Is it the Christian way to be charged to pray in churches?
Though I am a Christian and a churchgoer, I always have and still do, respect and try to understand other religions of the world, to the point of going to services (by any name) and talking with religious leaders. In the past, it might be almost anywhere. Also there have been conversations with the followers, using interpreters as required.
I’ve never been charged to go into the meeting place. Frequently, I’ve shared food with the people, again at no charge and feeling most welcome.
But, in the last few weeks, I went to sit and pray at a Cathedral, where a church leader was killed. I’d been previously, more than once. This time there was a long queue of people of all ages and shades, most talking most amicably and loud.
The cost to go in for an oldy, I am, was just under £12. It did not matter that I wanted to go in and pray, to sit and think, to meditate. There was no way in. What a contrast! I found a quiet place elsewhere to calm down and relax, know that you don’t have to be in a special place to pray. The experience made me think “which of the places, I had prayed in gave me a Christian welcome, even when they were themselves not Christian?”
Would Jesus, were he a man today, have taken action as he did in the temple? He, who gave the Sermon on the Mount he, who made it clear, that the “chosen people” were no longer, the only ones to hear and act upon the teachings and actions that showed the way to a life beyond life?
All are welcome to attain that life. I don’t want friends, neighbours and even family to lose out, because they have different beliefs.
Are Christian churches, who charge the public to pray really Christian and a valid example of Christian ethics?
To go to pray is quite different from doing a tour of a building and being charged for sightseeing. That charge is valid. Buildings cost a fortune to up keep. I would think most who go to pray, would happily give an offering.
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