HomeCommentaryWhat we can learn from the 'other'

What we can learn from the ‘other’

For someone who has grown up in a quaint rural town like Oslob where 99.9 percent of the population is Catholic, to worship in another church is unthinkable.

There was only one small Protestant Church in the town, and our grandmothers and catechists prohibited us from going there or from attending their services “at the pain of mortal sin”, even if their services were more creative and their community interaction more personal. If we did, we have to confess after that.

(It is also this same exclusivist “catholic” culture that taught me that Jews were the ones who captured and killed Jesus so we have to hide and keep silent during the Holy Week or that the Muslims stole our children in raids in the past so they are all evil).



This Sunday, was my first time to join in a lovely and uplifting Methodist service at the Kwanglim Church in Seoul. Many things are familiar to my Catholic sensibilities. They recited the same Apostles Creed. Their songs are familiar: the Sanctus, Our Father, the Great Amen.

Many of Wesley’s famous hymns are sung in Catholic churches: the Easter song “Christ the Lord is risen today” or the Christmas carol “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. That Sunday, they sang the Korean version of the charismatic song “God is so good” which Catholic parishes also sing.

What can we learn from them? Their grand choir (of more than 50 members) is accompanied by a professional orchestra. But their songs are all known to the whole congregation. Everybody sings from beginning to end, much unlike the choirs in our parishes whose songs they only can sing. Parang gusto palaging mag concert.

People came on time and the ministers arrived earlier to do their tasks well: welcome the people, arrange things needed, distribute leaflets, etc. The pastor is well prepared in his homily.

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And the people are seated in a way where they can jot down notes from the points he mentioned. And they answered “Amen” at his every recognizable point, quite unlike many who doze off in our churches listening to an unprepared preacher rambling about things only he can understand.

That Sunday, there was a baptism of around 15 children. Only the parents came up bringing their child. The pastor was personal and warm. The congregation was responsive and giggled as they watched the children’s reactions. Quite different from our baptisms where a whole village of teenagers act and ninong and ninong (godparents) without even the smallest hint of what they are doing there except to hold the candle given to them.

We have just so many things to learn to make our worship uplifting for our churchgoers.

I am here in Seoul for an ecumenical meeting of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity on our ecumenical relations with Methodists (Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission). Our first meeting with the Pope was last 2022. (http://www.christianunity.va/…/2022-10-06-pope-francis…)

We are 16 theologians from different parts of the world (eight Catholics and eight Methodists) to continue talking about the many things that we agree on and dialoguing on some things that divide us. After these rounds of talks which have been going on since the 1960s, we will present these to the main leaders of both churches to pursue the dream of Christian unity.

But I have learned so many things the Catholics can learn from Methodists.

Let me mention two. What they call “conferencing” is their way of communal discernment where clergy and laity are equally heard and decide together as a community, even on points of doctrine. Catholics have still to institute what we now call “synodality” so that all can equally be heard, even on mere pastoral matters.

Methodists are more open for everyone who is baptized of any denomination to share in the communion table. Catholics have all our rules and policies about who can come and who cannot. Jesus’ table ministry is open commensality, not an exclusive club party.

I was also surprised that there are many things we can agree on with the Methodists. But it is also a liberating feeling to know that our other Christian siblings are quite ahead in many things Christian.

God is so great we could not contain him in our little Catholic “box”. It is a liberating feeling to keep on learning from the other. In fact, they are not an “other”. They are our siblings in Christ.

Father Daniel Franklin Pilario, C.M., is the President of Adamson University in Manila. He is a theologian, professor, and pastor of an urban poor community on the outskirts of the Philippine capital. He is also Vincentian Chair for Social Justice at St. John’s University in New York.

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