Congregations full of teachers and librarians and social workers and community organizers show up on Sunday morning to hear that because their church doesn’t have a soup kitchen or a shoe drive or something, that they aren’t involved in mission. Lay people should respectfully request that this definition be broadened.
The bishops of the Episcopal Church’s Province IV have asked their colleague, Diocese of South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence, to meet with them “to have a clarifying conversation” about his decision to issue property deeds to each diocesan congregation.
Bonnie Anderson: “I believe that we need more resources and authority at the local level. The days of the big corporate front office, if not gone already, are dwindling pretty fast.”
“Yes, the baby boomer may have had a career, two careers, has raised a family, but millenials are coming from these colleges where almost all of them have some overseas studies, almost all of them have been on some kind of volunteer mission; they speak a second language.”
Rational functionalism is the idea that we can uncover the mysteries of life and the universe mainly through rational thought and disciplined investigation. It is the tendency of denominations, their congregations, and their leaders to subscribe to a view of faith and church rooted in a restrictive, logic-bound theology that ignores the possibility of spiritual experiences and miraculous events.”
Trinity has provided meeting and gathering spaces as well as a tranquil place at church facilities in and around Wall Street. Thousands of protesters use these facilities every week. However, the enclosed lot at Duarte Square is not available nor is it suitable for large-scale assemblies or encampments. It has no facilities and is licensed to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for interim outdoor art exhibits which will resume in the spring.
… the more I continue to study the more I realize Clement of Alexandria is one of my spiritual ancestors, one of those who gave me the ability and the courage to set aside the certainties I’d had in my former church beliefs and embrace new possibilities, including the idea that the entire world will be redeemed,…
When we prepare a highway for the Lord, we need to remember it wasn’t built in a day–nor will we get used to it in a day.