Comments on: Congregation Study http://gracecatholic.net/archives/445 independent catholic ideas, identity & theology Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:41:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: admin http://gracecatholic.net/archives/445/comment-page-1#comment-1869 admin Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:38:21 +0000 http://gracecatholic.net/?p=445#comment-1869 thanks Huw! I loved your line: "The question is not will we have what they want, but rather will we have the patience to offer the Gospel without hedging our bets" - Amen! Amen! thanks Huw!

I loved your line: “The question is not will we have what they want, but rather will we have the patience to offer the Gospel without hedging our bets” – Amen! Amen!

]]> By: Huw Raphael http://gracecatholic.net/archives/445/comment-page-1#comment-1867 Huw Raphael Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:25:36 +0000 http://gracecatholic.net/?p=445#comment-1867 If all the conservative folks leave the mainstream and the mainstream drifts further to the left - and THEN others leave... what will these others be looking for? I'm hesitant to say "opportunity" for all the negative side effects you site. The presence of too many former fundie protestants in Antiochian Orthodoxy in the states who have simply laid down one book (the Bible) and picked up another (the Canons) and over this new book they are still the literalist interpreters, with a few notable exceptions (more-recent Frankie Schaefer) they have simply picked up a more exotic excuse for their Christianism. The disaffected folks will bring their own issues, their own baggage. The question is not will we have what they want, but rather will we have the patience to offer the Gospel without hedging our bets... I really believe, deeply, that what is missing is Gospel. I had a gay, ultra liberal Roman Catholic priest tell me in college (1984 or so), "What these people need is not tarot cards and 'spirituality' but Jesus." How do we live that in our own identity, yes, but as the Gospel? If all the conservative folks leave the mainstream and the mainstream drifts further to the left – and THEN others leave… what will these others be looking for?

I’m hesitant to say “opportunity” for all the negative side effects you site. The presence of too many former fundie protestants in Antiochian Orthodoxy in the states who have simply laid down one book (the Bible) and picked up another (the Canons) and over this new book they are still the literalist interpreters, with a few notable exceptions (more-recent Frankie Schaefer) they have simply picked up a more exotic excuse for their Christianism.

The disaffected folks will bring their own issues, their own baggage. The question is not will we have what they want, but rather will we have the patience to offer the Gospel without hedging our bets…

I really believe, deeply, that what is missing is Gospel. I had a gay, ultra liberal Roman Catholic priest tell me in college (1984 or so), “What these people need is not tarot cards and ‘spirituality’ but Jesus.”

How do we live that in our own identity, yes, but as the Gospel?

]]>