This morning I want to post a quote from Rowan Williams’s book Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another. I believe it speaks to what we are seeking as we invest in our dialogical community. It encourages and strengthens me in our calling to being a community centered in the Spirit of Christ and faithful to the Spirit's unfolding work. I hope it speaks to you as well.
Williams writes, “The church is always renewed from the edges rather than from the center. There is a limit to what the institutional church can do. Institutions have their own dynamic and their own problems, and renewal tends not to come from central planning. It was Saint Francis who went to Pope Innocent III, not the other way around….The parish structure works up to a point. It is one among a number of ways of being church. For many people, in addition to parochial loyalties, there are cross parochial loyalties and networks that feed and sustain them….As time passes it will be harder to think that the future of the church will take one clear and uniform institutional shape across the globe or even through local communities. In some areas, the church is already beginning to exist in parallel lines, not in sealed compartments but in different styles and idioms and with real interchange. The challenge lies in the discovery of a church renewed in contemplation, across the cultural frontiers of our world” (111-112).
--RC
Friday, June 20, 2008
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1 comment:
Great to see you post! This quote you have shared is incredibly apt. It is almost like it was written to describe what we are doing. Which might indicate that what we are doing is part of a larger thing that God is doing. Thanks for sharing. --Paul
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