Posted on 07/10/2009 5:04:53 AM PDT by Frumanchu
ANAHEIM, Calif. (ABP) -- The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church called the evangelical notion that individuals can be right with God a "great Western heresy" that is behind many problems facing the church and the wider society.
Describing a United States church in crisis, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told delegates to the group's triennial meeting July 8 in Anaheim, Calif., that the overarching connection to problems facing Episcopalians has to do with "the great Western heresy -- that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God."
"It's caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus," Jefferts Schori, the first woman to be elected as a primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion three years ago, said. "That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of being."
Jefferts Schori said countering individualistic faith was one reason the theme chosen for the meeting was "Ubuntu," an African word that describes humaneness, caring, sharing and being in harmony with all of creation.
"Ubuntu doesn't have any 'I's in it," she said. "The 'I' only emerges as we connect -- and that is really what the word means: I am because we are, and I can only become a whole person in relationship with others. There is no 'I' without 'you,' and in our context, you and I are known only as we reflect the image of the One who created us."
Jefferts Schori said "heretical and individualistic understanding" contributes to problems like neglect for the environment and the current worldwide economic recession.
"The sins of a few have wreaked havoc with the lives of many, as greed and dishonesty have destroyed livelihoods, educational possibilities, care for the aged, and multiple forms of creativity," she said. "And that's just the aftermath of Ponzi schemes for which a handful will go to jail."
She said in order to be faithful, "we need to be continually rediscovering that my needs are not the only significant ones."
"Ubuntu implies that selfishness and self-centeredness cannot long survive," she said. "We are our siblings' knowers and their keepers, and we cannot be known without them."
"We have no meaning, no true existence in isolation," she said. "We shall indeed die as we forget or ignore that reality."
About 200 Episcopal bishops and 850 clergy and lay deputies were expected to convene for the 10-day meeting. Business items are set to include debates over human sexuality, politics and poverty.
One resolution being considered calls for "generous discretion" to be extended to clergy in exercising pastoral ministry in six states -- Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont -- where the civil marriage of same-gender couples has been legalized as well as other states that may follow suit in the next three years.
The 2.1-million-member denomination has argued vociferously about homosexuality since 2003, when the group approved the election of its first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Many more conservative Episcopalians and a handful of congregations have begun breaking away from the church in the years since.
Southern Baptist mega-church pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, took sides in his sister denomination's debate recently by showing up in Texas to encourage about 800 Episcopalians attending the first annual meeting of a conservative breakaway group calling itself the Anglican Church in North America.
Warren, who spoke out last fall against legal gay marriage in California, said in January that any nearby Anglican congregation that loses its property after breaking with the U.S. Episcopal Church was welcome to meet on the campus of his Saddleback Church.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Indeed. It really is amazing to me, dearest sister in Christ.
But that "rays" business keeps the folks busy. It's all the talk in these circles, "What are your rays?" "Have you figured out what your "soul ray" is yet?" Yada yada yada.... [The idea being if you know your rays, this will help you succeed at your next initiation — whatever that may be. "Initiation" is left a very indistinct idea, to say the least. One does not share the details with the "uninitiate" or "lesser initiates" you see. The only concrete example I was ever able to find of an "initiation" was Christ's crucifixion — that little hurdle he had to get over to become a third-degree initiate.... If that provides any perspective on the matter.]
There has got to be something terribly warped about a mind that can fall for this stuff.
Thank you ever so much for your kind words of encouragement, dearest sister in Christ!
Seems to me the most vulnerable are the rebellious sort who would cling to most anything to distinguish themselves from their parents or ancestors. I understand some people even believe that mini-chlorians (Star Wars' force) are real.
Surely that is a symptom of a diseased spirit.
Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dearest sister in Christ!
I have read it thoroughly once and am in the midst of doing so a second time.
With the wide range of opinions about the document, most all of which are uninformed (either by the readers of the document itself or by those who have an insufficient background in the social doctrine of the Church), I really don’t feel like arguing with people about it.
Thank YOU betty, but I thought that you had figured out by now that I'm not a sister, Galatians 3:28 notwithstanding.
:-P
Cheers!
I am talking about the conduit, the delivery truck, by which the grace ends up on your doorstep.
Cheers!
He *swears* that while there (it was over Christmas) he saw a gigantic mural, on the side of a building, of a 30-foot-tall Santa Claus being crucified.
These eastern folks *always* get something wrong about Christianity ;-)
Cheers!
lol, lol, that's because they themselves had no clue where to jump off.
I still remember the shock of first year university students forced to take Phil 101, totally horrified they couldn't regurgitate, they had to think, lol
It is Faith that is the conduit of Grace, and God's Grace is the fountainhead. Grace does not arrive in any other "package". What is faith? It is made up of three things—knowledge, belief, and trust.
But there is a nut in Ubuntu.
Another person joins the fray.
Can we find some common definition of Faith and Grace which all can agree upon, first?
Cheers!
The biblical meaning,
the world, the universe the circle of the earth, the earth the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ
BOTH. In the first place, God does not make souls with a cookie-cutter: Every person is unique. Thus a man has a particular differentiation of "mental and spiritual equipment and needs," so to speak, as compared to another man. Moreover, it seems to me that the Holy Spirit can work through rituals just as well as directly on individual souls if He wants to — the Spirit bloweth where it wilt.
The ungodly need to be saved, it has nothing to do with one's "mental or spiritual needs". He's dead in sins, he has no needs other than salvation, which is from Christ. Works cannot save him, and that means no other person, no object, no ritual, nothing, or you diminish the free gift of Grace, which, per the bible, only comes thru faith.
Now, believing is the "work" (John 6:29) but note, it is the "work of God", so man can't take any credit for it.
Sure, the biblical definition, which we have given you
First, I’m not speaking of the Roman Catholic Church, but rather the Catholic Church founded by Christ.
Second, your logic is failing you: “outside the Church there is no salvation” does not mean “inside the Church everyone is saved automatically.”
A Venn diagram might help.
I do not remember seeing in the Bible the words "What is faith? It is made up of three things—knowledge, belief, and trust. "
I agree as a common-sense definition, that those are a pretty good description: but I don't remember biblical backing for it.
What I was intending to convey with the question was one definition I heard (from a Lutheran pastor) that grace is "God's unmerited favor."
And the idea there, that if it is unmerited, then we cannot "deserve" it by our faith.
(Opening up several more doctrinal cans of worms, which I was trying to avoid -- it is for that reason I wanted to get common definitions before continuing.)
In the meantime, I recommend a dose of Romans 14, that we should pray for one another.
"It is before his own Master that he stands or falls...God is able to make him stand."
Cheers!
belief and trust
pis'-tis Noun Feminine
Definition conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it relating to God
the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ
relating to Christ
a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God
the religious beliefs of Christians
belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same
fidelity, faithfulness the character of one who can be relied on
Charis khar'-ece Noun Feminine
Definition
grace
that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech good will, loving-kindness, favour of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues
what is due to grace the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace the token or proof of grace, benefit a gift of grace benefit, bounty thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward
In the biblical definitions of “grace” and “faith”, if there is an “object” involved, that object is Christ, no other.
Cheers!
The definitions come from Strong’s Dictionary, widely used in theology studies
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