RE-IMAGINING REVIVAL '98 :
National Conference, April 16-19, 1998,
St. Paul Minnesota
According to the RE-IMAGINING
website, the Coordinating
Council includes at least three UMC clergy, Rev. Fayetta Clark, Rev. Marylee Fithian(co-chair),
and retired Rev. Jeanne Audrey Powers* (former associate general
secretary with the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious
Concerns, a "Reconciling UMC General Agency").
The GUIDING PHILOSOPHY OF RE-IMAGINING has been expressed as the
following:
We believe in the powerful potential of a grassroots movement because our history and
our traditions have taught us that wherever two or more are gathered with holy intentions,
the spirit of Christ is present. We are an ecumenical movement that:
- claims the creative power, transforming spirit, and inexhaustible depth of the Christian
faith;
- gives voice to those who are called to discipleship but who have been denied full
participation by the institutional church;
- embraces dialogue, questioning, and storytelling as tools for faith development;
- works to challenge the system of patriarchy and other sinful structures that deny
equality because of skin color, culture, class, age, disability, sexual orientation, or
any other human-constructed barriers that divide us;
- resists absolutist viewpoints that deny the ongoing revelation of God;
- celebrates the God of history who comes to us in many images with many names as
demonstrated throughout scripture, the traditions, and our imaginations;
- acts as a community of change agents capable of, responsible for, and called to God's
work;
- joins the global community that works for justice and calls for revitalization of our
churches.
(source: http://home.earthlink.net/~mfithian/#GUIDING
PHILOSOPHY)
David W. Cloud of O Timothy magazine describes
the first Re-Imagining Conference, the bizarre religious "images" offered up for
worship as Sophia Goddess, and who participated. |
