Ecclesianarchy

Ecclesianarchy PDF

Author: John Williams

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2020-09-30

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 0334059801

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Strategic thinking about ministry and mission has tended to focus on the challenges of communication and presentation. Less attention has been paid to the effects that this thinking has on ministry. There is an unacknowledged dilemma for churches insofar as they are caught between the challenge to re-shape ministry in response to cultural change and the belief that there are certain God-given, immutable foundations for ministerial order that must be retained. Arguing that what is needed is a provisional approach to ministry which recognises that all forms of ministry are, and always have been a response to social and cultural context, this book brings theological and practical insight to bear on the question of ministry’s provisionality. In the end, it asks, is the only way through this dilemma a kind of Ecclesianarchy?

Ecclesianarchy

Ecclesianarchy PDF

Author: John Williams

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2020-09-30

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 0334059828

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Arguing that what is needed is a provisional approach to ministry which recognises that all forms of ministry are, and always have been a response to social and cultural context, 'Ecclesianarchy' brings theological and practical insight to bear on the question of ministry's provisionality.

Ecclesial Futures: Volume 2, Issue 1

Ecclesial Futures: Volume 2, Issue 1 PDF

Author: Nigel Rooms

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2021-06-02

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1666715891

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Ecclesial Futures publishes original research and theological reflection on the development and transformation of local Christian communities and the systems that support them as they join in the mission of God in the world. We understand local Christian communities broadly to include traditional “parish” churches and independent local churches, religious communities and congregations, new church plants, so-called “fresh expressions” of church, “emergent” churches, and “new monastic” communities. We are an international and ecumenical journal with an interdisciplinary understanding of our approach to theological research and reflection; the core disciplines being theology, missiology, and ecclesiology. Other social science and theological disciplines may be helpful in supporting the holistic nature of any research, e.g., anthropology and ethnography, sociology, statistical research, biblical studies, leadership studies, and adult learning. The journal fills an important reflective space between the academy and on-the-ground practice within the field of mission studies, ecclesiology, and the so-called “missional church.” This opportunity for engagement has emerged in the last twenty or so years from a turn to the local (and the local church) and, in the western world at least, from the demise of Christendom and a rapidly changing world—which also affects the church globally. The audience for the journal is truly global wherever the local church and the systems that support them exists. We expect to generate interest from readers in church judicatory bodies, theological seminaries, university theology departments, and in local churches from all God’s people and the leaders amongst them.

The Humble Church

The Humble Church PDF

Author: Martyn Percy

Publisher: Canterbury Press

Published: 2021-03-31

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 1786223171

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In this bold and provocative invitation, Martyn Percy imagines what the post-pandemic Church might look like and sets out what it needs to learn. It argues that the Church needs to stop obsessing about itself – its size, its strategies to shore up decline, its waning public influence – and rediscover how to live as the body of Christ. In other words, what does it need to do in order to become more like Christ? As Christ poured out his life for the sake of others, he considers ways in which the Church might imitate Christ in practice today. Whenever Jesus visited anywhere beyond the confines of the Jewish community he immediately became socially useful, and so this extols such virtues as humble service in the community, not because it is an effective way to grow the Church, but because it is faithful to Christ’s own example. Avoiding responses such as exasperation, righteous anger at shortcomings or wishful thinking about returning to the past, he sets out a vision for the Church's future that is both biblical and christological. Incisive, imaginative and engagingly written, this will resonate deeply with many lay and ordained members of the Church.

For the Good of the Church

For the Good of the Church PDF

Author: Gabrielle Thomas

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2021-02-26

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 0334060605

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What do we need to learn and receive from the other to help us address challenges or wounds in our own tradition? That is the key question asked in what has come to be known as ‘receptive ecumenism’. And nowhere is this question more pressing and pertinent than in women’s experiences within the church. Based on qualitative research from five focus groups, 'For the Good of the Church' expose the difficulties women face when they work in a church – sexism, unfulfilled vocation, and abuse of power and privilege, as well as the wide range of gifts and skills which women bring in light of these. The second part of the book continues to draw on the particular wounds and gifts, which arise in the focus groups. Specific case studies are used to identify gifts of theology, practice, experience, vocation and power. Against negative prognoses of an ‘ecumenical winter’, Gabrielle Thomas reveals how radically different theological and ecclesiological perspectives can be a space for learning and receiving gifts for the well-being of the whole Church.

