Glory to you O Lord, glory to you.
Is the church something which stands triumphant over the world? A body of holiness in spite of the secular destitution of every day life?
No!
The church is the living community of all persons. Wherever there is a person outside the church, the church has failed.
Low numbers in a main parish service is not something to be defended by interior rhetoric.
It does not matter how 'true' theology is, how real the presence is. If God cannot be related to his people, what use is the church other than some metaphysical interest group?
We must, as the body of Christ, be for all people. Connect our eyes with those we meet and relate with the worth of their soul. Joyfully connecting with all people is the foretaste of the heavenly banquet. If we can develop these skills now, what icons of paradise we may be for all we encounter!
I end with a solemn warning from a talk I listened to today:
Click here for the talk recording.
'We cannot paint the soul, we can however witness the mark it leaves'
Is the church something which stands triumphant over the world? A body of holiness in spite of the secular destitution of every day life?
No!
The church is the living community of all persons. Wherever there is a person outside the church, the church has failed.
Low numbers in a main parish service is not something to be defended by interior rhetoric.
It does not matter how 'true' theology is, how real the presence is. If God cannot be related to his people, what use is the church other than some metaphysical interest group?
We must, as the body of Christ, be for all people. Connect our eyes with those we meet and relate with the worth of their soul. Joyfully connecting with all people is the foretaste of the heavenly banquet. If we can develop these skills now, what icons of paradise we may be for all we encounter!
I end with a solemn warning from a talk I listened to today:
"Outside of the bubble of comfortable church worship services, we need to face the realities of our increasingly post-secular world; where people distrust institutions, trust only their own judgement, celebrate diversity because it creates more choice..."
Click here for the talk recording.
'We cannot paint the soul, we can however witness the mark it leaves'
C. S. Matthew, MMXIII
No comments:
Post a Comment