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Phoenix Affirmations


Cynthia

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I just found a link to this from the TCPC Home page. The 8 points thread seemed awfully long, so I thought I'd start a new one. Personally, I like this better. It seems more practical and leads to action/lifestyle.

 

 

Summary Version 3.7

The public face of Christianity in America today bears little connection to the historic faith of our ancestors. It represents even less our own faith as Christians who continue to celebrate the gifts of our Creator, revealed and embodied in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Heartened by our experience of the transforming presence of Christ’s Holy Spirit in our world, we find ourselves in a time and place where we will be no longer silent. We hereby mark an end to our silence by making the following affirmations:

 

As people who are joyfully and unapologetically Christian, we pledge ourselves completely to the way of Love. We work to express our love, as Jesus teaches us, in three ways: by loving God, neighbor, and self.

 

(Matt 22:34-40 // Mk 12:28-31 // Lk 10:25-28; Cf. Deut 6:5; Lev. 19:18)

 

Christian love of God includes:

1. Walking fully in the path of Jesus, without denying the legitimacy of other paths God may provide humanity;

 

2. Listening for God’s Word which comes through daily prayer and meditation, through studying the ancient testimonies which we call Scripture, and through attending to God’s present activity in the world;

 

3. Celebrating the God whose Spirit pervades and whose glory is reflected in all of God’s Creation, including the earth and its ecosystems, the sacred and secular, the Christian and non-Christian, the human and non-human;

 

4. Expressing our love in worship that is as sincere, vibrant, and artful as it is scriptural.

 

Christian love of neighbor includes:

5. Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class;

 

6. Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others;

 

7. Preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State;

 

8. Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;

 

Christian love of self includes:

9. Basing our lives on the faith that, in Christ, all things are made new, and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination – for eternity;

 

10. Claiming the sacredness of both our minds and our hearts, recognizing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth;

 

11. Caring for our bodies, and insisting on taking time to enjoy the benefits of prayer, reflection, worship and recreation in addition to work;

 

12. Acting on the faith that we are born with a meaning and purpose; a vocation and ministry that serves to strengthen and extend God’s realm of love.

 

 

I'd love to hear/read your thoughts everybody! :D

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SUBJ: Phoenix Affirmations--Summary Version 3.7

Thank You!, Cynthia, for "digging deeply" into this very complicated website to find this material. I could never have found the wonderful, important Version you discovered, even if I put a week into the search; the complexity of our TCPC website absolutely blows my mind! It's like stumbling into a gulag somewhere--but, thankfully, I was blessed to read your comments, and before "TCPC-Merlin-website-manager" makes changes that eliminate thousands more from participating here, let me humbly say as a Franciscan Tertiary with 35 years' experience in diplomatic efforts in 27 nations:

 

All of us, each of us, will benefit tremendously by continuing each and every week of our lives to look carefully at "entrenched power" across God's world. The ideals in compassion, empathy and tolerance we hold so dear in our spirits each moment we meditate on The Holy Love Who Can Never Be Killed, must at least prompt each of us to ask: "WHO in the realities of our daily lives holds power over work rules in unconstrained capitalism, over 'change' in churches often described as the slowest institutions in all societies to expand spiritual insights, over expansion of globalization for the purpose of impoverishment of middle classes in the West, over massive funding for re-election of the wealthy 2% in the West?" To say, Cynthia, "Version 3.7......leads to action/lifestyle", apparently suggests that our earlier "8 Points Focus" may not, in short, lead to as much "Christian action speaking truth to power" as your spirit and heart desires. I applaud any such intuition or insight your spirit and soul may have provided you through your deepest meditations. Very few Westar Institute and Tubingen scholars today disagree with the blunt statement: "Jesus was a revolutionary in his time."

 

Whether it is centered on our TCPC Current 8 Points, or Version 3.7, or the Principles Of The French Revolution, or the Constitutional Intentions Of The Founding Fathers of the U.S.A., or the Declarations Of Bishop John Shelby Spong--whatever the educational backdrop, Cynthia, the core reality of our emerging Christianity is: "Power". The core reality is: "What power moves the citizens of the nations in the West......which groups hold the most power......how many citizens hold in their hands 'the book' containing the individual names of the wealthiest 2% of the citizens in the West?"

 

The W.H.O. has documented for years, now. 30,000 children die of starvation across this world each night while "those with power in the West" seek conservative resistance to change within their societies. We in TCPC really should ask, from Jesus in Quelle if nothing else, "Where is the book that lists the individual names of those who are paid more than $2,000,000.00 per year?" In that book we can find those who hold power, Cynthia. The power to support the seemingly endless deaths of innocent children all across the West.

