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.
-30-
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
INDEED.
MARANATHA! LORD JESUS COME QUICKLY!
God have mercy on all who Love Him.
May God draw all who Love Him intimately ever more into Himself.
They have their umba bunga, the Catholics have their tradition...
The 'field' keeps getting smaller and smaller...
There really is a movement towards fascism on a global level. Who could have imaged any of this 20 years ago?
Now see here, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori! While I agree God IS All in All, as there is no where He is not in Creation, if He felt we didn't need a Savior, explain why He came down himself.
But He did, and we were bought with a very BIG price.
He said to the thief hanging next to Him, "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43)
Sounds pretty individual, to me. This deluded woman is walking with the Devil and misleading the flock. Does she even read the Bible?
Ah! pearls of wisdom from my ol' drinking buddy, Benjamin Creme — another messenger of "hope." Oh my, dearest sister in Christ, but that's become quite a magic word nowadays....
[As in: "Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream," on the tides of Hope. Not the Christian Hope mind you. Just generic, man-centered, secular "hope." Then, the story goes, just trust "us" — big question mark right there — for all the rest. Oh sure; that sounds just dandy to me — NOT!!!
The fact is, I have met not only Ben (on several occasions), but the people with whom he surrounds himself, his acolytes and devotées. All I can tell you is they are mindless, helpless, and naïve. And most of them literally worship Ben.]
If anybody wants to know where the Maitreya, the imminently emerging "World Teacher," is right now, you can look for him inside Ben's head. That's where he's always been.
What is really scary is that Ben's baby, Share International (IIRC a subsidiary of Lucis Trust, now Lucis Publishers) is a highly respected NGO affiliate of the UN. The organization is esteemed in those precincts for their "high spirituality" and "concern for the world's poor."
As for this Schiori person, all I can say is: She is to the Anglican Church what Benjamin Creme is to the UN. They evidently are soul mates.
It seems to me the spirit of objective Evil is blowing through our world. And its enablers and co-dependents are already firmly ensconced within our own churches, and other main cultural and political institutions.
I'd be really depressed right now, were it not for the fact that I have absolute trust that God will turn all this mess into His Good Purpose.
All thanks and praise be unto our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Amen.
Thanks for your perceptive and enlightening post.
MARANATHA!
BTW, Betty, what’s your take on the recent encyclical about global governance?
Dear Quix, I haven't read it yet, but definitely will do so very soon. I simply loved Pope Benedict's first two, Deus Caritas Est and Spes Salve.
From some of the discussion I've heard so far, I gather there is some confusion about what His Holiness intends by his usage of certain terms.
Anyhoot, I'll be reading it soon. I'll try to answer your question then.
Thank you dear brother in Christ for your kind words of support!
MARANATHA!
Of concern in all this mess is my sense that the accuser is working overtime to confuse Christians regarding the mystical Body of Christ. The Church includes all real believers of all ages, and it is not determined by denominational or regional or temporal affiliation.
When a Schori comes along saying “everybody’s automatically on the boat”, she means pagans, atheists, Christians, Wiccans, etc....everyone. (In fact, as a liberal theologian she considers all of this a “myth”. In her heart she thinks that we all just die and go away, but in her “religious pronouncements” it’s easy for her to say all are in, since she doesn’t believe in an in or an out in the first place.)
We must be careful to distinguish between syncretism and unity. Confusing the two makes it hard for others to recognize dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
All these episoco-homos think about is themselves. They have sacrificed the gospel on the altar of sodomy.
I'm on guard for that 24 hours a day.
Most perceptive observation, dear brother in Christ! Moreover, she doesn't believe there is such a thing as a unique human soul worth caring about. She can think only in terms of "reducing" all of humanity to some kind of indistinguishable mass. So not only it is pointless and futile to believe that there is Life beyond the grave, but human life itself here on earth is all quite pointless, too. No individual genius, no individual striving, no individual love is worth a tinker's damn in the end.
In short, Schiori isn't satisfied with just "killing God." She will not rest until she has destroyed man, too.
How does the spirit of Nihilism gain authority within the churches? Pope Paul VI worried about this out loud during the '70s ... back in the heyday of "liberation theology."
The fact is, the only logical conclusion to be drawn from the nihilist premise is that the best thing a human being can do is commit suicide. For if all is pointless, then: What's the point of living (and suffering) in the first place?
Thank you ever so much, dear brother in Christ, for your wise and perceptive essay/post — and for the astute warning with which you concluded it.
And by my reading of the prophecies, the one world religion will not simply be an "I'm ok, you're ok" belief, but will have a mortal person at the head of it.
If Creme, Schiori et al cede to a single authority, e.g. a Maitreya, then we Christians should get ready for our homegoing, praising God and saying "Maranatha, Jesus!"
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39
Protestants should not be surprised if and when the Pope speaks of global charity or economy or hope because the word "Catholic" means universal. It goes with the position so to speak.
Likewise, Catholics should not be surprised when Protestants are troubled if and when those statements refer to global governance because (at least some) Protestants tend to be apocalyptic due to end times prophecies, in this case the prophecy of a one world governance and also a one world religion.
Protestants have long suspected that a key end times player would arise within the Catholic church because of this passage which refers to the city on seven mountains (or hills.) The woman is a city (Rev 17:19) which reigns over the 'kings' of the earth.
IMHO, Jerusalem would be a better match as a city to give rise to a one world religion simply because it is considered holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims. And yet the Eastern religions have no stake there.
