by Larry BeaneLook what I'm going to have to miss. I'll be going here instead.
So, instead of going to Minneapolis for a hip and exciting "progressive" conference put on by 21 women clerics with such exciting topics as (all presented in über-hip lower case letters - even when the names "God" and "Jesus" are used...):
- treating women jesus-style
- the boundary-breaking god of hope and promise
- jesus' body is hot again
- praying in color - doodling redefined
- missional, emergent, monastic, methodist, newday
- coming out of all closets
- HUMBITIOUS [an exception to the all lowercase rule...] - women & ambition, power, humility
- doubt is the new faith
... I will be forced to miss out, instead spending time with all-male "blackshirt" Lutheran clergy in Downtown Metropolitan Kewanee for bratwurst, beer, and a discussion of Lutheran liturgy!
Can you just imagine?
The topics for discussion will have nothing to do with women, the hotness of jesus' [sic] body, coming out of the closet, nor anything to do with orificia (regardless of what some people say about "The Gottesdienst Crowd!(tm))." And I do believe the plan will be to make full use of the uppercase letters - especially when it comes to the initial letter of the divine names (how "establishment" and "reactionary" can you get?). The theme is: "Not a Matter of Indifferent Things" and the questions under discussion are:
- So what's negotiable and what isn't, in worship?
- Nothing is an adiaphoron in a state of confession: meaning what, exactly?
- Is Gottesdienst adiaphora? Of course not, but why not?
You're gonna be talking about the liturgy when you could be taking Yoga classes? Where are your priorities?!
ReplyDeleteSigh.
ReplyDeleteI promised myself that I wouldn't click on anymore links in Fr. Beane's articles about the 'mergent church; they only make me sad.
But click I did above and found this from one of the presenters - the scare quotes are hers, and ever so appropriate. Lord have mercy.
"Seth is sitting in a coffee shop in Denver, CO presently wondering how she's going to come out to her queer friends about the fact that she is presenting at a "christian" conference in October. Other things she's thinking about today: how she's tired of deriving identity from the two dozen social justice organizations she works with/for; why her 362nd attempt to leave "the church" in the last decade of her life has failed again;"
+HRC