Untitled - St.Francis Magazine

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 The Orthodox Presbyterian Church in the USA recognizes the vital role of identity in its “Commitment’ and links it to one that is both pilgrim and heavenly while making the maximum contribution to earthly life during its sojourn. It reads: “We are also committed to maintaining our pilgrim identity in a shifting and changing world. The Church is a heavenly colony that lives as aliens and strangers in this world. We seek to serve and minister the love of Christ to the world while sustaining our heavenly identity…” 121 6.2 The ‘foreignness’ of Christ’s followers In one of his later writings, Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220 AD) showed evidences of New Testament thought on the believer’s true citizenship. In his “The Chaplet” or De Corona/The Crown he compares the laurel crowns that the Athenians, Romans and Etruscans used to honor the gods, the state and themselves. In contrast, he tells his Christian audience: But as for you, you are a foreigner in this world, a citizen of Jerusalem, the city above. Our citizenship, the apostle says, is in heaven. You have your own registers, your own calendar; you have nothing to do with the joys of the world; nay, you are called to the very opposite, for ‘the world shall rejoice but ye shall mourn.’ Another resident of Carthage, Cyprian (died 258) was the subject of a biographical sketch by Pontius the Deacon. In the work entitled, The Life and Passion of Cyprian Bishop and Martyr, we see traces of this Christian ‘foreignness’. The words which might be those of Pontius himself or attributed to Cyprian read: “But we abhor even our own parents themselves if they would persuade us against God. To them, it is a severe punishment to live outside their own city; to the Christian, the whole of this 121 www.copctricities.org/opc.htm (Accessed 2011/12/12) 255