Session 3: Christianity: Sects, Issues and Contribution to the world.

Key Words:

Aglipayan- also known as the Philippine Independent Church, commonly belief is the rejection of the exclusivity right to by the Petrine papacy.

Baptist- are individuals who comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed
only for professing believers (believer's baptism, as opposed to infant baptism), and that it must be done by complete immersion (as opposed to
sprinkling).

Born Again- In some Christian movements (especially Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism), to be born again is to undergo a "spiritual rebirth", or a
regeneration of the human spirit from the Holy Spirit. This is contrasted with the physical birth everyone experiences.

Calvinism- is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin and other Reformation-
era theologians

Christianity - Its core teaching is that a loving God sent His begotten Son in order to redeem humankind from eternal damnation.

Ecumenism-dialogue between Christian denominations.

Evangelicals- Is a worldwide, trans-denominational movement within Protestant Christianity maintaining that the essence of the gospel consists in the
doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement.

Greek/Eastern Orthodox- originally referring to the churches found in the eastern side of the Roman Empire with its center at Constantinople, whose
separation from the Catholic Church dates back to 1054 CE. Some of these churches have been reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church during the
papacy of St. John Paul II.

Protestantism- is a form of Christian faith and practice which originated with the Protestant Reformation, a movement against what its followers
considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church

World Council of Churches - an international movement whereby Christian churches, denominations and fellowships from different movement whereby
Christare organized setting a goal of Christian unity and providing countries across the world reflect, speak act, worship and work together, challenge and
suppenberthersee and debate with each other.

Discussion Points:

1. Different Christian Sects and Churches

Christianity has divided into three major branches over the centuries. Over the centuries, Christianity has divided into numerous denominations. Each
denomination has its own distinctive beliefs or practices, but they are generally considered a branch of mainstream Christianity if they agree on core
doctrines like the divinity of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible. The three main branches of Christianity are the Roman Catholicism, Eastern
Orthodoxy and Protestant.

Roman Catholicism represents the continuation of the historical organized church as it developed in Western Europe, and is headed by the Pope.

Eastern Orthodoxy is the continuation of the historical organized church as it developed in Eastern Europe, It differs from Catholicism in its refusal of
allegiance to the Pope, its emphasis on the use of icons in worship, and the date it celebrates Easter.

Protestantism arose in the 16th century during the Reformation, which took place mainly in Germany, Switzerland, and Britain. Protestants do not
acknowledge the authority of the Pope. reject many traditions and beliefs of the Catholic Church, emphasize the importance of reading the Bible and
hold to the doctrine of salvation by faith alone.

History of Christian Denominations

For the first thousand years of Christianity, there were no "denominations" within the Christian there are today. Various offshoot groups certainly
existed, but they were considered "heresies" and not part of the Christian church. Most were small and, until the 16th century, were never very
influential From the beginnings of Christianity through the Middle Ages, there was only one the catholic Chumversal church. Basically, if you did not
belong to the Church, you were not considered a Christian.The first division within Christendom came in 1054 with the "Great Schism" between the

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Western Church and the Eastern Church. From that point forward, there were two large branches of Christianity, which came to be known as the
Catholic Church (in the West) and the Orthodox Church (in the East).

The next major division occurred in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation was famously sparked when Martin Luther
posted his 95 Theses in 1517, but Protestantism" as a movement officially began in 1529. That year marked the publication of the Protestation, directed
at the imperial government.

2. Issues:

a. Ecumenism

Ecumenism is the movement or tendency toward worldwide Christianunity or cooperation. The term, of recent origin, emphasizes what is viewed as the
universality of the Christian churches. The word ecumenism is derived from the Greek words oikoumene ("the inhabited world") and oikos ("house") and
can be traced from the commands, promises, and prayers of Jesus.

After the International Missionary Conference held at Edinburgh in 1910, Protestants began to use the term ecumenism to describe the gathering of
missionary, evangelistic, service, and unitive forces. During and after the second Vatican Council (1962-65), Roman Catholics used ecumenism to refer to
the renewal of the whole life of the church, undertaken to make it more responsive to "separated churches" and to the needs of the world. The
ecumenical movement seeks to recover the apostolic sense of the early church for unity in diversity, and it confronts the frustrations, difficulties, and
ironies of the modern pluralistic world. It is a lively reassessment of the historical sources and destiny of what followers perceive to be the one, holy,
catholic, and apostolic church of Jesus Christ

b. Sexuality Issues

i. Contraception

Christian ideas about contraception come from church teachings rather than scripture, as the Bible has little to say about the subject. As a result, their
teachings on birth control are often based on different Christian interpretations of the meaning of marriage, sex and the family.

Christian acceptance of contraception is relatively new, all churches disapproved of artificial contraception until the start of the 20th century. In modern
times different Christian churches hold different views about the rightness and wrongness of using birth control.

- Liberal Protestant churches often teach that it is acceptable to use birth control, as long as it is not used to encourage or permit promiscuous behaviour.

- Less liberal churches only approve the use of contraception for people who are married to each other.

Since these churches regard sex outside marriage as morally wrong (or if not wrong, as less than good), they believe that abstaining from sex would be
morally better than having sex and using birth control. More conservative churches suggest that contraception should be limited to married couples who
are using it to regulate the size and spacing of their family. They often teach that using contraception to prevent children altogether is not desirable.

The Roman Catholic Church only allows 'natural' birth control, by which it means only having sex during the infertile period of a woman's monthly cycle.
Artificial methods of contraception are banned. Thus the only way for a Catholic couple to be faithful to the Church's teachings on human sexuality and
to avoid having children is to use 'natural' family planning.

ii. Homosexuality

iii. Ordination of women

3. Contribution of Christianity to the World

i. Sunday as holiday

ii. Roman Calendar

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iii. University Education

iv. Architecture

v. Music

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