Liberal Crozier
06-28-2006, 07:43 PM
It began with Apostolic leadership in five centres of the known world. It was James in Jerusalem, Peter in Antioch, Linus in Rome given credit to Peter who "tarried", Andrew in Constantinople, and Mark in Alexandria.
The first millennium saw the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, the Pentecostal Promise, and establishment of churches that led to disputes settled by Spirit-filled deliberations among the Elders of the Church. They codified the Scriptures and accepted Hebrew scriptures that held canonical appeal among them. They defined who Christ was in both credal statements and oecumenical pronouncements. By mid-millennium they lost the Oriental Eastern Churches on the question of dual nature, and eventually, the Eastern and Western Churches split - the historical date of 1054 given when canonical instruments were delivered. There are questions of a filioque clause in the Nicene Creed, and theological views on the Holy Spirit affecting the canon of the Mass.....but Greek and Latin parts of the Old Empire had different definitions and cultures that were unreconcilable. The honourific primacy was maintained even after schism. The validity of sacraments were tenuously agreed to exist with each other. The Monarchial West adopted Aristotle and Natural Laws and philosophical constructions that would eventually produce the Reformation of the Second Millennium.
Having just concluded the Second Millennium, we are aware of the two parts of Christendom living under two different secular regimes. The Western Church becomes a Papal theocracy, while by the seventh century, the Eastern Church becomes a subjugated vassal of Islamic states who convert Santa Sophia Cathedral into a mosque. This lack of theocratic secular control and absent academically-constructed theology, the Mysterion were lived and not explained for the infinite has no acceptable vocabulary. The Holy Spirit guides and teaches and imbues one with fire...and even they are yet to understand the translation that includes our lives.
The Third Millennium is more complex. It includes Soulforce and its combination of non-violence practiced by Christian and Hindu in telling truth to powerful Reformation Western Christians who are copying the errors of the Mother Church they sought to purify from the Babylonian Captivity. While some meet these challenges with Christian bodies who emanate from either the English or Continental Reformations, the effect is the same. Beyond Soulforce, it includes the UFMCC especially - and many similar autocephalous groups of continuing Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox Christians who - in groups of twelve or less - or even hundreds and more -seek to include rather than exclude the LGBT Christian at the gate.
Indian subjugation had been fractured until a South African secular lawyer with a British education migrated to India to begin a pilgrimage to become the Father of the Indian nation. He tried to keep Hindu and Muslim and Bengal together and failed in the trying. However, he brought the British Empire and the Anglican Communion who nurtured the Raj to their knees in granting secular independence and spiritual reconciliation to the Indian Church.
"Jackboot" African American clergy had always been at odds with the smaller seminary-trained mainline US denominations. The Delaney sisters - who lived significantly into their mid-100's, were professionals whose father was the first Episcopal bishop in the US from subsaharan African ancestry.
Martin Luther King, Jr., unlike his jackboot father, was Moorehouse College and earned a PhD in theology from the prestigious Boston University. The Southern Leadership Council was headed by men and women who represented the educated and middle classes established during the early Reconstruction period prior to Plessy v Ferguson and Jim Crow earlier.
The reality of an accredited Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. established credence and a lack of condescension usually afforded the Amos and Andy characters by Jim Crow. It did not stop the self-hating homophobes like the Hoover-Tolsons to perform their calumny upon his person. He won the day.
I feel that this paragraph may just begin to ramble, and to conclude, will thread the themes. Third millennium challenges and opportunities ? What are they? Happiness and joy while resolutely fighting for our rights lest our enemies define us in the civil and political arena and excommunicate us from our pews.....at least if they do so, must it be " pro se " or do we :
find a man who like Ghandi, and like King, will lead us into the Promised Land, or like the latter, establish the liaisons between the many mansions promised in John 14, in order to seek our grafting without prejudice into the Body of Christ. Amen.
The first millennium saw the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, the Pentecostal Promise, and establishment of churches that led to disputes settled by Spirit-filled deliberations among the Elders of the Church. They codified the Scriptures and accepted Hebrew scriptures that held canonical appeal among them. They defined who Christ was in both credal statements and oecumenical pronouncements. By mid-millennium they lost the Oriental Eastern Churches on the question of dual nature, and eventually, the Eastern and Western Churches split - the historical date of 1054 given when canonical instruments were delivered. There are questions of a filioque clause in the Nicene Creed, and theological views on the Holy Spirit affecting the canon of the Mass.....but Greek and Latin parts of the Old Empire had different definitions and cultures that were unreconcilable. The honourific primacy was maintained even after schism. The validity of sacraments were tenuously agreed to exist with each other. The Monarchial West adopted Aristotle and Natural Laws and philosophical constructions that would eventually produce the Reformation of the Second Millennium.
Having just concluded the Second Millennium, we are aware of the two parts of Christendom living under two different secular regimes. The Western Church becomes a Papal theocracy, while by the seventh century, the Eastern Church becomes a subjugated vassal of Islamic states who convert Santa Sophia Cathedral into a mosque. This lack of theocratic secular control and absent academically-constructed theology, the Mysterion were lived and not explained for the infinite has no acceptable vocabulary. The Holy Spirit guides and teaches and imbues one with fire...and even they are yet to understand the translation that includes our lives.
The Third Millennium is more complex. It includes Soulforce and its combination of non-violence practiced by Christian and Hindu in telling truth to powerful Reformation Western Christians who are copying the errors of the Mother Church they sought to purify from the Babylonian Captivity. While some meet these challenges with Christian bodies who emanate from either the English or Continental Reformations, the effect is the same. Beyond Soulforce, it includes the UFMCC especially - and many similar autocephalous groups of continuing Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox Christians who - in groups of twelve or less - or even hundreds and more -seek to include rather than exclude the LGBT Christian at the gate.
Indian subjugation had been fractured until a South African secular lawyer with a British education migrated to India to begin a pilgrimage to become the Father of the Indian nation. He tried to keep Hindu and Muslim and Bengal together and failed in the trying. However, he brought the British Empire and the Anglican Communion who nurtured the Raj to their knees in granting secular independence and spiritual reconciliation to the Indian Church.
"Jackboot" African American clergy had always been at odds with the smaller seminary-trained mainline US denominations. The Delaney sisters - who lived significantly into their mid-100's, were professionals whose father was the first Episcopal bishop in the US from subsaharan African ancestry.
Martin Luther King, Jr., unlike his jackboot father, was Moorehouse College and earned a PhD in theology from the prestigious Boston University. The Southern Leadership Council was headed by men and women who represented the educated and middle classes established during the early Reconstruction period prior to Plessy v Ferguson and Jim Crow earlier.
The reality of an accredited Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. established credence and a lack of condescension usually afforded the Amos and Andy characters by Jim Crow. It did not stop the self-hating homophobes like the Hoover-Tolsons to perform their calumny upon his person. He won the day.
I feel that this paragraph may just begin to ramble, and to conclude, will thread the themes. Third millennium challenges and opportunities ? What are they? Happiness and joy while resolutely fighting for our rights lest our enemies define us in the civil and political arena and excommunicate us from our pews.....at least if they do so, must it be " pro se " or do we :
find a man who like Ghandi, and like King, will lead us into the Promised Land, or like the latter, establish the liaisons between the many mansions promised in John 14, in order to seek our grafting without prejudice into the Body of Christ. Amen.