The People of God, Discipleship and Ministry in the Anglican Church Today and Tomorrow

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
John Littleton
Keyword(s):  
Potential Outcomes ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Parish Ministry ◽  
The People ◽  
The Church

Abstract People of God is a well-known biblical term used to describe and understand the inclusive, holistic and serving nature of the Christian Church. Currently, members of the worldwide Anglican Communion are discussing discipleship and ministry. This paper explores the deep connection between describing the church as the People of God and the practice of discipleship and ministry. That exploration occurs through an examination of the considerable literature on the topic, and by discussing discipleship and ministry in light of understanding the church as the People of God. Discoveries made from the journey may surprise. Suggestions for church practice emerged with implications for: ecclesial language; parish ministry and mission; the processes of Anglican Diocesan Synods; and potential outcomes for the 2022 Lambeth Conference.

Innovation and Undecidability: Some Implications for theKoinoniaof the Anglican Church

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Pickard
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nicene Creed ◽  
The Church

ABSTRACTThe Anglican Church is now a worldwide communion and international Anglicanism is marked by a high degree of variety and significant tensions both at local and international levels. Dealing with diversity and conflict across the communion may be the most pressing issue facing Anglicanism in the twenty-first century. Certainly the needs of mission require a strong focus on local and regional concerns and the history of Anglicanism bears testimony to a strong emphasis on a contextual and incarnational approach to discipleship, worship and social engagement. For this reason the Anglican Church has always wrestled with the tension between its inherited identity and the demand for relevance in an expanding communion. Many of the tensions and unresolved conflicts that beset modern Anglicanism arise because of the astonishing capacity of the Church to develop new responses in new situations that result in practices that do not fit easily with the received tradition. These point to a fundamental fact of Christianity; its inherent creativity and capacity for innovation. But not all innovations are wise for the Church; many innovations generate further conflict and the people of God are often confused or puzzled about what innovations to adopt or reject, and how to facilitate either of these scenarios. Some examples in the history of Christianity include controversies over the date of Easter, the development of church order (for example, episcopacy), doctrinal developments (for example,homoousionof the Nicene Creed), and issues to do with slavery, marriage, divorce and, more recently, ordination of women. None of these ‘innovations’ were greeted with immediate consensus at the point of local adoption nor as the innovation became more widely known and assimilated into the life of the Church.From an ecclesial point of view the fact of innovation represents both a challenge to, and opportunity for an enhancedkoinoniain the gospel. Minimally this involves commitment to ongoing patient dialogue and face-to-face encounter as innovations are wrestled with, differences explored and conflicts faced. This article considers further the concepts of innovation and undecidability as critical issues underlying much of our current difficulties. The article then inquires as to their relevance and importance for thekoinoniaof the Anglican Communion.

Roots into the Future: Recovering Gregorian Chant to Renew the Church's Voice

2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-54
Author(s):  
Smith Richard A.
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Gregorian Chant ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Spiritual Power ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
Musical Excellence ◽  
The Church

In the Christian church, the people are the body of Christ. Somehow in the last half-century of reinventing, reimagining, re-creating, reviving, renewing, and restoring ourselves in the rush to become or stay “relevant,” that identity has frequently become blurred or lost altogether. Music in the church has been both a victim and a cause of this corrupted identity. Gregorian chant is well worth considering as a model for recovery in twenty―first―century worship. Its spiritual power and musical excellence may lead us to recover our voice as the people of God.

