As I understand it if you are not Catholic then you are protestant and if I am wrong what else is there?

The meaning of words drifts and becomes more complex with time. "Catholic" and "Protestant" have been subject to that "semantic drift".

In pure usage, "Catholic" means "all-encompassing", and refers to the doctrine that *the* "Church" (which is the "Body of Christ") is the whole company of all Christian People. This basic doctrine is held by many denominations beside the Roman Catholic Church: Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, and some Methodists and Presbyterians. The opposite of "Catholic" in this pure usage isn't "Protestant", but "Congregationalist". (Remember, I am using these terms to refer to classic doctrines, not to denominations.) Congregationalism is the doctrine that a single congregation can act alone and without consensus with any other congregation, because a single individual congregation experiences the completeness of the Body of Christ.

"Protestant" literally means "someone who protests", and refers to those who protested against the findings of the Council of Trent, the council that claimed authority over the whole church for the Pope. The "protestants" in this sense were Catholics who were separated from the *Roman* catholic church by the fact of their protest.

Martin Luther is a good example of a protestant. As you know, he was a Roman Catholic priest. He didn't "convert" from Roman Catholicism to protestantism, because protestantism hadn't been invented yet. Rather, he saw his acts of *protest* as being consistent with his calling as a *catholic*. The opposite of "protestant" isn't "catholic", but "dogmatist" -- the belief that a Christian must accept the church hierarchy's formulation of doctrine. "Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia and Sola Fidelis" are Latin (<g> not Greek!<g>) for "Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone". They are the slogan Luther chose to explain his position on the need -- or rather the non-need -- for an organized Church hierarchy to formulate dogma for the believer or to mediate between the believer and God.

Some congregationalists, for example some Baptists and some Pentacostals, believe that the mediaeval catholic church was corrupt long before the Council of Trent. They believe that their doctrine and worship were preserved from the original first-century church, and do not derive from Catholic practice in any way. Therefor, they don't believe they are "protestant", because *they*, being completely separate from the Catholic church, were not involved in any internal "protests" against the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

Although many people nowadays use "Catholic" to mean "Roman Catholic Church" and "Protestant" to mean "everybody else", the terms continue also to be used in their older, more technical sense.

This is one of the differences that we are learning to accept here. There are many Christians who, like you, hold preaching the Holy Scripture , the Bible, to be the distinguishing point between whether a form of worship is valid Christianity. This is, in fact, consistent with the Muslim view of Christians: they call us a "People of the Book" -- and see that as a good thing, a measure of our acceptability.

My perspective -- the doctrine of my community -- is a little different. I deeply love the Scripture. It is the witness of those who knew Jesus, and of those who formed the Jewish world into which Jesus was born. But I do *not* see Christians as a People of the Book. We are a people of a living relationship. We are sent to *tell* the Good News, not merely to hand out Bibles. We are a people of the Witness, and the Bible is a beautiful, enduring witness to the Word, but it is not the Word Himself, who was with God from the beginning.

So, like you, I feel as long as we love God and follow the one true God then where we worship shouldn't matter as long as they preach ... and here my different perspective kicks in ... the Word, the living witness of Jesus Christ. But in my community, the Anglican church, we generally take care not to confuse scripture with the Word. It's a subtle distinction, and this complex community offers the possibility to explore that distinction, with people like yourself who bring a different viewpoint.