The Seminar on Conflict Ecclesiology: NH: The Seminar on Hiatus

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

NH: The Seminar on Hiatus

The Seminar on Conflict Ecclesiology is on hiatus until one of the following things happens:

1. A member of the seminar responds to a post, either in a comment or a responding post.
2. A member of the seminar posts a new topic question.
3. A reader of past posts decides to comment, and this sparks an ongoing conversation.
4. A reader of this blog requests to become a member of the seminar and begins to post.

In the meantime, I am going to focus on my "bully pulpit" blog, Communion in Conflict, and make the occasional contribution to the group blog Covenant. I may also post elsewhere from time to time.

I wish the other members of this seminar well on their own projects, which include a doctoral dissertation, a new book deal, and new jobs.

I hope that visitors who happen across this blog will read the archives and feel free to comment. I am always interested in what other people think on these topics.

1 comments:

e'cryst_webministry said...: hello there and greetings
great job: pleasure to visit your page
***e'cryst_webministry***
http://www-ecrystwebministry.blogspot.com/; February 25, 2009 11:31 PM

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About The Seminar

The Seminar on Conflict Ecclesiology is an outgrowth of Nathan Humphrey's blog, Communion in Conflict. Its Members may belong to any church, but (so far) consist of members of The Episcopal Church and the Church of England. The authors therefore write from Anglican perspectives, and may often have the Anglican Communion or some part of it in mind. The theses of Conflict Ecclesiology, however, are intended to apply to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of the Nicene Creed. Whether or not they do is itself a matter for further conversation.

The Twenty-One Theses of Conflict Ecclesiology (September, 2007 & As Amended)

The following theses are subject to critique and revision by the Members of the Seminar. Nathan Humphrey is the original proposer of these theses:

01. Conflict is the normal condition of ecclesial life. As such, conflict is the basic context for ecclesial discernment. [NH: Amended 10/12/2007]

02. An ecclesial community reveals what it most truly is (and is not) in periods of conflict.

03. The goal of discernment is not to resolve conflict but to know the will of God for a particular community in a particular place and time.

04. Conflict resolution is unimportant except insofar as it aids discernment, edification, sanctification, and mission.

05. Reconciliation of human beings to each other in the church cannot happen unless the church is also committed to an ongoing reconciliation of the church to God. [NH: Amended 10/12/2007]

06. Discernment plays a prophetic role in the church, in that it names the idols and false gods that we have erected in our sanctuaries and calls us back to the worship of the one, true God.

07. Issues are church-making when they are used iconically, that is, to point beyond themselves to God as the focus of the community’s energy. Issues are church-breaking when they are used idolatrously, that is, to point to themselves as the focus of the community’s energy.

08. The church should never be described in idealistic terms, nor apart from concrete historic experience. If an ecclesiology describes an idyllic community that has never existed, short of the eschaton, it will never exist in the future, and is an unhelpful model of the church.

09. Human fallibility, weakness, and sin are a part of ecclesial life. The church does not exist in a pure state apart from fallen humanity.

10. In the church, redeemed humanity ought never to be confused with perfected humanity.

11. The only pure community is the Kingdom of Heaven, which is not the church. Purity is only attained eschatologically through participation in the divine lovelife of the Holy Trinity, the source of all purity. As such, it is impossible to have a “pure church.”

12. Nevertheless, it is possible for the church to be semper purificanda, insofar as participation in the divine lovelife of the Holy Trinity is possible in the here-and-now through the community of the church and its reconciling relationships.

13. The only pure human being ever to walk the face of the earth is Jesus Christ. His purity was and is maintained through communion with God, not through disassociation with the unpure.

14. Purity through isolation and schism is a satanic temptation; the more one values orthodoxy and holiness, the more attractive this temptation.

15. Absolute undifferentiated inclusivity is not a Gospel value, inasmuch as absolute inclusivity is static. Inclusion without conversion is contentless.

16. Ecclesial stability must be rooted in a basic common commitment to Jesus as the Incarnate Word whose Spirit interprets the Word of God to the community. The full humanity and full divinity of Christ and Nicene Trinitarian faith are foundational to this account of ecclesiology. All ecclesiology is Christocentric, pneumatic, realistic, historic, and eschatological.

17. The Church is best maintained in unity by the Holy Spirit when its members have a basic commitment to each other that is grounded in the unbreakable covenant that God has first made with us.

18. The minimum basic commitment required of a member of the Church, therefore, is an indissoluble commitment.

19. Edification, or building up the Church, serves the mission of the Church, and must therefore be a primary focus of each member’s activity.

20. When engaging in conflict, focusing on the edification of the Church keeps the Church visibly united; unedifying words and acts lead inexorably to schism and heresy.

21. The primary task of the Church in conflict is to discern that which is edifying to the Church, and to engage in that; likewise, the Church must discern what is unedifying to the Church, and however good or true such a thing may be in and of itself, must be refrained from unless (or until) it can become edifying to the Church. [NH: Awaiting Adequate Revision or Reformulation 03/13/2009]

The Seminar on Conflict Ecclesiology

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

NH: The Seminar on Hiatus

1 comments:

About The Seminar

The Twenty-One Theses of Conflict Ecclesiology (September, 2007 & As Amended)

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