The Church: then and now

To participate effectively in the Church's life, one needs a guiding vision. Such a vision, I submit, should suggest a rationale for the Church's existence; it should tally with one's experience of association with fellow believers; it should indicate a set of values and priorities; and it should clarify the proper relationship between the Church and the contemporary world. One's vision of the Church, therefore, should be neither so exalted as to be out of touch with daily experience nor yet so empirical as to contain no mandate for action.

The essential reality of the Church is indeed a matter of revealed truth, for only through faith in God's word do we understand the Church as expression and mediation of God's gift in Christ. We must continually go back to scripture and to the ancient tradition in order to test and correct our vision of the Church. But the Church is a dynamic reality; it changes its manner of being and acting from place to place and from age to age. It must be responsive to the demands of the times, for it has to signify and mediate God's grace to different groups of people, in accordance with their particular gifts, needs, and capacities. To think correctly about the Church we must therefore pay close attention to the actual situation, and adapt our vision accordingly.

In the light of this statement, and the ideas presented in these links, you are challenged to formulate a coherent and meaningful vision of Church; Take account of scripture, tradition, past events of Church life, and present experiences, in expressing your personal and communal understanding of what it is to be Church today.