The Coming CHURCH of RECONCILIATION

It is well to ask “What is the future of Church?” Critical markers to life’s sustainability, political, religious, ecological, economical and personal, point to the urgency of moral consensus and reconciliation, whether or not religious institutions can accommodate.

POLITICAL
“Church” here means the global community of Earth People. As imperial politics globally give way to the surge of democratic awakening it is no longer acceptable for institutions of religion to cling to the imperial political mind and mode of dominion theology.

Imperial/ dominion culture is antithetical to the Word and Spirit of Christian witness, and is no longer credible or acceptable to the “sense of the faithful.” Characteristic of the Coming Church is reconciliation, and recognition that the diversity of cultures, physically and psychically, will prevail and will always be either a source of conflict or a resource for the symbiotic enlightenment of global consciousness and conscience.

The option of justifying diversity as a legitimate excuse for conflict is proven to be a lie that can no longer be reasonably legitimized, whereas, the alternative of seeing diversity as a symbiotic opportunity for new awareness and reconciliation is legitimate; not just legitimate, but necessary if humankind would escape insanity and self destruction.

A transparent approach to diversity opens consciousness to the way of conflict resolution and the peaceable accommodation of conscionable pluralism. The accommodation of diverse “truth” socially obliges because it best serves communal wellbeing. [ President-Elect Barack Obama is a sign of the times, a promise of reconciliation, of hope that can give wings to spiritual authenticity. “Yes, We Can!” ]

RELIGIOUS
What is ‘Religious”? “Religious” is the culture of moral sensitivity in human relations based on personal conscience informed in all matters that pertain to universal wellbeing. On this fundamental premise, religious and civil consensus finds agreement and common ground for reconciliation.

From the view of history it is clear that the pretexts of many wars are “religiously” based, that is, based on conflicting ideologies of diverse cultural belief/ experience. Religion commonly identifies with bioregional/ cultural evolution and the institutionalized dogmas of faith derived from bioregional evolution/ experience.

Consensus evolutionary consciousness in life’s universal and common origins argues for new consensus understandings premised in universal knowledge (science) by which bioregional faith experiences/ differences can be reconciled.

The common ground of reason/ experience is now informed in universal consciousness/ conscience. Religions lose credibility and following when they cling to a culture of conflict based on premises of bioregional faith/ experience, and when they fail to pursue and secure the ground and goal of universal wellbeing commonly accessible through the integration/ reconciliation of new knowledge with bioregional diversity and past belief.

ECOLOGICAL
The dominant global moral issue for the foreseeable future is the radical degradation of the global environment/ ecology, essentially the consequence of dominion culture, i.e., bioregional exploitation and moral insensitivity.

All life is connected. Whether plant or animal, the “tree of life” grows, evolves, subject to the same genetic codes, texts and contexts, scripted in DNA sequencing. The implications of this reality are profound. Evolutionary iterations that yet prevail, and that will prevail into the future, are cosmic patterns now controlling/ guiding the evolving processes that secure organic complexity and sustain interdependent life-webs.

Human interventions, even over the timeframe of decades and centuries, are but ictus events in time against the timeframe of organic evolution; cavalier tampering with deep genetic coding puts humankind and the future sustainability of life on Earth at risk.

Human self arrogation, specifically, male self-identification with the Godhead, privileged with dominion suppositions, has proven to be a culture of disaster for Earth’s ecologic-zoologic system, and for humankind. What is needed is cultural humility, reverence for vital “humus”, the residue of spent life that is the organic ground and basis for vital transformation and sustainability.

The culture of consumerism presumes wrongly that the resources of Earth are unlimited and exist for human exploitation. The unbridled license of this presumption is fatal and leads inevitably to the implosion of human cultures and the extinctions of floral/ faunal networks upon which humankind depends totally, unqualifiedly.

ECONOMICAL
There is no new wealth on Earth except that which is reproduced by organic life. All life is sacred. All networks of life are sacred, whether of air, land or water. Life is the coinage of life. Global economics are essentially linked to the health and sustainability of life’s global networks, to webs developed within Earth’s atmospheres and geographies.

As is evident in these times, global environments and eco-systems are mortally stressed by mindless economic presumptions of corporate capitalism and by ecologic degradation from unbridled corporate profiteering, engineering and exploitation. The global economic crises presently enveloping global humanity is also a “religious” crisis which is precisely about the failure of moral relationships and conscionable sensitivity toward fragile Earth-life trashed by corporate capitalism devoid of conscience.

PERSONAL
Politics, religion, ecology and economy are part and parcel of the universal tapestry of self-reflective life which humans uniquely understand and dominate. The holistic security of life’s fabric depends on human ability to understand its intricacies of interdependence and to preserve its diversity even as humans enfold themselves more intimately within it. In the intimacy of implication, humans discover human/ divine connection and self-fulfillment. Self-fulfillment cannot happen except with sense and sensitivity for all other.

The future of Coming Church links intimately with us personally. Personal consciousness is individually diverse. Everyone perceives things from her/ his personal point of view. Viewpoints are necessarily personal and unavoidably unique. Differences should not be, however, flashpoints for conflict rather they should be starting points for symbiotic purpose, and opportunities to pursue reconciliation.

Personal grudges, ideological fixations, personal and institutional, are obstacles to personal/ social growth and wellbeing. A mind committed to reconciliation is rewarding to one’s own self as well as to others, but a mind trapped in past negative preoccupation is personally and socially hurtful. The social mind is shaped by how we personally relate to one another. Maturity is a lifelong quest in the acquisition of wisdom, age and grace.

The transformation of life is quintessentially a Eucharistic process, a process deeply dependent on/ from femininity, the ground-state of all vitality. Priesthood, service to life, is the work and wisdom of female conscience, the obligation of male subordination. Reconciliation begins with male recognition of subordination and universal correlation in the Sacrament of Natural Order.

Believe the words of St. Paul, “There are faith hope and love, and the greatest of these is Love” — the everlasting and only Absolute.

See: http://ncrcafe.org/node/2286, also
“THEOLOGY for the TIMES”, Additional Resource, at www.secondenlightenment.org