One of the topics was speaking in tongues where he mentioned Apostolic understanding of this as being "God given" and therefore scriptural. He also said that if the speaking in tongues persists and is a regular part of worship, that this is problematic because it has no biblical foundation, or apostolic.
Would converts see this as a problem? How important is speaking in tongues? Just curious!
From my own personal experience, speaking in tongues and the beauty and order of the Liturgy seem to be contradictory.
What we have settled on here, is an hour and fifteen minutes before Liturgy, we play rousing Celtic worship music, use our tambourines, shakers, Celtic drums and enter in to a dimension of worship that is very suitable for worshiping in tongues, which we do. As this music is coming to a close, we use very quiet contemplative music, chant, etc. till just before the Liturgy.
Entering into the Liturgy seems to us like another dimension, and we are much more prepared to be in the presence of the Lord, really there with Him, after worship. There is also a spiritual warfare dimension to this worship which just happens naturally, a real sense of liberty.
When people ask us what time our Liturgy begins, we tell them
that time,
not the time for worship in the Spirit. We keep that rather private, for those who we know will be comfortable with it.
And also for very serious intercession occasions.
I would not be comfortable giving up this form of worship to join a Church, in fact some criticism about this form of prayer turned us off quickly to a Russion Orthodox Church. We are in the position where we don't have to give it up, thank God.
Having come from an Evangelical/Charismatic/Non-denominational background, where this type of worship was a part of the service, it was beautiful and heart expanding in a large gathering. After my conversion to Catholocism, it seemed out of place and awkward in the Mass proper, and it kind of fell by the wayside as I enterred a more contemplative time of my life. But now it has returned in the context of high praise and spiritual warfare, and as such is very effective. A lot of inner healing and release of burdens takes place.
We are very cautious though, the people who come for this worship are seasoned Christians and are there for serious praise, so we haven't been exposed to the complicated situations that I have seen arise in Churches. We are more monastic.