maybe i'm catholic?! a review of 'fresh expressions in the sacramental tradition'

fresh expressions in the sacramental tradition is a collection of reflections/essays edited by ian mobsby and steven croft. it's a very welcome book. a fear that is often expressed is that fresh expressions is the play thing of evangelicals but a read of this shows that this clearly isn't the case. i wasn't expecting to think this but it made me think i'm more catholic than i realised! i actually prefer to resist those sort of tribal labels anyway - i've blogged/ranted about evangelical identity before and i don't find that helpful at all - being a follower of christ is enough for me. but here's a couple of the things that made me think i may be more catholic than i knew...

rowan williams opening chapter identifies these features of catholic spirituality:
non verbal expressions of faith
a central place to sacramental action
seeing christian life as taking time and use of the christian year
faith is a community experience and not just an individual one

then steven croft locates the movement in the tradition of catholic mission in the vein of vincent donavon and roland allen - with central themes of the missio dei, incarnation, and the formation of disciples in community

steven croft's chapter is brilliant - he uses the story of gamaliel in acts 5 who cautioned the sanhedrin to wait before judging the early church. steven croft suggests half the clergy in the church might be in that position of caution and writes his chapter to persuade them to come off the fence. he also makes the point that the resistors/conservatives are in every part of the church and my experience has been that conservative evangelicals have been the most resistant group to ideas of contextual mission as they seem convinced that their way of doing things is the gospel itself! steven croft led the fresh expressions team for 5 years, has spoken with every diocese and lots of groups around the country. he is a wise man who brokered so much in what was a relatively short period so i really valued what i see as his parting reflection. he is now bishop in sheffield.

one of the things he talks about is whether the language of fresh expressions is helpful and says we had to have some language to 'talk about this movement of forming new ecclesial communities through contextual mission'. and it was that sentence where i thought - yes that is why this is so exciting!  'emerging church' 'alternative worship' 'emergent' 'postmodern mission' may come and go but if it has helped us recover contextual approaches to mission at the heart of what the church is about then it is an amazing thing...

there are chapters on various communities such as contemplative fire (i must blog about them another time), new monasticism, a couple of helpful pieces on liturgy and sacraments, and a few US authors such as karen ward, paige blair and phyllis tickle in the mix if you are looking for a book to help lever discussion in the episcopal context in the US.

congrats to ian and steven on this book (which i noticed was the window display in church house bookshop last week). it's not just another book on this stuff - it has a particular story to tell and role to play.

Comments

[Fr. Simon]

Pleased you liked it, and hope that through this review more may come to engage with that which we are trying to explore.

Fr. S (one of the contributors)

[Ian Mobsby]

Hi Jonny
Thanks for your review and I totally agree with you about Steve Croft's chapter, I am still re-reading it and its vision. Steve was a hero in my book, and he is missed! I like you find myself wanting to draw on a both and approach to being a Christian, and the focus has to be ecclesia communities coming out of contextual mission rather than what some what see as the remnant gathering to survive social change. One is a hopeful activity centred on the belief of the ongoing love of God and the restoration of all things, the other has no life in it, and is more about institutional survival....

My chapter with Ian Adams on New Monasticism I hope gives courage to some of us coming from the alt worship/emerging church stream about a particular model that can help us play our part in forming ecclesial communities formed out of contextual mission.

[aion kinah]

Pleased you liked it, and hope that through this review more may come to engage with that which we are trying to explore.

[Bishop Alan Wilson]

The Key Book for me in this is one written years ago I come back to regularly for wisdom - Vincent Donovan's Christianity Rediscovered. It's about an RC missionary going out to try and change another (Masai) culture, and discovering the other culture, far from being a hindrance or enemy, was actually his working medium and changed him. The Lord is risen and gone ahead of you: you don't have to sell him like soap... As for the Catholic tradition, it was strong enough to take it and ended up enriched and extended not compromised. Gotta be the way. Otherwise change just induces fear and paranoia among the religious...

[Megaten online Gold]

Megaten Gold in the game you may or may not notice. I know vitality is very tempting in Megaten online Gold. You may be feeling intelligence in Megaten money.