We have begun our Year Two Project! With over 300 groups using A Joyful Path, Year One, with only positive results, we’ve had a lot of inquiries lately as to when the second year of A Joyful Path, is coming out. We are pleased to announce that, thanks to a recent, generous donation, we are now ready to begin A Joyful Path, Year Two! We are committed to continuing the high level of scholarship, creativity, and quality found in A Joyful Path, Year One, so we are not expecting to have Year Two ready until Spring of 2013.

Many parents, who don’t find the religion they learned as children very useful in their adult lives, still find themselves coming back to church with their children, hoping to give them a sense of community, ritual, and …

Jesus is seriously dead.  None of the rest of it makes any sense otherwise.

a set of statements on abortion compiled in 1978 from various denomination authorities

Constituencies of two distinct religious traditions joined in and by their pasts have been engaged this week in observances honoring their shared mythology.

I must admit that resurrection, then and now, remains a mystery – it can’t be defined in terms of literal flesh and bones or explained away as metaphor; nor is it helpful to speak of the pre-resurrection and post-resurrection Jesus.  Jesus is a whole person reality, resurrection as rebirth and healing power characterized his teaching, healing, and hospitality

The Dove World Outreach Center, a non-denominational church in Gainesville, Florida, announced in July that it would host a Qur’an burning event on its church property in observance of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks “to warn Americans about the dangers of Islam.”

PHOENIX, AZ ; More than 300 participants;some self-identified as Progressive Christians, others as Emergent Christians gathered Feb. 10-11 to meet one another for the first time in an event termed “Big Tent Christianity.”

A life-long progressive Christian attends an event entitled “Big Tent Christianity” and is surprisingly thrilled to dialogue with members of a novel, youthful take on traditional Christianity. In addition, Fred Plumer gives us his take on Brian McLaren, the central spokesperson for Emergent Christianity.

What to do about the Emergent Church? Carol Howard Merritt gives us an honest critique of the ups-and-downs concerning the Emergent Church phenomena.

As one of the behind the scenes helpers of Big Tent Christianity, I can honestly say that I feel like last week’s Phoenix event was very successful.

Looking over a mountain toward an unknown future can be both exhilarating and scary. That’s where I’ve been for the past 72 hours in Phoenix at the Big Tent Christianity event: exhilarated and a little bit scared – but hopeful.

I’d like to make something clear upfront, here. I’m not completely orthodox. I have some beliefs that don’t mix well with older forms of Christian thought, even if they’re often times congruent with some of the oldest forms (for instance, I’m a universalist). I’m not saying this, however, in order to earn your accolades; I’m saying it because, generally, if I want much of today’s American church–at least Mainline and Emergent–to take me seriously, I feel I have to make such a profession of heresy. Heresy has become the new orthodoxy.

This service was created by Gretta Vosper from the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity
The service can be led by one person but is richer with a diversity of voices. In some places, options for Reader 1 and Reader 2 are marked to suggest a particular flow.  Leaders are urged to work out who is responsible for what and use the options provided only as guidelines.
The space is prepared for the service with an easily accessible table, cloaked in dark cloth, with baskets of tea lights set upon smaller tables or stands at each end. The table may be decorated with a sprinkling of silvery or translucent glitter or cut out stars. Silver-covered boxes of various heights might offer different places for people to set tea lights and offer visual interest

I share these familiar family stories because I wonder as we approach this Christmas “holy day,” if we have lost our ability as a society to look for, to wait for, to anticipate those magical moments in life. Have we become so materialistic, so rational, so cynical that we no longer see the magical, majestic, the mystical, the mystery?

Finally, Pope Benedict XVI has opened the theological door to affirming condom use to help stem the spread of HIV in the world. For decades the Roman Catholic popes and bishops have not only discouraged condom use to prevent the transmission of HIV but have suggested that the use of condoms actually spreads HIV.

Another year is drawing to a close!  I find myself reflecting over this past year and am proud of what we have accomplished here at The Center for Progressive Christianity.

This article calls for the need for reformation of the Christian Church on many levels, to bridge the secular and religious worlds, and to once again align with the spirit of Jesus.