Wisdom_Bodhisattva

Welcome to the community! I am very new here myself, but I'm excited to see new people find their way here through Bishop Spong as I did. I second Alamar's recommendation of Bishop Spong's book "Why Christianity Must Change or Die." It's probably my favorite, followed closely by "Jesus for the Non-Religious." I think that there are many, many of us all over the globe. It's just that people don't know that "Progressive Christianity" even exists. It's really difficult without owning any physical locations. We are everywhere in all congregations. I just wish that we were more organized. I personally like the idea of meeting in someone's home to share bread and wine like the early Christians did. That's kind of how I view us today. Many of us still attend our local Christian church (as the early Christians still attended the synagogue on the Sabbath). But our thinking has gone beyond the traditional doctrines. Hopefully an organic movement can start to blossom; A movement that is focused on living like Jesus and is not dependent on the power structures of an institutional Church.

I would definitely recommend listening to the sermons of Rev. David Felten. He is the author of "Living the Questions" which has been called "A Manifesto for Progressive Christianity." He is a pastor at The Fountains United Methodist Church. I wish I knew a Christian community in my area that had a pastor or priest that was so involved in this movement. http://www.thefountainsumc.org/category/sermons/

I tried to use the Daily Office for my personal spirituality, but for me it doesn't feel right to preform by myself. Maybe if I had at least one other person with me it would work better for me. I attend Morning Prayer once a week (it is only offered on Tuesdays and only 1 or 2 people attend). I find that I enjoy using the Book of Common Prayer's daily devotionals instead of the Daily Office. They are a kind of mindfulness practice for me, and I enjoy having them spaced throughout the day. The daily office is long, and I have to look up lessons, it takes time so I'd only do it once per day and that didn't work as well for me as 4 shorter times per day. The Daily Office also relies heavily on the Psalms and there are some of those that I don't feel so good about using in my personal spiritual practice. (Especially Psalm 137). In any case, I'm glad to see the Daily Office getting a shout out on these forums.

Thank you everyone for your warm greetings. JosephM - Yes, I'm not here to to find a community where everyone thinks alike. In fact, I don't think such a community exists, but at least it's okay to admit that here. I think this movement is really on to something. I believe that Christianity can become a much more powerful force for good in the world if it is able to move beyond being centered on truth claims about the nature of reality. I hope to find people who gravitate away from strict doctrines and more toward Bishop Spong's favorite line in the Bible. "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." - John 10:10

Hello! I am a new member so here is my religious history that led me here. I was baptised as an infant in a Lutheran church but my parents never had any interest in attending Sunday services, so I was raised practically free of any religious teaching until 7th grade. At that time my Catholic grandmother on my mother's side decided she would pay to have my siblings and I sent to Catholic school. My parents thought it would be a better education for us, and since she was paying for it and not them, they were completely on board with it. So from 7th grade until High School graduation I attended Mass and learned about Catholic doctrine. But being a kid, I learned more from the culture and attitudes of the people around me than I did from any theological lessons. I came to an intuitive understanding that the Catholic teachings were not important. In our doctrine class we would learn about how we were not to receive Holy Communion unless you were free of "mortal sins" and you did this by going to confession. I was told that skipping Mass was considered a "mortal sin." Now there were plenty of people in the parish who only went to church occasionly (To say nothing to of the Christmas and Easter only Catholics!) who certainly were not going to confession, yet they received the communion. Also, they more money your family donated the better you were treated by the priests. Everything was about looking good and being a big shot in the community. Once I graduated from high school I had little interest in going to church. Over the years I became interested in the philosophical arguements against theism. I read the books of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, etc. I participated in many discussions on the internet. I was, and still am convinced that the conception of God as an external diety with a divine will, and who occasionally answers human prayers to alter events in history is completely inoperative given what we now know about the Universe. I was pretty convinced that religion was worthless, and existed merely to expand its own power by manipulating the masses. After a decade of being completely irreligious, I began to pick up an interest in Zen Buddhism. This religion was interesting to me because it did not hinge on extremely improbable truth propositions about the nature of reality. Rather, it gives one a path. Something to "practice." It was the first time that I had any understanding of spiritual practice, or of mysticism. This was suddenly much more than just nodding your head in agreement with a preacher, or pretending to live your life according to a holy book that you've never read. To me, this was a real practice. Yet, it was also a religion. There are sacred buildings, and rituals. There are priests and practitioners. On the outside it looks similar to Catholicism in some ways, but its teachings were entirely different. I saw new possibilities into what religion could be. As my Buddhist practice developed over a couple of years, I had a renewed interest in religion in general. This renewed interest caused me to stumble across the works of Bishop Spong. He singlehandely revived Christianity in my mind in a way that I never thought possible. I took notice of his denomination, and a couple of months ago I decided to talk to a local Episcopal priest about Spong's theology. The priest in my town is young and has only been ordained for a couple of years. He is quite passionate, but the parish where he has been placed is full of old retired people who are mostly just going through the motions. He has been quite excited to engage in theological discussions with me. He has encouraged me to attend church, and it doesn't matter to him that I don't view God in the theistic terms of the Christian Creeds. We talk every week for a couple of hours at a time over coffee. Last weekend he even got tickets for us to hear Bishop Spong's lecture at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, OH. (It was awesome!) Bishop Spong signed my book (Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World), and during the book signing I got to talk with him for a bit. My main question for him was how I could get involved. I am passionate about the Christianity that he envisions. I enjoy participating in Holy Communion at the local Episcopal Church, but there are no like minds there, not a single one! Bishop Spong had me come here, so here I am!