I promise you the discussion will be extremely respectful and open to divergent perspectives. So are you ok with me quoting some of your posts in this thread, in that thread, and also tagging you? Likewise
@seeking.IAM I want to @ tag you and quote you because I believe the loss of reverent liturgical worship is one of the two primary causes of membership loss.
Basically, just so everyone knows my perspective, I believe that the Liturgical Movement was a good idea, but the RCL and certain changes to the liturgy like the forced implementation of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer in the Episcopal Church, which is a great liturgy by tje way, but forcing it on all the parishes caused a schism (although these days some Episcopalian parishes just use the 1928 BCP without authorization), just as the forced implementation of the Novus Ordo Missae caused a schism, and that while homosexuals have been treated horribly in many denominations, the denomination-wide implementation of policies which could be called scripturally controversial has alienated people, and individual parishes should have the autonomy to accept or reject such proposals and change denominational affiliations, but the primary focus needs to shift to attracting people away from the megachurches of the Joel Osteen / Mark Driscoll variety, and to remove stumbling blocks to that, and that there is a need for a united denomination for liberal Christians that would share resources with the traditional Christians such as church buildings, charitable operations, certain common parts of seminaries, chaplaincy support et cetera, based on something like the Elizabethan settlement, wherein the traditionalists would agree not to engage in, for example, conversion therapy, and the progressives would agree not to, among other things, follow the example of herchurh, formerly known as Ebenezer Lutheran Church, and sell mother goddess rosaries, and on this basis peace could be restored and membership increased.
That is my thesis, so in participating in the thread, that’s what you are getting into. If anyone attacks your ministry, qualifications for ministry, the existence of the mainline churches, the good that the mainline churches continue to do, their importance to society, or questions the need for that, I vow that I will report them if their attack is ad hominem, flaming or goading, and otherwise ask them to leave us in peace to have a respectful dialogue.
In addition I will solicit alternative perspectives, including yours, and vow to respectfully consider these and to not dismiss any idea out of hand and also to refrain from demeaning anyone for their ideas.
@Paidiske can attest that I have repeatedly defended her ministry from attacks by people making stupid posts along the lines of “Rahhh! Women can’t do ministry” despite the fact that the entire nation of Georgia was evangelized by a woman, St. Nino, an Armenian princess, and that St. Paul’s fellow evangelist St. Theclas and St. Mary Magdalene were instrumental in the spread of the early church, and the most important ministry of all I believe was that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so I can promise a respectful debate and I have the credibility to back it up.
My congregations also have multiple homosexual members and I have sought to rechurch unchurched homosexuals. If you look at the thread in Full and Part Time Ministry, you can see the precise approach I take to that issue. I am also regarded as a liberal Christian by most members of the forum and have posted some ideas in WWMC that struck other liberal members as frankly too liberal, for example, my idea of creating an edited version of the Gospel of Thomas and certain other NT apocrypha that featured heretical content removed, based on the belief that several of these texts were of apostolic origin but were appropriated by and edited to reflect the false doctrines of various heretical cults such as the Ebionites, Valentinians, Tatianists, Severians, Manichaeans and others, and my idea of using as a catechtical tool a process by which people in a group setting would be encouraged to write a “Gospel narrative” which reflected their understanding of the Holy Gospel, the Good News that the Church proclaims and which is described in Scripture, with the catechist mentoring them and helping them avoid any theological errors or misunderstandings, and these could be read in a special service on a Saturday or Sunday evening prior to Vespers/Evensong celebrating their completion of the catechesis.
With that said, I hope you will agree to participate with me, a fellow Wesleyan, who is also at present working two Congregationalist ministries using services adapted from the beautiful liturgies of Rev. John Hunter’s Devotional Services, and I also want to invite any of you who are interested to review or participate in the LiturgyWorks group I am involved in and our projects, which include a traditional Methodist book which is actually designated project no. 1, and a replacement for the 1928 Episcopalian BCP and alternative to the 2019 ACNA BCP for continuing Anglicans, which features content from the 1979 BCP in traditional language and is modularized for use by persons of different churchmanship (I think that is project no. 5; we have about 8 going at present with three or four more under consideration). Indeed your involvement in that is even more desired than your participation in my thread about my desire and ways to save the mainline churches.
