Retired pastor John E. Harnish reflects on the long history of Christianity following a recent trip to Croatia, where he visited a church dedicated to an early Christian martyr.
JOHN E. HARNISH
Retired Pastor, Michigan Conference
I’m a lifelong Protestant and a dyed-in-the-wool United Methodist. Whether my mother ever said it, I believe she was capable of saying, “You wouldn’t want to date a Catholic girl, because what if you fell in love? You certainly wouldn’t want to marry one!”
That personal history, however, doesn’t lessen my appreciation for the other branches of the Body of Christ, including the Roman Catholic Church. Throughout the centuries, through more than 200 popes and multiple crusades and conflicts, foibles, and failures, it has maintained the traditions that have carried on the work of Christ for billions of Christians around the world.
So, with our Catholic brothers and sisters, I celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV. May God strengthen him in his passion for the poor, the immigrants, and those in need of God’s love.
Last week, during a tour of Italy and Croatia, we found our way into more than one ancient church. One in particular was the Church of St. Euphemia in Rovinj, Croatia.
Legend says Euphemia was an early martyr in the Colosseum in Rome in the fourth century AD. In some miraculous way, the large stone sarcophagus containing her body floated up on the shore in Rovinj. The church where her remains were housed was built in 1736 on the foundations of an earlier church, and Euphemia has rested in peace there ever since.
Whether you believe in the tradition or the power of relics is a matter of faith, but one thing is clear. The church has been there and worshipers have gathered there for over 300 years. The church endures.
The United Methodist liturgy for confirmation used to begin by saying, “The Church is of God, and will be preserved to the end of time, for the conduct of worship and the due administration of his Word and Sacraments, the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world” (The Methodist Hymnal, 1964). Regretfully, it is no longer in our liturgy, but I still believe it.
Of course, the statement refers to the spiritual Body of Christ, larger than any human institution or form, but I do believe in the institutional church. With all its faults, this human institution has preserved the spiritual Body for all these centuries. Powerful individual evangelists like Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Billy Graham come and go. Independent, personality-centered churches like Crystal Cathedral rise and fall. But the institution endures, and through this all-too-human institution, the work of the Spirit goes on.
And in spite of all her faults, I still believe the church will be preserved till the end of time.
Last Updated on May 19, 2025