Religious Formation

I was recently having a conversation with a Roman Catholic educator about Christian formation.  She asked me what texts I use when bringing people into my parish.  She knew that I used a variety of texts as a Roman Catholic priest.  In a moment of cynicism I said that ISM parishes do not worry about religious education texts because there are no people.

Independent Sacramental Movement Jurisdictions seem to lack religious formation texts.  Now there are some exceptions, but the exceptions prove the rule.  As I have noted, we tend to be top heavy with few laity and mostly clergy.  Sadly, I am part of the problem rather than being part of a solution.  The only way out of the dilemma I see is for intentional communities to start with just laity committed to a jurisdiction.  From the members of the community, a leader, presider, priest or minister is recognized and then ordained for service.  The idea that a person ordained can build it and they will come does not seem to be effective.  Can it be done?  Yes.  Even if it can be done, I do not think it will be as successful as a community that forms through the deliberate action of multiple individuals wanting to live out the Gospel.  In short, I think we need to rethink how we create communities and my own actions of establishing my parish are part of the problem rather than the solution.

Getting back to religious formation, we need texts of our own.  What texts would you use to bring someone into the ISM movement?  For me, I think it would vary based upon the religious background and formation of the person.  What does not work is what I have seen and that is to take Roman Catholic Catechism texts and then skip or mark out parts that the jurisdiction does not believe. 

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time reading Hans Kung.  Would a text like “On Being a Christian” or the Dutch Catechism be appropriate for an ISM Old Catholic tradition?  Again, these are resources designed for the Roman Catholic Church though these texts were not accepted within Roman Catholicism.  At the same time, certain aspects that Old Catholicism raised against Roman Catholicism are addressed in pastorally sensitive ways within these texts.

We need a better job of telling our story.  The Roman Catholic Church has Catechisms illustrating the interconnection between belief, practice, and prayer.  We need texts that tell our story.  Or better put, we need texts that tell the story of the Body of Christ.  Just as John the Baptist had to decrease so that the story of Jesus can increase, maybe our own texts should seek to tell the Good News in such a way that focuses on what is essential. 

I think of the Old Catholic Declaration which states: “We hope that the theologians, while maintaining the faith of the undivided Church, will succeed in their efforts to establish an agreement on the differences that have arisen since the divisions of the Church. We urge the priests under our jurisdiction in the first place to stress, both by preaching and by religious instruction, the essential Christian truths professed in common by all the divided confessions, carefully to avoid, in discussing still existing differences, any violation of truth or charity, and, in word and deed, to set an example to the members of our parishes of how to act towards people of a different belief in a way that is in accordance with the spirit of Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of us all.”  Our texts should be ecumenical in a way that captures our common discipleship as believers.  Maybe an ISM theologian today could take up this task by writing a text like “On Being a Christian” that addresses our contemporary situation, is faithful to the proclamation of Jesus who transcends any attempts to categorize him, and provides hope in the Christian promises.

We as ISM communities should be beacons of hope.  People both lay and clergy often find us because of past hurts with church.  The greatest thing we can offer will be the hope, love, and acceptance we can provide.  May God bless you and sustain you in the hope that even death itself has been defeated through the Resurrection of Jesus.  Amen.

Peace,

Ben