Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Case of Pastor Sean Allen

A bit of local news: Sean Allen, the Baptist Pastor of a rather large congregation right down the road from where I'm typing this in DeLand removed the church's flag along with the national flag from the sanctuary.

As a result, he received at least three death threats, including one in his home mailbox; he's now on extended leave. Note, he did not order the national flag removed from church grounds altogether.

In my opinion, Pastor Allen is 110% right on this; the nation's flag should be outside the congregation's sanctuary: a no-brainer.

If you have a moment, please consider making some intercession on his and his congregation's behalf.

5 Comments:

At 6:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree. It's inappropriate to have symbols of petty causes such as tribal nationality (or nationalism) in a place for meeting the numinous.

..."if you have love one for another". Right.

He does need our prayers.

 
At 7:10 AM, Blogger Fr Andrew Petiprin said...

Absolutely right.

 
At 4:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As a member of this church we appreciate any prayers...the church however is not large only about 400 members though.

This was a vocal minority that caused all of the problems but the church members voted last night NOT to bring the flags back into the church

 
At 8:02 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

It's funny. I was thinking about this very issue earlier this morning as I was viewing some photos of the inside of an Episcopal Church where the US and Episcopal flags hung on poles at an angle over the sanctuary.

I was thinking about the symbolism of those two flgs hanging in the worship are.

In my own parish, my wife, the priest, moved the flags from the sanctuary to the back of the nave. When challenged (angrily), she explained the symbolism. The flags stand for those standing behind us as we worship.

That works for me.

 
At 9:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can be IN the world - and display national and church flags - but not necessarily OF the world. (Now just where did that thought come from....?) So much controversy over something so insignificant! Why not just get on with the business of the Kingdon?

 

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