When Jesus Calls

When Jesus Calls PDF

Author: Marcus Throup

Publisher: Canterbury Press

Published: 2022-09-20

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1786224534

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When Jesus Calls considers the new approach to vocation in the Church of England and offers a guide for those who are exploring a call to licensed ministry, lay and ordained, and for those with responsibility for encouraging and discerning vocations. It introduces the categories of the Church’s new discernment framework, and brings them into conversation with the historic Anglican understanding of priestly vocation (the Ordinal) and the wider missional ‘manifesto’ of the Anglican Communion (the Five Marks of Mission). Its unique approach offers a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment which is attuned to the ‘simpler, humbler, bolder’ vision of the post-pandemic Church of England. It will be an essential resource for every diocesan vocations team and will also have value as a basic text for Anglican ministerial theology in IME 1.

Being Interrupted

Being Interrupted PDF

Author: Al Barrett

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2020-11-30

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 0334058627

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Beginning with a ‘Street Nativity Play’ that didn’t end as planned, and finishing with an open-ended conversation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, "Being Interrupted" locates an institutionally-anxious Church of England within the wider contexts of divisions of race and class in ‘the ruins of empire’, alongside ongoing gender inequalities, the marginalization of children, and catastrophic ecological breakdown. In the midst of this bleak picture, Al Barrett and Ruth Harley open a door to a creative disruption of the status quo, ‘from the outside, in’: the in-breaking of the wild reality of the ‘Kin-dom’ of God. Through careful and unsettling readings in Mark’s gospel, alongside stories from a multicultural outer estate in east Birmingham, they paint a vivid picture of an 'alternative economy' for the Church's life and mission, which begins with transformative encounters with neighbours and strangers at the edges of our churches, our neighbourhoods and our imaginations, and offers new possibilities for repentance and resurrection.

A Redemption Song

A Redemption Song PDF

Author: Delroy Hall

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2021-12-30

Total Pages: 109

ISBN-13: 0334060729

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Drawing from real-life pastoral examples, socio-political analysis, and the theme of Eucharist as a means to human healing and restoration, A Redemption Song outlines and explores what a black British pastoral theology might look like. A landmark text, it offers critical reflection and practical tool for those working and ministering within multicultural communities, especially those with large African-Caribbean populations.

Developing Faithful Ministers

Developing Faithful Ministers PDF

Author: Tim Ling

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2013-01-25

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 0334048893

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Developing Faithful Ministers aims to support the work of all those involved in supervision and training relationships within the Church. The Church recognising its call to serve God and the nation seeks to equip and develop its ministers to face the challenge of ministry in a society at the threshold of Christendom that is in a mission context. It is a context where both the general public and the institutional church have significant expectations of those in ministry. Indeed, there is now an expectation of ‘demonstrable capability’ prior to being licensed to any form of permanent tenure. The demand for more professional, demonstrably capable, mission able and collaborative licensed ministers places particular weight on the efficacy of the initial training relationship. "Developing Faithful Ministers" seeks to support those who find themselves in these relationships by offering both models of good practice and sustained theological reflection on what these drivers mean for developing ministry.

Models of the Church

Models of the Church PDF

Author: Avery Dulles

Publisher: Image

Published: 2002-05-14

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0385505450

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There is today a dramatic reexamination of structure, authority, dogma -- indeed, every aspect of the life of the Church is held up to scrutiny. Welcoming this as a sign of vitality, Avery Dulles has carefully studied the writings of contemporary Protestant and Catholic ecclesiologists and sifted out six major approaches, or "models," through which the Church's character can be understood: as Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, Servant, and, in a recent addition to the book, as Community of Disciples. A balanced theology, he concludes, must incorporate the major affirmations of each. "The method of models or types," observes Cardinal Dulles, "can have great value in helping people to get beyond the limitations of their own particular outlook and to enter into fruitful conversation with others... Such conversation is obviously essential if ecumenism is to get beyond its present impasses." This new edition includes a new Appendix and Preface by the author.