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.
Thus we are warned away from all such spectacles and enterprises, dearest sister in Christ!
But will we heed God's warning?
God's warning does not deal with "world governance" per se. It seems to me it is addressed to individual human souls.
Share International seems to be trying to "organize" religion itself, to make it serve — as a sort of lackey — the global secular purposes of the self-selected wise rulers who propose to relieve us of all independent conscience as the price to be paid for the rise of their own pet utopia. And at the end of the day, I expect this proposition bottoms out in: You WILL get on board — or else.
Yet it's worth recalling that "utopia" is the New Latin word for "nowhere."
Meanwhile, it seems to me no purpose is served by different religious confessions attacking each other on doctrinal points. The problem we face transcends doctrinal dispute altogether. Or so it seems to me. In short, what it all boils down to is the need for widespread, absolute rejection of the very thing that what's-her-name the Anglican primate is proposing. Which is the utter severance of the God–Man relation altogether, so that a "new god" can be hoisted onto the newly vacant Seat of Truth, Justice, and Love.
I don't "buy" what these folks are "selling," not in the least.
And so I wonder: Do we Christians prefer to contend with each other, rather than unite against our Common Enemy?
Thank you ever so much for your elegant essay/post, dearest sister in Christ!
Christ is always walking with you. Thus there is no such thing as a soliloquy. :^) For you always have a companion.
Just to clarify for those of us with baptist/methodist backgrounds: Have you ever heard a Christian song that begins, “I come to the garden alone....”?
You have to go back to the ancient Greeks to come up with an adequate word to describe a person who thinks one can buy truth for the price of a bag of M&Ms. Jeepers indeed!
That word would be: anoia — mindlessness. And while we're at it, let's hook it up to its famous cognate (from the French), anomie — utter depletion of spirit....
Indeed I have, dear xzins! It continues (at the bridge): "And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known."
It's a splendid, wonderful hymn.... And its subject matter is a very REAL thing....
ping
And you for your kind hearted support of Biblical truth and all those who Love God above all else.
Indeed. In my opinion, we are on a slippery slope that might result in our seeing the prophecy of a one world religion fulfilled.
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!”
= = =
ITTM:
INDEED TO THE MAX!
EXCEEDINGLY WELL PUT, as usual.
Thx.
Fascinating. Very well said, imho.
Thanks.
Will ping if I have questions about such . . .
personages skating toward hell on a steep moutain road DOWN.
Precisely. And the only way they could pull it off is some kind of mass hypnosis with accompanying magic tricks. An atheist on Free Republic once told me that she would believe in God if He gave her a bag of M&Ms. Jeepers...
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.
= = =
FOR SURE!
But will we heed God’s warning?
God’s warning does not deal with “world governance” per se. It seems to me it is addressed to individual human souls.
Share International seems to be trying to “organize” religion itself, to make it serve — as a sort of lackey — the global secular purposes of the self-selected wise rulers who propose to relieve us of all independent conscience as the price to be paid for the rise of their own pet utopia. And at the end of the day, I expect this proposition bottoms out in: You WILL get on board — or else.
Yet it’s worth recalling that “utopia” is the New Latin word for “nowhere
= = =
WELL SAID, FOR SURE.
I assume you do realize that some of us are trying hard to
WAKE UP
those called “Christian” of all flavors
TO THE REALITIES of globalism including global religion etc. all headed ultimately by satan but already well ensconced around the world and firmly in control of our U.S. Senate, the House leadership and obviously the MSM, the universities, OThuga, Industry etc.
But few engage the non-Christians and especially the anti-Christians except on the science threads and an occasional philosophy thread. Perhaps the subject matter and/or correspondents are more difficult?
At any rate, it's a start.
And I know you are always there, on the front lines. And I thank God for you.
Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dearest sister in Christ!
At the risk of sounding totally unChristian-especially in this day and age, I have grown tired of hearing rich socialists blaming “individual” or “capitalism” for the fall of the markets and this Depression (or soon to be). The real problem that caused this mess is the notion that everyone SHOULD be equal and we can raise everyone’s standard of living up to be like Bill Gates. The collapse of the housing market (and eventually the stock market) was driven by government interference.
Didn't our Lord Jesus say you will always have the poor? We will never do away with poverty and people who think otherwise are not reading their Bibles.
True.. the New Age is not really so new.. merely warmed over gruel.. "eat of the tree" and you'll be like God.. -Genesis ch 1-3.. i.e. implied not needing God anymore.. or Satans Gospel..
I read through a whole bunch of posts wondering why someone didn’t have a BFO (big flash of the obvious) and ask if this guy has ever picked up a Bible and even thumbed through it. And then I came to post 23 and yours at 24.
The entire Word of God speaks to the individual and his answer to salvation. Yes, the Old Testament was contractual and covenantal in scope ... “if you do this, I will do this (be you God) And of course we gain that hope because Israel always reneged, God never did. He never turned away. Even in the collective contractual setting, our God and Creator was speaking to individuals.
of course the episcopals have doubted the Word for ages ... inerrancy is something they never understood. Many of their theologians don’t recognize ressurection. Take those two away ..... there is nothing left.
And of course that is what exists today .. an empty organization. Believe in nothing, you will believe in anything.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.