I am currently reading a number of books from the Emerging / Emergent church, especially some stuff by Ian Mobsby. I have just finished his book 'The becoming of G-d' and the main thrust was exciting and challenging but the devil is in the detail and some of that was a little disappointing (I will give a more thorough review at some point). That said, the whole Emerging / Deep / Ancient:Future Church movement(s) are fascinating and I believe a real hope for the future of a living Christianity that relates to a post-modern, materialist society and to disconnected human individuals who are seeking genuine community and yet find traditional church unreal or just plain unfriendly. Our churches are often lacking in that one fundamental ingredient COMMUNITY. I was raised in an evangelical Baptist chapel, which I recently revisited for a friend's funeral, whilst I could no longer cope with their exclusive theology, the sense of community was palpable and almost moved me to tears.
How do we in the mainstream churches get back to that sense of the Church as Community, an intentional community of prayer, worship and service. I believe that as Anglicans we should be best placed to offer this Ancient:Future mix, we have an evangelical proclamation and also the riches of the Catholic tradition, if only we could re-shape ourselves. We so need to put aside the labels of the past, evangelical, catholic, liberal to work together creatively for the glory of God and to present the real good news of the Gospel. I am in flux at the moment, all I really know is that we cannot stay as we are and that these movements are a possible way through... I wonder... more to come.
Fr. David,
ReplyDeleteOver in the CofE aren't they doin all that 'fresh expressions' of Church stuff? It seems that can be a model for how other Anglican church's handle this transition.
To be an intentional community of prayer, worship and service it seems that one of the best places to start is with our rich liturgies. It can be hell to find a good evensong over here. They are usually either haphazard or once a week.
I think George Herbert and I agree that one of the best things a priest could do for an area would be to do both morning and evening prayer publicly with regularity and passion. Perhaps even digging into our Catholic heritage and having them all sung! But that is admittedly a matter of personal piety.
As you mentioned them in your twit I would point to Church of the Apostles as a possible model for future Anglican expressions. Have you looked at their music section and heard their arrangements of the prayer book?