Manichaeism and Gnosticism in the Papyri

2011 ◽  
pp. 622-643
Author(s):  
Cornelia Römer
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church

The church fathers were appalled in particular by the Gnostics' condemnation of creation. But the fact that much of their teaching was in many respects not so far from Christian dogma must have disturbed the advocates of the “real” Christian church. In some of these Gnostic systems, Christ was the main savior figure; in others, it was the forefathers of the Old Testament who guaranteed salvation; in Manichaeism, it was the new Messenger of Light, the apostle Mani, who, coming after Christ, would finally give the right revelation to the people and excel Christ in doing so. This article deals with religious groups such as these as they existed in Egypt in the Roman and late antique periods. Papyrology has played a decisive role in our understanding of the religious movements of the first centuries ce in Egypt and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

scholarly journals MINISTÉRIOS E SERVIÇOS LITÚRGICOS NUMA IGREJA TODA MINISTERIAL A MINISTERIALIDADE EM DOCUMENTOS DO MAGISTÉRIO PÓS-CONCILIAR (I)

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (106) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
José Raimundo de Melo
Keyword(s):  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The World ◽  
Liturgical Texts ◽  
Christian Commitment ◽  
The Church

A multiplicidade e variedade dos serviços ministeriais que se fazem presentes na celebração litúrgica do povo de Deus é elemento chave na compreensão da comunidade cristã, pois os ministérios, em definitivo, exprimem e definem a própria realidade da Igreja. A inteira assembléia é ministerial porque a Igreja mesma é toda ministerial. E esta ministerialidade se expressa na liturgia através da diversidade de funções e ofícios que cada um é chamado a desempenhar. Ao contrário do que quase sempre sucede no mundo, porém, a hierarquia de funções na Igreja não denota prestígio e nem pode conduzir à acepção de pessoas. Ancorada na mais pura linha evangélica, deve ela indicar compromisso cristão e serviço fraterno em total doação a Deus e aos irmãos. Para uma reflexão sobre esta importante realidade eclesial, que a partir sobretudo do Concílio Vaticano II a Igreja tem aprofundado e se esforçado em viver, empreenderemos a seguir, ancorados em alguns textos litúrgicos, um estudo a respeito dos ministérios presentes no momento celebrativo da comunidade cristã. Publicamos aqui a primeira parte do artigo.ABSTRACT: The multiplicity and variety of ministerial services which are present in a liturgical celebration of the People of God is a key element in the understanding of the Christian community, since ministries, of themselves, express and define the very reality of the Church. The entire assembly is ministerial because the Church itself is all ministerial. And this ministeriality expresses itself in the liturgy through the diversity of functions and offices which each one is called on to fulfill. Contrary to what almost always happens in the world, however, the hierarchy of functions in the Church does not denote prestige, nor can it lead to the classification of persons. Anchored in the purest evangelical tradition, it should indicate Christian commitment and fraternal service in total self-giving to God and to others. For a reflection on this important ecclesial reality, which, especially from the Second Vatican Council, the Church has struggled to live out, we undertake a study – anchored in some liturgical texts – of the ministries present in the celebrative moment of the Christian community. We publish here the first part of the article. 

scholarly journals Teologi, Studi Biblika, dan Misi

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-131
Author(s):  
Ailsa Barker
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Missio Dei ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Ministerial Training ◽  
The People ◽  
God's People ◽  
Missional Engagement ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Church

Missional hermeneutics is the interpretation of Scripture as it relates to the missionary task of the church. Four elements comprise a missional hermeneutics: 1) the missional trajectory of the biblical story being the foremost element, which also underlies the other three, 2) a narrative throughout Scripture centered on Christ and intended to equip the people of God for their missional task, 3) the missional context of the reader, in which attention moves from the task of equipping to the community being equipped, a community that is active, and 4) a missional engagement with culture and the implications thereof. Through the life of God’s people an alternative is offered, together with an invitation to come and join. Because the separation of theology from the mission of the church has distorted theology, all theology needs to be reformulated from the perspective of missio Dei and from the realization that the church is a sent community, missional in its very being. A missional hermeneutics bears implications upon the congregation, worship, preaching, discipleship, education, ministerial training, and the missionary task in multicultural contexts.

scholarly journals Towards a New Homiletic

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-60
Author(s):  
Liz Shercliff
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Text ◽  
Feminist Methodology ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
New Homiletic ◽  
Women Preachers ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The Church ◽  
Shared Narrative

