Why is this important
for pioneers?
Are fresh expressions proper church?
•what is at the heart of church?
•what must always happen in church?
•what can change?
•how can we preserve our identity?
SHARE website
Ecclesiology
•Distill the essentials of the church
•Describe the richness of the church
•Discern and define the presence of
the church
•Derive the practices of the church
•Develop the maturity of the church
•Church as spiritual society
•All Christians are one in Christ
•Church as repository of true teaching
•It gathers the faithful together
Enduring Marks
Jesus focus
Jesus followers
Holy
“UP”
“OUT” Apostolic
Catholic “OF”
“IN”
Four linked
Journeys
OHCA
One
Church is any
expression of the life
of Jesus in
communal form
Organised
One
Holy
Catholic
Apostolic
Organic
Diverse
Charismatic
Local
Prophetic
Howard Synder , Decoding the Church. Baker Books
“ The great confession and the great
identification constitute biblical ecclesiology.
The church is born out of the koinonia
of the Spirit, the identification with Christ.
Identification with Christ through the Spirit,
issues in the great community and the
great commission.”
Five practices of the church
•Dialoguing with- binding and loosing
•Sharing with- Eucharist meal
•Transcending prejudice- baptism
•Valuing one another- multiplicity of gifts
•Listening to one another- open meeting
John Howard Yoder, Body Politics. Herald Press
•Unity in freedom
•Catholic in partianship
•Holiness in poverty
•Apostolic in suffering
J. Moltmann, The Church in the power of the Spirit. SCM 1977
“ The missionary church will not aim to spread
its own form. It is not a subsidiary of the old one.
It is a ‘new church’ of the same apostolate. It
preserves its unity when it fulfils Christ’s
apostolic mission to its own historical situation.”
Three dimensions
Open before God
before humankind
before the future
“ the theological doctrine of the church
cannot be simply expressed in abstract terms
about the churches timeless nature. It will
have to provide points of departure for
reforming the church, for giving it a more
authentic form. Faithfulness and the fresh
start are not antitheses in
the history of the Spirit.”
“ And so from the start , where Jesus is,
there is the church, the church is the
assembly of those who are finding their
relationships, their lives transformed
by the presence of Jesus.”
Anglican ecclesiology
•It did not start in 16th Century
•There is no definitive Anglicanism
•It is global
“ The Church of England is part of the One, Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church worshipping the one
true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It professes
the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and
set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church
is called to proclaim afresh in every generation,
lead by the Holy Spirit, it has borne witness to the
Christian truth in its historic formularies, the 39
Articles, the BCP and the Ordinals of Bishops, Priests
and Deacons.
Preface to the Declaration of Assent . Canon C15
“This seems to be a mandate for some
reinterpretation, re-expression and making
the faith relevant, provided that this exercise,
imperative as it is, remains faithful to the
Scriptures and the creeds.”
“ one that is full of vitality and manoeuvrability
and which has the flexibility to make
contact with the contexts of our pluralistic world.
Paul Avis, The Identity of Anglicanism, T&T Clark,2007
“ The Church has to worship incarnationally,
separated from the world by the offence
of the cross, not by any alien character
of the culture.”
Lambeth Conference 1988
3 key marks
•catholic and reformed
•episcopal oversight
•baptism and eucharist