emergent update from “faith & order”

Just returned from the 50th anniversary celebration of the Faith & Order Commission of the National Council of Churches in the USA, which took place at the site of the first gathering at Oberlin College.

It was great to rub shoulders with people like: Martin Marty, Mark Calhoun, Jeffrey Gros, Susan Davies, Barbara Brown Zikmund, Don Dayton, Peter Heltzel, Avery Dulles, Mel Robeck, Jione Havea, Aristotle Papanikolaou, Amos Yong, Tom Finger, Kevin Mannoia, Mary Tanner, Carlos Malave, Mark Arey, James Forbes, Alberto Silva, David Cole, Paul Anderson, Thomas Ferguson and so many more.

Some papers of special note to those in the emergent conversation (sadly these are scheduled for publication and so they’re not available online yet):

• Keelan Downton’s “Ecclesiological Malleability as Ecumenical Horizon”
• Jione Havea’s “The Bible on Postmodern Surfaces”
• Aristotle Papanikolaou’s “Orthodoxy, Post-modernity, and Ecumenism: The Difference that Divine-Human Communion Makes”
• Cecil M. Robeck, Jr.’s “The Apostolic Faith and the Holy Spirit”
• Kevin Mannoia’s, “Issues Facing Ecumenism” and
• Jeff Kursonis & Russell Myers co-facilitated workshop titled, “Local Faith & Order, Emergent Cohorts: Possibilities for New Dialogues and Partnerships”

I was at the event representing Emergent Village (as impossible as that may be) and trying to serve as a voice for the boarder emerging movement or “Avant Churches” as most of the groups represented there are historic faith traditions or denominations. I was given an opportunity to speak to my observations of the event at one of the final plenary sessions.

I continue to be impressed with both the hospitality and the genuine interest the people I’ve been meeting from within the NCC and the more historic traditions express toward us in the emerging conversation.

I have an ever deepening appreciation for the history of this ecumenical group and the courage that has been required for many of its participants to engage in these intrafaith dialogues, and found it striking to imagine the courage that may be required for this organize to serve the American Church in an increasing Post-Christendom, postmodern, post-denominational context.

Special thanks to Ann Riggs, Susan Davies, and Keelan Downton for pursuing, and making space for younger emerging theologians at the table.

BTW, Mark Calhoun has a good day-by-day narrative of the event.

Peace, dwight