Maybe it's because the first five letters are an obvious anagram of demon. Whatever. Denomination is a very unpopular word, especially among English Baptists. It's the last thing we want to be called.
This is poignant as at this time at least a few earnest English Baptists furiously (sometimes literally) debate the future of our denomination, er sorry - family, whoops - movement (or should that be stream?). This debate might have been triggered by a fresh reading of the New Testament, by a desire to root out heresy or by an urgent sense of the need for more of the kingdom in the churches or the world but, it must be admitted, it actually owes its origin to the state of the economy. Less money means prioritising and pruning. Mind, like the New Testament those financial difficulties do have a Greek context I suppose . . . Anyway, the one denominated weekend of the year comes up in a few days with the Baptist Assembly.
So I thought about denomination (I'll freely admit to disliking the word myself).
I can't think of any everyday place where the word is used except the one in which I worked for the first six years of my working life - a bank. Strange to relate, although the word was part of the daily story at the bank nobody (unlike the Baptists) regarded it as a bad word. And still nobody does, as far as I know.
This is poignant as at this time at least a few earnest English Baptists furiously (sometimes literally) debate the future of our denomination, er sorry - family, whoops - movement (or should that be stream?). This debate might have been triggered by a fresh reading of the New Testament, by a desire to root out heresy or by an urgent sense of the need for more of the kingdom in the churches or the world but, it must be admitted, it actually owes its origin to the state of the economy. Less money means prioritising and pruning. Mind, like the New Testament those financial difficulties do have a Greek context I suppose . . . Anyway, the one denominated weekend of the year comes up in a few days with the Baptist Assembly.
So I thought about denomination (I'll freely admit to disliking the word myself).
I can't think of any everyday place where the word is used except the one in which I worked for the first six years of my working life - a bank. Strange to relate, although the word was part of the daily story at the bank nobody (unlike the Baptists) regarded it as a bad word. And still nobody does, as far as I know.
Why is the denominated £10.00 an alright thing - even a good thing when you have five of them instead of a £50.00 note as a rule - but being a Baptist or a Presbyterian is a bad thing? "I'm not really a £10.00 note, I'm money" is somehow true but also, well, silly. "I'm not a Presbyterian, I'm a Christian" seems so, well, saintly.
The history of Christianity is littered with the proven futilities of denominations that think they are the only note in the wallet, that imprinted with the Spirit, the Pope, the Bible translation, the baptismal formula, day of worship, the liturgical words or the fastest growing this that or the other they are the £10.00 that all money should be. All the while forgetting that only the signature of the One Who Gives Them Value gives them value. He doesn't seem to mind denominations but they cannot self-validate. The £10.00 note accepts there are other notes that are money but unashamedly does what it can do, which is not unique or even indispensable but as valuable pound for pound as that of its fellow denominations.
This is my slight alarm about English Baptists. I am not sure that we are that bothered about the Signatory. He may well have an interest in pacifism, human diversity, interfaith dialogue or community justice but his signature is really for purchasing salvation.
As the (Presbyterian) woman pictured on the denominated note above once wrote, Good is good, but it is not enough; it must be God.
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