Emmanuel leader Alain Emerson endorses anti-Christian worship style at ecumenical meeting in Roman Catholic Church

Ten days ago we focused on the leader of the Emmanuel Church in Lurgan, Alain Emerson, leading a service in St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Belfast.

He was there as part of the annual ecumenical talking shop called the ‘Four Corners Festival’.

At that time we dealt with the folly of the leader of a church which claims to be God exalting engaging with the Roman Catholic Church, when we are instructed in the Bible rather to reprove “the unfruitful works of darkness”, which Rome undoubtedly is.

However, we have been contacted by a reader of our page to inform us of another aspect of that evening which is just as troubling as the meeting itself having taken place.

This is the inclusion of ‘Taizé’ worship in the service.

Don’t know what it is? We don’t blame you. We hadn’t heard of it either. However, on examination, it is a most dangerous and rather sinister thing.

Taizé takes its name from the village in France in which the monastic community was formed by a ‘Protestant’ called ‘Brother Roger’ in 1940. It is an ecumenical grouping, with members from both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds. The current leader is a Catholic.

Its form of worship includes sung and chanted prayers (with prayers consisting of “short chants, repeated again and again”), meditation, periods of silence, liturgical readings and icons. There is no preaching.

Such vain repetition is warned against by Jesus. He said in Matthew 6:7: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” So this is a heathen practice.

Meditation, meanwhile, in this sense, is an unscriptural concept. We ought to meditate on God’s Word, but this type of meditation involves emptying your mind and is akin to some of the false eastern religions.

The use of icons is a Romanist practice and a direct contradiction of the Second Commandment. Exodus 20:4 says: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:”

One would imagine that is pretty straightforward, but clearly not so for Alain Emerson, who evidently endorses Taizé worship.

This sort of ritualistic ‘worship’ has absolutely NO grounding in the Word of God.

As for the absence of preaching, the Bible says in Romans 10:17: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

The importance of preaching is laid out clearly in 1 Corinthians:18,21. It says: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

Preaching is God’s ordained method of bringing sinners to Himself, this corrupt form of worship cannot achieve that, it is a pagan substitute for Biblical worship of God and therefore must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

So, too, must be its advocates and practitioners such as Alain Emerson and the question must be asked – is this what goes on in his Emmanuel Church?

We previously mentioned various serious issues with this so-called church, which we plan to address at a later date, as the Lord leads us, but major question marks must be placed over the organisation due to this one matter on its own.

We would implore any readers of this post who perhaps know someone connected with this Emmanuel Church to please share this with them to warn them of the Biblically improper conduct of Alain Emerson and to encourage them to withdraw from this fellowship.