are you serving? Both churches base their beliefs around the Bible and the trinity, but a major difference is the blessing of speaking in tongues. Citipointe believe in two types of Baptism, water baptism and baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is more commonly known as tongues, speaking in an unidentifiable language of prayer, a gift from God to give you the power of praying for His will. The catholic church does not share this belief. The catholic church believes that it is a gift from the Holy Spirit, but thinks that what the Pentecostal church promotes is false. They believe what the Pentecostal church teaches is tongues, is in fact just nonsensical gibberish. They believe they have Biblical evidence that the way the Protestant Pentecostals speak tongues is ‘condemned by the Bible’. (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Catholics-955/Tongues.htm) This will always be a point of debate, but the only one with the true answer is God.
Another difference in the Catholic Church and the Pentecostal church is their view on divorce. The Pentecostal church believe divorce may be acceptable in some cases, such as one person in danger. They accept people whether or not they have been divorced or remarried, as a person’s past is exactly that, in the past. Everyone deserves a fresh start, and the Pentecostal church supports that. The Catholic Church however holds a firm view on divorce being a terrible sin, something that no catholic should execute. They also do not believe in any form of contraception, seeing it as preventing someone from being born. The Pentecostal church’s belief on contraception is that of personal choice, so long as the couple are married.
The Catholic Church and the Pentecostal Church are very different, in more ways than one, in both their beliefs and their actual services. Though both churches are based on the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit, their interpretations of the bible are both distinctly opposite.