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Last night, EWTN featured a 1 hour segment of

Michael Cumbie

explaining the Mass to Catholics and Evangelicals.

From the heart of the Deep South, steeped in Southern Baptist tradition Michael Cumbie's call from God to preach the Gospel came at age 14. At age 19, while attending college and working on a degree in Music Education Michael experienced a life changing charismatic encounter with the Holy Spirit. Increasingly dissatisfied with fundamentalist, evangelical preaching of the Gospel, he began to understand just exactly how the early church had worshiped with its signs and symbols - and its focus on the Eucharist.

Although a Protestant Pastor for 23 years, Michael ultimately realized that to be truly in one accord with "ancient historic" Christian practice, means to be in union with Rome, where the chair of the successor of St. Peter is located, he continued his studies and research. Michael was even ordained to the sacred priesthood with an "old catholic" group in 1993. Eventually he realized that his denomination and the Roman Catholic Church would not become one any time soon, and he discovered that this quest for the fullness of Faith could only be realized in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2001, Michael and his three children were received into the Catholic Church. Michael's wife Sherry came back to the Catholic Church that day as well, after a 28-year absence. Michael Cumbie's conversion story is entitled "No Bread on the Table, No Crumbs on the Floor" because of his great love of, and respect for the Most Holy Eucharist.

The following link is to a Google video featuring Michael Cumbie.

No Greater Gift

Well worth viewing this sampler.

But in making this argument in 2002, Reno maintained that orthodox believers should not leave their home churches. The proper scriptural response to living in ruins, he said, is to follow the example of Nehemiah, who dedicated himself to living in a devastated city. To flee institutions in search of something supposedly better elsewhere would be to simply replicate the modern tendency to favor a posture of ironic distance over one of dogged commitment.

There's a serious cognitive disconnect required for a Protestant to make an argument like this. After all, can't the same things be said a fortiori of the Reformers themselves?

The local diocesan paper of the Episcopal church had an apologetic recently on "why it's important to stay in communion with Canterbury". I don't think the writer understood that everything he said made sense, but made far, far more sense when Canterbury was changed to Rome.

**The list includes three Lutherans—Reinhard Hütter and Bruce Marshall, theologians at Methodist seminaries (Duke and Southern Methodist), and Mickey Mattox, a Luther scholar at Marquette; two Anglicans—Rusty Reno of Creighton and Douglas Farrow of McGill University; and a Mennonite—Gerald Schlabach of St. Thomas University.**

I bedt there are many others — just not so prominent!