 

All of us in TCPC will most assuredly die before, instead of hymnals, "THE LIST BOOK" of individual names of the powerful who hate change, is passed out into the hands of all worshippers in the churches in the West. No differentiating Version of the 8 Points is worthy of attention, given our existing core TCPC Declaration now in print. You are absolutely correct, Cynthia, in hoping, dreaming, crying in Jesus of Nazareth for THE KINGDOM. TCPC is correct, too, in having disseminating the "8 Points". But none of it matters unless, until, the President of the United States of America is replaced, and replaced, and replaced again for failure to lead for expenditures that eliminate the starvation of the tiny little innocents across the world. From the eyes of their starving, dying babies, fathers become terrorists. From terror comes dismantling of international human rights. From destruction of international human rights law comes the dark ages.

 

Beloved Sister Cynthia, try to understand: TCPC is not after salvation through bloody atonement and horrors of exegesis that result in the Pat Robertsons of this world. TCPC is ultimately after a 'full, comprehensive understanding' of the core causation that results in the systemic injustices, the injustices of abuse of power, the injustices Jesus of Nazareth and Siddhartha Gautama Buddha and Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Paul Tillich and Dr. Cornell West and so many other prophets have lived their lives to teach us. No "Version" of the TCPC 8 Points can be more facilitative of justice and Holy Love than the original, because the Original 8 Points is flawed in its core perspectives. THE KINGDOM, Cynthia, is centered in voluntary Christian Socialism--acknowledgement all across the whole heart of each and every person in the citizenry that there are three realities:

1) Christian means: "HOLY LOVE that maximizes the potential of all creation"

2) Socialism means: "The diminution of the potential of any person diminshes me"

3) And, maximally, when any human indicates from their behavior, "I declare my personal power to abuse Christian Socialism", the parishioners in all the churches must declare: "That person's career is ended, NOW."

 

When our TCPC organization develops a "procedural means" to "translate our 8 Points" into a face-to-face confrontation with "sheer power"--"the core, essential sociocultural force that fights tooth and nail against positive change", all of us in TCPC will feel it in our hearts and spirits--positive wonders will be occurring from within the Holy Indescribeable Spirit. We will then be, "long past the organizational situation when no one understands what we are talking about at Wal-Mart, BP petroleum, GM Headquarters and DuPont."

 

Cynthia, it is important to have the feeling, breathing it, the experience, of having been in the American boardroom, listening to the CEO and CFO and Directors:

"###### 'em! Cut the pensions, now!"

"Screw 'em! We're going to South Korea and China!"

"Our steelworkers won't work for $5.00 per day. Hell, move the plant overseas!"

"######! We don't have to move our families overseas! Our subordinates can move!"

 

That language, Cynthia, when you hear it, feel the motivation, feel the American power motivation, makes more than one Yale M.B.A. run for the lavatory to throw up...reach for something like Imodium, chug down something like Maalox. That's the purpose for the TCPC 8 Points. Intrigue each and every seminary professor to go into that American capitalist boardroom.....the place they absolutely refuse to go......the place where.....our theologians do know......the question is asked:

 

"Professor, you're at the seminary, right? Are you the king of the Jews?????"

 

Tonight, Cynthia, 30,000 blessed, tiny children in God's world will die of starvation. What are the priorities? Jesus staring at Roman power, or, "Placing emphasis on Versions of the 8 Points?"

 

 

Pax et Bonum et Caritas.

 

--denny

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I just found a link to this from the TCPC Home page.  The 8 points thread seemed awfully long, so I thought I'd start a new one.  Personally, I like this better.  It seems more practical and leads to action/lifestyle.

 

 

Summary Version 3.7

The public face of Christianity in America today bears little connection to the historic faith of our ancestors. It represents even less our own faith as Christians who continue to celebrate the gifts of our Creator, revealed and embodied in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Heartened by our experience of the transforming presence of Christ’s Holy Spirit in our world, we find ourselves in a time and place where we will be no longer silent. We hereby mark an end to our silence by making the following affirmations:

 

As people who are joyfully and unapologetically Christian, we pledge ourselves completely to the way of Love. We work to express our love, as Jesus teaches us, in three ways: by loving God, neighbor, and self.