Feminism’s contribution to homiletics so far has arguably been restricted to exploring gender difference in preaching. In 2014, however, Jennifer Copeland identified a need not merely to ‘include women “in the company of preachers” but to craft a new register for the preaching event’. This article considers what that new register might be and how it might be taught in the academy. It defines preaching as ‘the art of engaging the people of God in their shared narrative by creatively and hospitably inviting them into an exploration of biblical text, by means of which, corporately and individually, they might encounter the divine’ and proposes that in both the Church and the Academy, women’s voices are suppressed by a rationalist hegemony. For the stories of women to be heard, a new homiletic is needed, in which would-be preachers first encounter themselves, then the Bible as themselves and finally their congregation in communality. Findings of researchers in practical preaching discover that women preachers are being influenced by feminist methodology, while the teaching of preaching is not. In order to achieve a hospitable preaching space, it is proposed that the Church and the Academy work together towards a new homiletic.

scholarly journals The New Apostolic Reformation: The critical reflections of the ecclesiology of Charles Peter Wagner

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelebogile Resane
Keyword(s):  
Church Leadership ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Orthodox Christianity ◽  
Entertainment Media ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The People ◽  
Protestant Christianity ◽  
The Church

Charles Peter Wagner is a well-known missiologist and ecclesiologist of the latest era. He is the author, trainer and prayer warrior who founded the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) that seeks to establish a fourth house. The NAR is a heterodox movement in Protestant Christianity sometimes known as the apostolic-prophetic movement, commonly associated with both the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches worldwide since the beginnings of the 1990s. Central to their theology is their locus of dogma that the task of the church, under the leadership of the apostles and prophets, is to take dominion of the earth within Christendom (distinct from Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodox Christianity). The ekklesia is the people of God, whether they are gathered in their congregations on Sunday as the nuclear Church, or scattered in the workplace Monday through Saturday as the extended Church. The extended Church, just like the nuclear Church, is founded on apostles and prophets, but in the extended Church these are the different people who operate differently under a different rule book. It is these extended church leaders who will be most effective in transforming society. Workplace apostles are called to take dominion in business, government, arts and entertainment, media, family and education. Panoramically, Wagner’s ecclesiology, like mainstream evangelical ecclesiology, is trinitarian, communal, missiological and eschatological in nature and character. The weaknesses on his ecclesiology include the notions of polity based on fivefold ministries, balance of power and authority on church leadership, phenomenological approach to texts, exegetical shortcomings, and secular models in ecclesiastical governance.

Implications of an Eschatological View of the Church

2000 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Christiaan Mostert
Keyword(s):  
Community Living ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Church ◽  
Critical Reflections

The church is the “people of God” in a particular way, namely as an eschatological community, living in the present in the light of God's promised future, already made real proleptically in the ministry of Jesus and in his resurrection from the dead. This eschatological character shapes every aspect of ecclesial life and work. In particular, it makes the church an anticipatory sign of the unity of humankind. Among the implications that follow from such a view of the church are ecumenical ones, with challenges at both local and wider levels. The article concludes with some critical reflections on the three great problems of faith and order: baptism, eucharist and (especially) ministry.

The Limits of Ecclesial Metaphors in Systematic Ecclesiology

Horizons ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-53
Author(s):  
Brian P. Flanagan
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

ABSTRACTThis article looks at two major metaphors used in contemporary ecclesiology, the church as “the People of God” and as “the Bride of Christ,” which have functioned in some of the polarizing debates within the Catholic Church in North America. It then suggests some methodological reasons why reliance upon metaphors in ecclesiology, either through the balancing of different metaphors or the promotion of a dominant metaphor, is inadequate to the task of understanding the church systematically. It then suggests some avenues for future ecclesiological method that may help to understand the church better and so to respond better to contemporary ecclesiological debates.

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