What goes around...

My own denomination, the Uniting Church in Australia, got rid of the language of 'parish' some years back. And generally the term parish is seen as related to the outdated "Christendom model" which saw everyone as Christians and hence as members of the parish (of the established religion).

So I was somewhat surprised the other day to be listening to an 'emergent' sort of podcast (Conversatio fidei - you can pick it up here: http://conversatio.blogspot.com/) and hear one of the speakers refer to wanting to regain something of the parish sense!

This surprising thought made sense on reflection, within the emergent context. You see many 'emergent' people and groups break down the identification sometimes found in the church of "The Kingdom of God" and "The Church". Emergent people/groups tend to see a much broader picture of God's work within the world and a greater sense that all people are on a spiritual journey - not just an elite (read Christian) few. So the sense is that a particular local church's mission is to be a cheerleader, enabler, chaplain, encourager to what God is doing within its own local community - and a recogniser and encourager of the ways in which God is working in each person in that community. Hence the renewed sense of "parish" - that this area (all of it) and the people within it (all of them) are those for whom we are called to care, chaplain, shepherd etc in their spiritual journeys and in their doing (however patchy) of the work of the Kingdom.

Interesting...