 

(Matt 22:34-40 // Mk 12:28-31 // Lk 10:25-28; Cf. Deut 6:5; Lev. 19:18)

 

Christian love of God includes:

1. Walking fully in the path of Jesus, without denying the legitimacy of other paths God may provide humanity;

 

2. Listening for God’s Word which comes through daily prayer and meditation, through studying the ancient testimonies which we call Scripture, and through attending to God’s present activity in the world;

 

3. Celebrating the God whose Spirit pervades and whose glory is reflected in all of God’s Creation, including the earth and its ecosystems, the sacred and secular, the Christian and non-Christian, the human and non-human;

 

4. Expressing our love in worship that is as sincere, vibrant, and artful as it is scriptural.

 

Christian love of neighbor includes:

5. Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class;

 

6. Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others;

 

7. Preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State;

 

8. Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;

 

Christian love of self includes:

9. Basing our lives on the faith that, in Christ, all things are made new, and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination – for eternity;

 

10. Claiming the sacredness of both our minds and our hearts, recognizing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth;

 

11. Caring for our bodies, and insisting on taking time to enjoy the benefits of prayer, reflection, worship and recreation in addition to work;

 

12. Acting on the faith that we are born with a meaning and purpose; a vocation and ministry that serves to strengthen and extend God’s realm of love.

 

 

I'd love to hear/read your thoughts everybody!  :D

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SUBJ: KIND THOUGHT ON VERSION 3.7 FROM FLOWPERSON, 8:21PM 11/15

 

Thank you, Flow, for your meaningful comment on my humble meditations on Cynthia's research into Version 3.7. Third Order Franciscans, especially with a United Church of Christ and/or Progressive Religious Society Of Friends upbringing, are not always timid disciples. It was a beautiful gift to see that at least a part of what I had to say in my previous post rang true to your mind and Holy Love in your spirit. Obviously, to many in U.C.C., progressive Quaker, and Mercy Of God Community Franciscans, systemic abuse of power in organizations building worldwide injustices.....organizations that "sit idly by while tens of thousands of children die of starvation"......is at the very heart, the core, of resistance fighting the HOPES and DREAMS and DISSENT-GIFTS of TCPC members, generally.

 

You already know, Flow, that I was simply reminding anyone reading this thread that TCPC is not really dedicated to creating just 'another sect' in America. TCPC is not about just 'reproducing the commonly recognized sociological process of developing another in a long list of power-groups in the political Left'--but rather that TCPC is about modern exegetical Christian scholarship and universal inclusiveness in the fight against brutality in power. That Jesus' Holy Teachings provide each and every TCPC member with serious questions about "WHO PROVIDES THE CHURCHES WITH MONEY, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, HOW DO THOSE CHURCH COUNCIL MEMBERS EARN THEIR MONEY?? WHERE DO THEY GET IT?? HOW DO THEY GET IT??"

 

Surely, Flow, as you have already sensed in your heart, the humble Franciscan Tertiary spirit is centered on the innocence of children across this world. Compassion for the suffering of those tens of thousands of dying children. My own gentle contribution focuses only on capitalist corporate complicity in that suffering. My essential question has been for decades now:

"How do we stop war that creates more war?"

 

You, Flow, and other beautiful TCPC members who might like to laugh while reflecting with us in MGC--and with me--on this terrifying question, might consider taking ten minutes of each week to read my Episodes on:

 

http://www.mytown.ca/denny

 

 

Before my publisher, Trafford, out of Victoria, British Columbia Canada, starts advertising THE SWEDEN TRILOGY that I'm writing, it really matters to me to let you know that the Episodes of "ST. FRANCIS UPDATED !" Column, on that website, deals as novel with the perspectives of C.G. Jung on this very serious topic. "How do we stop war that creates more war?"

 

Flow, isn't it a good idea to ask ourselves in TCPC:

"How do we stop war that creates more war?"

 

OR, more importantly, "Who do we read today when we want to know how to stop war that only creates more war?"

 

Flow, it is inappropriate for me--within my own sense of morality--to suggest my own writing might be helpful. Therefore, when Trafford Publishing goes to print for BOOK I of the Trilogy, I'm going to let our beloved Jim Adams know that I'll send a free copy of BOOK I to any TCPC member interested in "church congregations' complicity in the killing of children in war". BOOK I of the Trilogy will come out into the bookstores in 2006.

 

Thank you, again, Flow, for your uplifting, supportive and heart-caring comment following my recent post. Peace.

 

--denny

________________end 16NOV05_______________

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