Question 7 How do you believe another seven sins, added by the Vatican, will benefit 'family values', if at all?
No, not really. I think it will be profoundly irrelevant.
Question 8 What is the Church doing to encourage parishioners to attend Church and follow the moral family values of the Christian faith?
I must add that I don't speak for something called 'the Church', but as member of A church which is in league with many others. Different churches are doing many different things to encourage people to come, and not just attend church, but join the family. So, for example, services are much more relaxed and informal on the whole than they used to be. Also, we recognise that people from a diversity of life stages will be coming to church and we try hard to welcome them - by having excellent children's programmes, for example. The aim is not to have people follow the 'moral family values'. Christians don't preach any such thing. The Christian gospel is about becoming a disciple of Jesus: which means belonging to him, and trying to be like him and follow his teachings. This of course has its ramifications for our family lives, as it does for all other aspects of our lives. Different churches that I am aware of are running groups for divorcees, as well as marriage courses, pre-marriage courses and parenting classes.
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I think the understanding of "moral family values of the church" is often misunderstood. To quote Michael, my experience has been that the sorts of things that the media portrays as Christian values are just really the footnotes when you actually living it out as part of a church community. If you were to conduct an anthropological study on the church I go to, for example, I think you would find that the main understanding of our values would revolve around something more organic.
To understand Christian values or to understand the church you have to start from the foundations and the end goal. JudeoChristian ethics are trying be a reaction to God's love for us and so it's no surprise that this is summed up in the Bible as "To love God with all our heart,soul,mind,strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves.". We don't always live up to it but that's what's behind Christian values. That's what we're aiming for.
So in my church, for example, we give a lot of time and thought to enabling people to build friendships that are authentic and meaningful, where people can be themselves (we often have meals together, we have coffee and time for chatting at the end of services, etc). And everyone (whether they have a strong faith or not) is welcomed in to this.
Christian values should come from our understanding of what God is like. So as people who follow a Trinitarian God - who is three different persons united in love, it's no coincidence that difference is celebrated. It is important in church that friendships span across people of different family situations, socio-economic class, life experiences and generations. I can't think of anywhere else where there is such commitment to eachother amidst such diversity. If someone has a baby the whole community rejoices. If the child is sick, the whole community prays and babysits and stocks their feezer with meals. Children grow up with a lot of role models besides their immediate family.
It's not so much of a stratagy as a culture. Parents have friendships with a range of older people who they can go to for advice or a listening ear. They have peers who they can call when it's all getting a bit much. In my experience the church promotes its family values mostly by being a culutre that is supporting people... sincerely loving people... a culture where people are just good friends to eachother.
Christians basically are trying to be a group of people reacting to being incredibly loved by God - love that isn't dependent on meeting a certain set of rules or being a certain way. Of course people don't always reflect this well but even having this as the way they think of the christian life has significant results in the sort of community they form.
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