conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

national workshop, day three

Here is an image from the worship service on Monday evening.

The workshop offers morning classes or, well, workshops. I attended two on the third day of the workshop. To do so, I had to leave the first one half of the way through.

The first workshop was a sharing and conversation about an Illinois Council of Churches study of baptismal practices and theologies. The hope, it would seem, was to help navigate the confusing denominational landscape. People drift from denomination to denomination. How do we understand one another's practices and perhaps even share our baptismal records? The concern is not as administrative as I make it sound. The issue is this: one is not baptized a Baptist. One is baptized a Christian. Denominations are subsets. Even the Catholics in the room nodded. So, how do we teach this? How do we show that baptism is a profound rite shared by almost all Christians? Shall several local clergy or representatives be present on baptismal holidays like Easter? It was an interesting conversation with several tales of sharing the sacrament/ordinance.

The second workshop was entitled "New Horizons." Three young people sat on the panel. They were in their early 30s, represented three Christian perspectives (Catholic, African Methodist Episcopal, and Energent/Methodist), and each took their turn to talk about what Gen X or Gen Y (Millennials) might be able to offer the ecumenical conversation. I have a few notes to share, but if you want a good sense of where they are coming from, read this post from Larry. Strangely, he did not attend this particular gathering, but his post hits on one of the sessions points. "Ecclesial malleability" is the hope, and not necessarily as an act of rebellion. Many in the conversation (Emergent, primarily) are unchurched and are actually starting with a clean slate. They want some way to express the distinct perspectives they possess. Thus, the so-called cafeteria style worship where people choose what they want. The trouble is no one denomination can give the new folk latitude to express their faith, their (mostly, usually, perhaps entirely) orthodox faith.

People are not interested in being Baptist, for example. They want to be Christian and now, unlike in previous generations, they have access to an entire compendium of traditions. Someone used the example of a club DJ who mixes without attribution of source. As denominational walls crumble or become transparent, people feel more free to borrow.

Right...well, there you go. I need to get ready. I'll see you all later.

Posted by tripp at April 17, 2008 06:41 AM