Posted on 04/22/2007 2:48:10 PM PDT by Zakeet
God has no gender. And the Lord? There's not much Lord in this church service.
At Tucson's largest Episcopal church, St. Philip's in the Hills, the creators of an alternative worship service called Come & See are bucking tradition by rewriting what have become prescribed ways of worship.
For the faithful, that means God isn't referred to as "him," and references to "the Lord" are rare. "Lord" has become a loaded word conveying hierarchical power over things, "which in what we have recorded in our sacred texts, is not who Jesus understood himself to be," St. Philip's associate rector Susan Anderson-Smith said.
"The way our service reads, the theology is that God is love, period," St. Philip's deacon Thomas Lindell added. "Our service has done everything it can to get rid of power imagery. We do not pray as though we expect the big guy in the sky to come and fix everything."
St. Philip's isn't the only local church to re-examine its language. Other local religious leaders already are eschewing the use of "Lord" for similar reasons. First Congregational United Church of Christ in Midtown even has a different name for The Lord's Prayer. They call it "The Prayer of Our Creator."
"We do still use the word 'Lord' on occasion, but we are suspicious of it," First Congregational pastor Briget Nicholson said. "Inclusive language is important. Our United Church of Christ hymnal does have hymns that will say 'Father' and 'God.' but the next verse will always then say 'Mother' and 'God.' It's gender-balanced."
(Excerpt) Read more at azstarnet.com ...
For those persons interested in pain, there is much more unsettling material in the article itself.
And this is backed by scripture, where?
A Christian pastor takes a heavy responsibility on his head. When you get an idiot priestess and an idiot deacon like this, they are misleading their flock, plain and simple. It’s bad enough to go astray yourself, but to lead others astray is a much worse sin.
As if God had the power of creation and damnation. What a downer. Isn't it better to think of "God" as a commune of eternal relative rightness?
Yes, and with ‘no one on first’ — no leadership to speak of in the Episkies/ Anglicans, why, anything goes!!
And the kind of love they're talking about requires lots of K-Y jelly, handcuffs, a feather boa and several yards of garden hose!
I guess thousands of years of wisdom and tradition is on the scrap heap ‘cause it offends someone. Or isn’t hip. If every generation can just re-invent religion to their own liking, then we might as well just start worshiping Gaia. Or maybe just start worshiping the image in the mirror—which is what I suspect many people on the Left do anyway.
God is the God of love as well as he God of justice and retribution. He may no come and “fix everything” but His power should be taken greatly in to focus. He can raise souls in to heaven and cast them down to Hell. He also made the universe from pure will, He did not give birth to it. Referring to Him as Lord is appropriate.
Is this the same Episcopal church that recently appointed an openly homosexual, adulterer, alcoholic, who left his wife and children in order to have sex with another man, Bishop? If so, Lord was evicted many years ago. And they don't believe much of God's word.
Well, that part is right.
From the Article: “We don’t stress the blood and gore of the crucifixion and the so-called sacrifice of the Mass,” he said. “I think that calls attention to Jesus’ death but it doesn’t call attention to why we are Christians. It seems to me, being a Christian isn’t just about the birth and death of Jesus. It’s about living in the world with his life as an example.”
Wow, how to respond to that, its apostasy of the first order. The Death of Christ and Resurrection of the core of the faith and the reason for Salvation.
Revelation 3:16 (Whole Chapter)
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Well .. Jesus also said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father”.
I would presume that Jesus understood what His power was all about - but He laid it aside and did not use it while He walked on the earth. But .. that doesn’t mean it wasn’t available to Him.
Remember in the Garden, when the soldiers came to take Him away .. He commented that if He had chosen to, He could have called tens of thousands of angels to rescue Him ..?? So, for people to say Jesus didn’t believe He had “hierarchical power over things” .. only shows how ignorant these so-called church people are concerning the “Lord”.
“And this is backed by scripture, where?”
Haven’t you heard? Sola scriptura is too limiting. Tradition (heresy older than fifty years} is just as good.
>>St. Philip’s associate rector Susan Anderson-Smith said.<<
The hyphen people just love churches, don’t they?
anglican ping
All these liberal nuts are damned. They are deceivers and on their way to hell - seeking to take as many with them as they can.
Ack, I missed that part. How revolting.
Didn’t Ann Coulter talk about how any idiot can say be nice to eachother, but Jesus’s message was of Him being salvation?
Strong Stomach Ping.
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