CHURCHES TO COMMEMORATE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.Byline: Tracy Valeri Daily News Staff Writer Several congregations around the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. will have special services this weekend commemorating the Protestant Reformation, the turning point in the history of the Roman Catholic Church The History of the Roman Catholic Church covers a period of just under two thousand years, making the Church one of the oldest continuously existing religious institutions in history. . On Sunday, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Northridge and St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Glendale, will be among the ``reform'' churches to celebrate. On Thursday evening, Valley Presbyterian Church in Mission Hills, in cooperation with the Reformation Day Reformation Day is a religious holiday celebrated on October 31 in remembrance of the Reformation, particularly by Lutheran and some Reformed church communities. It is a civic holiday in Slovenia (since the Reformation contributed to its cultural development profoundly, although Observance Society, an organization working to make people aware of the reformation, will remember Martin Luther, the man who precipitated the historic change. Luther, the first Protestant, launched the movement back in the 16th century with his 95 Theses, which included protests against the abuse of papal authority The Roman Catholic Church bases Papal authority, the authority of the Pope, on two sources: Matthew 16:18| of the Christian Bible and On the detection and overthrow of the so-called Gnosis (commonly called Adversus Haereses) by Irenaeus. and denial of certain Roman Catholic Church Roman Catholic Church, Christian church headed by the pope, the bishop of Rome (see papacy and Peter, Saint). Its commonest title in official use is Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. theories. Though he was excommunicated and became a fugitive at the age of 38, he became an internationally known dignitary, translating the Bible into German, and advancing principles that were seen by some as radical and by others as dissident. One of the most controversial ideas that Luther proposed, ``justification by faith,'' came to form the basis of his religious thought. The idea is that man can receive, through faith alone, God's gift of salvation. This conflicted sharply with Roman Catholic doctrines at the time, which held that one could be forgiven of sins by paying a fee. Luther's ideas were deemed subversive because his widely supported views undermined the authority of the papacy papacy (pā`pəsē), office of the pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is pope by reason of being bishop of Rome and thus, according to Roman Catholic belief, successor in the see of Rome (the Holy See) to its first bishop, St. Peter. by elevating Christ as the only intermediary between God and man. In 1521, Luther was proclaimed a heretic. All of his works were forbidden and he became a fugitive. But the ultimate result was that the church split and Protestantism was born. Today, some of his ideas are at the heart of all Protestant religions. In fact, the Rev. Keith Banwart of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church notes that the Roman Catholic Church now has made most of the reforms that Luther advocated. And he said that Lutherans and Roman Catholics are in the process of officially dropping the 16th century condemnations that they leveled against one another. ``For Lutherans everywhere,'' according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Banwart, ``Reformation Day is special as we remember the theme of `faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone.' '' |
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