For that reason, Share International is the one I am watching because their sales pitch if accepted, would affect all major belief systems around the world. Creme declares their "master Jesus" is already in Rome (a city on seven hills) - he is involved with the U.N. as you say - and will be disclosed on the "Day of Declaration" by the Maitreya who he claims is the Messiah, Krishna, Buddha, Twelth Imam, et al.
From the earlier linked website:
Maitreya will be invited by the international media to speak directly to the entire world through the television networks linked together by satellites.
On this Day of Declaration, we will see his face on the television screen wherever we have access. The biblical statement, "All eyes will see him," will be fulfilled, in the only way in which it can be fulfilled. We will see his face, but he will not speak. His thoughts, his ideas, his call to humanity for justice, sharing, right relationships and peace, will take place silently, telepathically. Each of us will hear him inwardly in our own language. In this way, he will re-enact on a worldwide scale the true happenings of Pentecost 2,000 years ago.
At the same time, the energy which he embodies ― the Christ Principle, the energy of love ― will flow out in tremendous potency through the hearts of all humanity. He has said: "It will be as if I embrace the world. People will feel it even physically." This will evoke an intuitive, heartfelt response to his message. Simultaneously, on the outer, physical plane, there will be hundreds of thousands of miracle healings throughout the planet. In these three ways we will know that Maitreya is the World Teacher, come for all groups, religious and non-religious alike.
Our response to this experience will determine the entire future of this planet. Maitreya will present us with a choice: either we continue as we are now, in the old, greedy, selfish, complacent ways of the past, and destroy ourselves, or we accept the principle of sharing, accept that we are one, and begin the creation of a civilization such as this world has never yet seen. Maitreya already knows our answer. He has said: "My heart tells me your answer, your choice, and is glad."
Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here [is] Christ, or there; believe [it] not.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Behold, I have told you before.
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, [he is] in the secret chambers; believe [it] not.
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. - Matthew 24:21-28
How does the spirit of Nihilism gain authority within the churches? Pope Paul VI worried about this out loud during the '70s ... back in the heyday of "liberation theology."
The fact is, the only logical conclusion to be drawn from the nihilist premise is that the best thing a human being can do is commit suicide. For if all is pointless, then: What's the point of living (and suffering) in the first place?
Well "they'll" have to "fulfill" it without us, dearest sister in Christ! But certainly, that is not the same thing as saying the prophecy itself is wrong....
Notice that Benjamin Creme readily admits that Christians are expected to be the most "unpersuadable" people when it comes to "accepting" the "Lord" Maitreya in this life. To which I would hasten to add: or in any other life.
So, what strategies do these self-appointed messiahs of our Brave New World propose to deal with that problem — the unforgivable "sin" of not hewing to the line of what they declare is already "the received doctrine?" Conversion by the sword, a la your standard jihadi moron?
Where does this seeming "Mexican standoff" end?
We do indeed living in interesting times — as the ancient Chinese proverb puts it. Of course, the context of the saying is a curse.
Thanks for noticing that I might have a thing or two to say about my "ol' drinking buddy." Though I haven't thought about this "stuff" in some 20+ years, I have read all of Ben Creme's books, and all of Alice Bailey's theosophical works besides (she was major inspiration for Creme both as to methods and content). Among her enchanting titles are The Rays and the Initiations, Esoteric Psychology, Treatise on Cosmic Fire, plus many others. (Bailey was certainly prolific in her writings. ALL are published by Lucis Trust.)
If anybody wants any details regarding where Jesus Christ fits into this picture, let me just say that His role is so minor — He being "only" a "third-degree initiate" in this system (for context, Leonardo Da Vinci holds that rank as well) — that He has been utterly eclipsed by the "hidden" Masters of the Hierarchy.... The sovereign of this "world system" is actually a seventh-degree initiate by the name of Sanat Kumara, who is himself about to undertake his "next" initiation, which will (1) literally take him out of this world system, presumably in pursuit of "higher and better" things; but his doing so will also force (2) corresponding "initiations" of all his subordinate "hidden masters" here on earth. Which is the backstory or pretext of the "hidden" Maitreya (already a fourth degree initiate, seeking to attain the fifth degree in order to legitimize his reign on earth) becoming "visible" in the first place. Presumably, under this system, Jesus Christ might actually succeed in making his fourth initiation (His "third degree" was secured by His Crucifixion).... But then, you never know: He might "fail," He might "not make it" to the fourth on this try....
Talk about a "whole-cloth" fairy story.... And yet there are dolts out there who lap this stuff up with a spoon. But what is proposed here is nothing short of a massive cultural paradigm shift.
"O Rose, thou art sick!" as the poet said....
Quite inadvertently, I seem to be the most qualified "expert" on Benjamin Creme and his Maitreya movement in all of FReeperland. Which is not to brag. It's just to say not only am I intimately familiar with the literature, but once upon a time Ben and I drained a fifth of Dewars between us, and had a most fascinating, uninterrupted tete-a-tete in the time it took us to do that.... :^)
But of course I rarely partake of "spirits" nowadays.... LOLOL!
Thank you so very much, dearest sister in Christ, for your beautiful, beautiful essay/post! And — as ever — for all your support.
And thank you again for summing up their belief system which as you note, is a "whole-cloth" fairy story.
I'm still amazed that so many people listened to Obama - and voted for him - without actually hearing him. When confronted with his actual words on media unattributed their reaction is not the same at all.
It seems to me that many people are mentally "out to lunch" and are therefore, vulnerable.
Maranatha, Jesus!!!
“”O Rose, thou art sick!” as the poet said....”
That’s what Kay said this morning, so she won’t let me come out to play. I had to come to the garden alone while the dew was still on the roses....and the weeding...and the mulching...but no one walked with me or talked to me, soooo I just talked to myself.
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