About Progressive Christianity
"...embrace the search not certainty"
Sponsored link.
Overview:
The Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC) 1 was founded in 1996 by a retired Episcopalian
priest, James Adams, in Cambridge, MA. It currently represents the most liberal established
Christian group within Christianity. It is not a denomination. Rather it
is a network of affiliated congregations, informal groups, and individuals.
In an era where the loudest and most visible Christian voices are from
fundamentalist and other Evangelical denominations and para-church
organizations, the mission of The Center for Progressive Christianity is:
"To reach out to those for whom organized religion has proved
ineffectual, irrelevant, or repressive, as well as to those who have given up
on or are unacquainted with it."
"To uphold evangelism as an agent of justice and peace."
"To give a strong voice both in the churches and the public arena to
the advocates of progressive Christianity. "
"To support those who embrace the search, not certainty."
2
What kind of people are attracted to Progressive Christianity?
Progressive Christianity casts a very broad tent. All people are welcome as
affiliates. Their fourth point invites: "....all people to participate in our
community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order
to be acceptable (including but not limited to): believers and agnostics,
conventional Christians and questioning skeptics, women and men, those of all
sexual orientations and gender identities, those of all races and cultures,
those of all classes and abilities, those who hope for a better world and those
who have lost hope." Most affiliates probably view religious belief as a
process -- a searching for truth rather than establishing truth. Most are
probably liberal Christians or post-Christians who stress justice and tolerance
above creedal beliefs.
They include people who:
Are repelled by exclusivist beliefs. They
reject the
concept that only their branch of their religion has the entire monopoly on truth,
and that all other spiritual paths are in error. Passing beyond biblical
inerrancy, established creeds, and church dogma, they recognize, as author
Jack Good has written: "the fingerprints of humankind on all religious documents
and symbols." 3
Value the search for truth, even though it can never be fully possessed.
They view it as more
important and challenging than the acceptance of those fixed beliefs found in the
past by others and imbedded in church creeds.
Who are, as Jack Good describes, "chaos tolerant:" They can
handle a degree of disorder, uncertainty, and ambiguity in life and want to be
"partners in the exciting search for tentative but satisfying answers to
the most pressing problems of existence."
Believe in the Ethic of Reciprocity: that how
we treat other people is more important than the specifics of what we believe
about God, humanity and the rest of the universe.
Have the ability to absorb rapid change in their beliefs, as they
integrate findings from social and physical sciences.
An analogy:
On their web site, they have a charming story that symbolizes the methodology
of the Progressive Christianity movement. It involves a Sunday school teacher
and a
class of 9 or 10-year-olds. Even at that age, some were skeptical of the inerrancy of the Bible. They felt that many events
recorded in the Bible never
happened. Rather then try to convince the children otherwise, the teacher
suggested that they read Charlotte's Web instead -- an enduring story of
a bashful pig named Wilbur who befriended a spider named Charlotte. The class
enjoyed the book. After some great discussions, the teacher interjected the
thought that pigs and spiders cannot talk. The kids protested: "Well, it's a
story." The teacher asked whether the story was true. They decided that it
was sort of true. "In a way, it was true." So the teacher suggested: "All
right, well let's look at the Bible in the same way." 4
For the movement's
founder, James Adams, "such open-ended and searching conversations are at the
heart of what it means to be religious. They are the very thing he hopes to
foster through the work of his small, but visionary organization. Education is
at the core of the Center�s work, but it is a vision of education that calls for
open-ended conversation, the use of scholarship and intellectual gifts, as well
as personal experience and emotion."
The TCPC's Eight Points:
These are a series of ideas that describe the TCPC's approach to
Christianity. 5 It is not a statement of faith or creed. It is
more a description of how Progressive Christians approach live. They are paraphrased
below for brevity and to avoid
copyright conflicts:
Focus: The teachings and life of Jesus provide them with a path to
God.
Pluralism: They recognize that others follow their own paths to God
which are equally true for them.
Communion: They view the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus' name
to represent "an ancient vision of God's feast for all peoples."
Inclusivity: All are welcome to become involved; persons of all
genders, sexual orientations, traditions, races, etc.
Reciprocity: How we treat others
is the "fullest expression" of our beliefs.
Search: They find more grace in searching for truth than in
accepting certainty.
Community: They form communities to support each other in their
quest for peace, justice, a restored environment, and to provide hope.
Cost: Following Jesus involves a personal investment in "selfless
love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege."
The Progressive Christian symbol is an eight-pointed star, representing these eight ideas that they hold in common.
The twelve-pointed star that appears in the ReligiousTolerance.org logo at the
top of each page on our website is unrelated to the Progressive Christian
symbol.
Sponsored link:
The Crosswalk America trek of 2006:
A group called "Crosswalk America" started walking at Phoenix, AZ on APR-16, and ended in Washington DC on SEP-03. They are progressive Christians who were publicizing what they refer to as the "Phoenix Affirmations:"
Christians must have an openness to other faiths
Christians must care for the earth and its ecosystem
Christians must value artistic expression in all its forms
Christians must welcome and include all persons
Christians must oppose the co-mingling of Church and State
Christians must seek peace and end systemic poverty
Christian must promote the values of rest and recreation, prayer and reflection
Christians must embrace both faith and science.
In the words of Episcopal Bishop J.S. Spong:
"Their desire was to turn the present course of Christianity in America away from its divisive pro-war, anti-female, anti-gay public face, where those who disagree are relegated to an emotional status somewhere between being excommunicated and burned at the stake, to a religion identified with the words 'love' and 'inclusion.' In every community entered across this nation, these walkers went to the local churches, identified themselves and shared their message. They worshiped in all kinds of settings, deliberately including the most fundamentalist. One was called 'The Jesus Baptist Church' in Springerville, Texas, that stated publicly their belief in the inerrancy of the Bible and the sinfulness of homosexuality, but they also worshiped in a Metropolitan Community Church in New Mexico, that was organized just for homosexual people who had been forced out of their churches by religious and biblical prejudice." 7,8
A listing of local groups in the U.S. is maintained by the Center
for Progressive Christianity. See:
http://www.tcpc.org/
A listing of regional networks in the U.S. is also maintained by the
Center. See:
http://www.tcpc.org/
Canada:
The Canadian Center for Progressive Christianity has a web
site at
http://www.progressivechristianity.ca It has links to groups,
resources, events, etc.
A portal which provides access to all of the Progressive Christianity web sites
was
located at: http://www.progressivechristianity.net It
links to web sites in Britain, Canada Ireland, New Zealand, South Australia
and the United States.
BlogShares has a list of the top 100 blogs dealing with
Progressive Christianity at:
http://blogshares.com/
They published Constellation, a semi-annual periodical, which appears
to have been discontinued. Each issue contained many articles dealing with a single theme.
For example:
The 2002-Spring issue dealt with "A spirituality of Learning."
2002-Fall covered "Evil."
2003-Spring discussed "Sex and Progressive Christianity."
In 2003, they joined with Rising Star
Press to publish Jack Good's book "The Dishonest Church." 5
Their web site has many information features:
A library of articles, books, educational
materials, sermons, and worship materials.
TCPC news
A list of progressive weblogs.
A free ENews publication.
An event calendar,
A message board,
etc.
References:
Progressive Christianity movement's home page is at: http://www.tcpc.org/ Their address is The Center for Progressive Christianity,
4916 Pt. Fosdick Dr., NW #148, Gig Harbor, WA 98335. Telephone: 253-303-0022.
E-mail: center@tcpc.org
