Open letter from Richard and Nora

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“It is important as we gather as communities of faith for annual meetings and as our regional councils come together that we now get on with the things that these changes were meant to allow us to better do: deepen our faith and theological convictions and put our faith into action in the world.”
This was actually my hope when they started this whole renewal process, which then turned out to be mostly structual. Iam wondering how long it will take for an actual faith renewal and action plan to trickle down into congregations. From my experience, any events/ courses offered aiming at that usually brought about 10% of regular Sunday attenders out- which was about 8- 10 people in my old congregation.
 
Remember humanity are slow learners due to the oppression of knowledge in a religion of great emotions and opinionation ... is there something besides that except anon?
 
I like Richard. I really do. But I don't believe for a moment "that these changes were meant to allow us to ... deepen our faith and theological convictions and put our faith into action in the world.”

Or maybe I'm just getting cynical in my advancing years.
 
Hmmm - so how to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak - how to not allow the cynicism to overide efforts to impact life locally in our communities of faith?
 
From the letter - "We continue to be called to celebrate God’s presence, to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, and to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen." What happened to noting that Jesus is our Judge and our hope?
 
Jae said:
From the letter - "We continue to be called to celebrate God’s presence, to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, and to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen." What happened to noting that Jesus is our Judge and our hope?
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The quotation is from A New Creed. If you took 3 minutes of your life to find it and read it, you would notice is is there.
 
Redbaron said:
The quotation is from A New Creed. If you took 3 minutes of your life to find it and read it, you would notice is is there.
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What I recall b*** is the creed that was at the back of our old red hymn books. From what I recall, it stated, "our Judge and our hope."
 
Redbaron said:
You could always Google it and read it in its entirety.
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From your New Creed... "We are called to be the Church: to celebrate God’s presence, to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope."
 
Yes. I referred you to A New Creed. I told you how to find it. The rest is up to you.
 
Re: the letter. I, too, noticed that some of the language from the New Creed was used in the letter. But I had no concerns related to which part of it was referenced.

I also noticed that the importance of all four faith statements was stressed. Along with the primacy of scripture and the importance of the sacraments.

My read of this is that the leadership in our denomination is being encouraged to turn its mind from the restructuring and back onto why we are here.

From the FB comments I see some angst related to the new structures.
 
Jae's question has theological validity. If Richard and Nora were going to quote A New Creed, why excise it? What point is being made by doing so? What we leave out can say as much as what we put in.
 
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If anyone is bothered by the line that was included and/ or the lines that were excluded from the letter, they could try contacting Richard or Nora. Rumor has it Richard is quite responsive on FB. I don't know about Nora.

Their email addresses are also available on the United Church website.
 
Sometimes you just want to cut words to make your letter shorter. Often, when taking to a particular group you don't need to spell out every detail because people know those details already.
 
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