California Archives | The FaithX Project

In a lighter vein, today we offer our readers a article sent to us by the Rev. Robert Cornner,
a retired Episcopal priest with an encouraging presence and a dry sense of humor,
speaks to any “Nones” that happen to read this article
about 10 ways they might just be Episcopalians, based on their beliefs.

Dear Nones,

According to a recent Pew Research survey, you have a number of distinctive views on God and religion. Yet they seem very familiar to me. Perhaps the pollsters have got it wrong. Perhaps you are not truly Nones but Episcopalians. Based on your views as described in the Pew study, I offer these 10 Ways You Might Just Be Episcopalians:

1. If you believe science is a reliable source of information regarding evolution, you might just be an Episcopalian.

2. If you think education that includes the liberal arts and sciences is a good thing, you might just be an Episcopalian.

3. If you are willing to look at the ways you fail to live into the ways Jesus taught and lived and repent and seek to change your ways, you might just be an Episcopalian.

4. If you are able to see how religion has contributed to injustice and has been enabled social justice to overcome injustice, you might just be an Episcopalian.

5. If you think that reason and rational thought are critical to faith, you might just be an Episcopalian.

6. If you understand that as valuable as science is to our lives, it is limited to the observable creation and to the rigors of scientific experimentation and methodology, you might just be an Episcopalian.

7. If your beliefs about God, life, yourself, others, and how things work is open to change due to your admission of your limits as a human being, you might just be an Episcopalian.

8. If you understand that most of your beliefs and desires have been transmitted to you through your DNA, your family, and culture and are willing to challenge those inherited beliefs and desires, you might just be an Episcopalian.

9. If you see religion scapegoating others to achieve unity over against others and seek unity that includes everyone, you might just be an Episcopalian.

10. If you are willing to admit that all human institutions and people, including the church, have a mixed record of conforming to its highest ideals, you might just be an Episcopalian.

God’s blessings,
Bob+
The Rev. Robert Cornner

The Rev. Robert “Bob” Cornner is a happily-retired Episcopal priest who lives in Redondo Beach, California. He is also a friend of The FaithX Project’s founder and an occasional contributor to this blog. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/rwcornner

By Ken Howard

Open and Closed Windows - Jack Challem (2009) — Open and Closed Windows – Jack Challem (2009)

If the Religion Singularity is true… If denominations and churches are growing/fracturing at a considerably higher rate than the worldwide population of Christians, driving a massive downturn in the size of those institutions… What is the future of religion? What is the future of faith?

Author Phyllis Tickle, called by some “the chronicler of the emerging church,” once suggested that the institutional church – in all its various forms – had perhaps an 18 month window in which to adjust themselves to the emerging paradigm of Church. Quite a bold prediction, don’t you think? I thought so at the time (I was inclined to be more gracious…24 months at least). And maybe she thought so, too, since this is what she said immediately after:

In general, short-range predictions are fairly dangerous things. Like loose boards on an aging country porch, they tend to fly up and hit one in the face. I try to avoid them for that very reason. On the other hand, sometimes something is not only compellingly obvious in and of itself, but so too is the need for its telling. Whether I am accurate in my observations or not remains to be seen … very soon, in this case … but the possibility of error does not eliminate the obligation to speak the truth as one sees it, any more than it defuses the urgency.

I’m feeling in a similar emotional space myself, since I now believe that Phyllis’ 18 months window was itself optimistic, and my analysis of the Religion Singularity is that there are two windows. One of those windows remains open and the other actually closed at least two decades ago. I seems to me that the window for denominations is closed and they will collapse sooner than we expect, certainly by the end of the century. But for those faith-based communities willing to do the hard, transformational work necessary to become more lean, agile, and experimental, a narrow window of opportunity remains open.

And what of those faith communities that would rather die than change?

I think that they will achieve their preference.

So the question is not wether to become a lean, agile, and experimental congregation…but how?

And that is a question for next week’s blog post.

10 Ways “Nones” Are Like Episcopalians

Two Windows: One Open, One Closed (The Future of Faith)