world religion

CHRISTIA
NITY
worship and
observances
advent
• Refers to the season of waiting for the birth of the Messiah, hence its celebration lasts for four
weeks, beginning four Sundays before Christmas and ending on Christmas eve.

• During Advent, it is only not the birth of Christ which is anticipated but the Second Coming of
the Savior as well.
• Advent also features certain colors, such as purple/dark blue, which symbolizes seriousness,
repentance, and royalty; and pink, which signifies joy.
 advent
comes from the Latin word adventus, which
means "coming" or "visit".
lent
• Refers to the season observed by Christians in preparation for Easter, a celebration of the
resurrection of Christ.
• Ash Wednesday signals the start of the season of Lent, which begins 40 days before Easter.

• A time for Christians to prepare for Easter by following certain rituals, such as fasting,
repentance, moderation, and self-discipline.
 lent
comes from the Anglo-Saxon words lencten, meaning
"Spring", and lenctenid, which means "Springtide" and
also the word for "March", the month when Easter is
usually celebrated.
pentecost
• Is celebrated as a holiday to commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the early
Christians. Thus, Pentecost is also celebrated as the birthday of the Church.

• The event was recorded in the New Testament, in The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2, which
narrates how the first Christians came together in one place when suddenly they heard a sound
coming from heaven and tongues of fire rested on their heads. They were to be filled with the
Holy Spirit which enabled them to speak other languages, after which Peter stood up and
delivered his first sermon.
 pentecost
comes from the Greek word pentekostos, which means
"fifty", pertaining to the Jewish holiday celebrated
every fifty days from the end of Passover to the
beginning of the next holiday (also known as Shavuot)
subdivisions
 Emperor
constantine
Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to
337, and the first to convert to Christianity.
• 312 C.E : Prior to his reign, Christians were persecuted under Roman emperors.

• 313 C.E : Christianity was only legalized upon Constantine's declaration of the Edict of
Milan, which declared equality among all religions.
• 324 C.E : After defeating his opponents and becoming the sole leader of the Roman
Empire, he made Christianity the official religion of the empire and sought to end all
doctrinal arguments on Christianity.
• 325 C.E : He convened the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea in Asia Minor, which was
attended by bishops from eastern and western regions of the empire.

• 330 C.E : He transferred the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium
(modern-day Istanbul) and renamed it Constantinople.
-
• Conflicts arose between the Roman Empire and the Byzantium Empire, resulting in the
inevitable split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church.

• Pope Leo III heightened the conflict when he crowned Charlemagne, King of the Franks,
the Holy Roman Emperor in 800 without consulting the Byzantine Empire
• Official spilt happened in 105 with the "Great Schism" which divided the Western Latin
Roman Christianity from the Eastern Greek Byzantine Christianity.

the Protestant reformation

• Is considered the second greatest split in Christianity.
• Martin Luther posted his list of ninety-five propositions to the door of the church at
Wittenberg in Saxony in 1517, which signalled the beginnings of another Christian sect
called Protestantism.
• His ideas spread to England, with King Henry VIII severing his ties from Rome, creating
the Church of England and Lutheranism in 1555.
selected issues
ecumenism
• Refers to the effort of the Catholic Church to sponsor activities and initiatives to promote
mutual understanding and unity among all Christians.
• Is based on three principles, which states that:
• ) Christ established the Church on the Apostles and their successors, whose head became
Peter and his successor the Bishop of Rome;
• ) since the first century there have been divisions in Christianity, but many persons now
separated from visible unity with the successors of the Apostles under Peter are nevertheless
Christians who possess more or less the fullness of grace available in the Roman Catholic
Church;
 3.) Catholics are to do everything possible to foster the ecumenical movement, which
comprehends all "the initiatives and activities, planned and undertaken to promote Christian
unity, according to the Church's various needs and opportunities" (Decree on Ecumenism, I,4).
 vatican's ii's decree on
ecumenism
"The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns
of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one
Church only. However, many Christian communions present themselves to
men as the true inheritors of Jesus Christ; all indeed profess to be followers of
the Lord but differ in mind and go their different ways, as if Christ himself
were divided. Such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes
the world, and damages the only cause of preaching the Gospel to every
creature."
sexuality
• Has always been controversial for the Catholic Church. Due to it's conservative view of human
sexuality, it has often found itself in conflict with progressive and liberal ideas with regard to
certain issues connected to sexuality such as artificial contraception, abortion, and
homosexuality.
• Christianity advocates that the goal of sexual union between men and woman is procreation,
thus anything that might hinder this is considered immoral.

• Christianity advocates natural family planning methods such as the rhythm method, wherein
couples will engage in sexual acts only during days when the woman is not fertile and cannot
conceive a baby.
• Another issue with regard to sexuality is that of homosexuality. It refers to attraction to
members of the same sex.

• The Catholic Church states that homosexual orientation itself is not a sin, it is nevertheless a
tendency towards the "moral evil" of homosexual sexual activity.

• Nevertheless, while the Church condemns homosexual acts (sexual activity), being
homosexual (orientation) is not wrong or sinful in itself. It also states that homosexual persons
must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.
family and
divorce
"He who made man from the beginning, made them male and female. And he said: For this
cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in
one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let no man put asunder."
Matthew 19:4-6

Thus, divorce is not allowed in the Catholic Church, since it believes in the sanctity of
marriage, which should be a lifetime bond between a man and a woman, and is considered a
legal bond on earth and a spiritual bond in heaven.
• Decree of Nullity is an annulment couples, who wish to separate, can seek in which it is
declared that the marriage was never valid in the first place. But unlike divorce, annulment
entails a long, tedious, and expensive process, in which a partner has to prove that his/her
partner is psychologically incapacitated to understand the commitment marriage entails, or one
of the partners has deliberately hid some information, such as previous marriage, impotence, or
infertility.
capital
punishment
• Or death penalty wherein a person is punished by death for his or her capital crime goes
against the Christian belief that life is given by God and should not be taken away by any
person.
• It is illegal in most Christian countries such as the Philippines, but some push for capital
punishment as a way of deterring crime.
euthanasia
• Or mercy killing is also considered immoral since it entails taking away what has been given
by God, and that human beings should not interfere with the natural process of death.

• Another reason why the Church is against euthanasia is the belief that people have no right to
interrupt the natural process of dying, and that the period just before death is a reflective
spiritual moment.
• In Christianity, all human lives are equally valuable and no one, even the person
himself/herself who wants to end his/her life, has the right to assume that his or her life is no
longer valuable.