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Can the Church survive
into the next millenium? What forms of worship will be used
as the Church tries to relate itself to the needs of society?
How can the Church show its relevance to the world, in terms
of its mission and ministry? What hope can the Church offer
a stressed and distressed world? What would reconciliation
mean between peoples, and how could this take place? Could
the Church itself know unity, Or must it perpetuate past
and painful divisions?
While these questions,
and many more, face the Church at the end of the twentieth
century, our series of studies will concentrate.-on the Church
as the correlate of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The
apostolic witness to the Church speaks of the Church as the
Body and Bride of Christ; of the sacraments as audio-visuals
of the Gospel; of the life and ministry of the Church as
expressions of the risen Christ's life and ministry. Again,
the gifts and ministries of the Church are under the guidance
and governance of the Spirit; the Church is the community
of the Spirit; and the Church is even included in the creeds
under the article on the Spirit. The Church is never considered
or seen in isolation from either Jesus or the Spirit. Rather,
Christ's humanity provides the ontological ground and basis
for the Church, as the Spirit applies the life and ministry
of Christ to the people of God.
If this is so, the
Church's worship, witness and work in the world is not based
on a mere memory of the past ('the golden age of the New
Testament era'), nor an unfounded hope in the future (God
will finally fix everything up). Instead, the presence and
power of Jesus Christ as universal Lord ('Lo, I am with you
till the end of the age') is assured for both the Church
and the world. The prime concern of the Church, then, is
not itself but God in and through Christ, its message being
the Lordship of the risen Jesus, and the Kingdom of God by
the Spirit.
Our studies will concentrate
on the truth that the community and ministry of the Church
is determined by the person and work of Christ. This being
so, the key questions will not be 'What?' and 'How?', but 'Who?'
The outline and content of the studies will be dependent on
the class notes and writings of Ray S Anderson (see the LITERATURE
listed on this leaflet). |
