One Church?

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

Of the making of peace, let there be no end.


B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,
Centering on you becomes difficult when we simply follow religious tradition, but never when we follow the spirit within us.
The traditions connect us to the past and to some of our contemporaries, but not necessarily to you.
Help us understand these differences.
Amen

C. Unquoting Jesus:

"It must be 110 degrees in the shade. But it’s a dry heat."

[He might ask what's a degree...]

D. Blog: About One Church

One Body, Many Parts
One Church, Many Branches

Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, caused a recent stir when he stated that Christ established only one church. He implied, perhaps even declared, according to many commentators, that other branches of the church are illegitimate.

Even before making himself Pope (as Matthew Fox sees it), Joseph Ratzinger was big on illegitimacy – theological then, ecclesiological now – and led a number of lifelong Catholics to see him as the current Grand Inquisitor.

I tried to imagine Jesus’ response to this sort of thing…

“One church, of course, centered around me, not around Rome or you, Peter.”

“Remember, Peter, that my followers will not need you to tell them what to think or do. They have me for that.”

“One church, Peter? Of course. Lots of parts, though. And I don’t expect you to control it. I’ll do that. You just feed my sheep.”

“You know, Peter, my church won’t depend on you, but on the kind of faith you exhibited in trusting me as the holy one sent by God.”

“Peter, steadfastness under pressure was never your strong point, was it? Infallibility won’t apply to you.”

“It seems to me, Peter, that you like to talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? Do you recall your dream of an inclusive community, for instance? How are you doing on that?”

“You know, Peter, if you try to run the whole church, please don’t do it from Rome. Those trappings of power and wealth make me want to puke.”

“After what you’ve been eating and drinking, Peter, I don’t have any faith in your ‘gut feelings.’”