My Church is international
Because “international” is not the prerogative of workers and rappers, a return in three programs to the international news of the Churches. From Brussels to Nice via Mantes-la-Jolie, an international journey of 1320 kilometers ended on Sunday on Présence Protestante. For 3 weeks, the Protestant program of France 2 went to meet three very different churches and yet… Not so far apart as it seems.
Thursday, June 18, Belgian national television, RTBF, offered Eurovision the cult of the Ascension with the Evangelical Protestant Church of Rhode-Saint-Genèse.
During his sermon, Pastor Daniel Costanza urged everyone, wherever they come from, to be a witness to the Gospel:
“Through his Ascension [Jesus] transmits to us the mission of being his witnesses in the 21st century”.
Located on the outskirts of Brussels, a city of the European Union and NATO par excellence, the Church of the Assemblies of God (ADD) of Rhode carries its DNA of missionary for the international even in the name that it is chosen: Christian Center (in English in the text).
Another Church, another atmosphere, but just as international, Sunday June 28 will be broadcast, still on France 2, and again in Eurovision, the worship of Pentecost with the United Protestant Church of Nice Saint-Esprit.
At the crossroads of Italy and France, one foot in the Mediterranean and the other in the Alps, the city of Nice is also an international city. We still read on every street sign, Niçois, we hear Italian, of course, but also Russian, English... And during the Cannes-la-voisine Festival, all the languages of the world have their rear base in Nice.
International openness is therefore also in the DNA of the United Church of Nice and of those who constitute it. And on this day of Pentecost, his pastor, Paolo Morlacchetti, reminds us of this by quoting the book of Acts, chapter 2, verse 4:
“The Spirit allows us to actualize the Word of God, to apply it to what we are experiencing. And it is particularly important to notice how in this episode of Pentecost, the Spirit allows the disciples to make themselves understood by strangers. »
Another atmosphere on May 21, between these two international cults, Présence Protestante posed its cameras, the time of an immersion in the heart of the United Protestant Church, in Mantes-la-Jolie, a small town at the end of the Island of France.
For this second part of the Church Portrait collection (The first part was devoted to the Momentum Church of Lormont), proudly wearing the pastoral habit and the Bible for sword, the third musketeer of our journey in the service of the King of Kings , Arnaud Lépine-Lassagne invited us, the time of a beneficent stopover, to a few moments of intimacy with the members of “his” assembly.
But it is therefore in Nice that this journey will end on Sunday, and I owe it to you to recognize it here, it is on these roads, between international and intimate, that the richness of my Sundays in church is also nestled. And my slightly crazy hope is that this wealth will also become yours. Wherever I am, on the departmental roads here or elsewhere, between Brussels and Nice, from Mantes to Carbon via Paris, Rouillé or Castel-Jaloux, the company of Christians, engaged in the service of the King, makes me happy . And you ?
To see or review these three programs:
- Holy Week in Mantes-la-Jolie – a documentary from the Portrait d'Eglise collection
- From Sunday 28, 15 p.m., Pentecost worship in Eurovision with the United Protestant Church of Nice
