The Christianity we have inherited in the 21st century is like an onion, with Jesus’ wisdom at the core and layers and layers of church doctrine added over the centuries. Each of those layers was a solution to a problem in its own time. Progressive Christianity has let go of virtually all of those layers, recognizing that the core teaching – the Jesus experience, if you will – is what transcends time and is worth preserving. The result is that most progressive Christian churches no longer use the old creeds. We are not willing to recite what we cannot believe.

I believe in God as my creator and as the creator of the world which God sets before me as a gift for my joy and use, for me to tend in gratitude and affection. I believe …

God, Creator Supreme, we are forever a part of the divine spirit that permeates our lives in every way, known and unknown. Your love is manifested in granting us the capacity to relate to the divine essence of life and being — toward an existence beyond mortality, having no end in the temporal domain of eternity.

As progressive Christians in the 21st century, we are uncomfortable with rigid statements of belief, as we recognise our understandings are shaped by life experiences within cultural and environmental contexts. Yet, there are some common understandings which continue to shape our lives, both individually and in community with others. These we seek to affirm and celebrate

We believe that happiness awaits humanity and that our existence is not absurd.

If creeds and statements of faith turn into prisons for an Infinite Mystery, is there a way to express our current beliefs that does not end dialogue and the ability to change as our information changes?

Nina Brock from Ovando, Montana, writes: Question: Your comment in a recent column about Paul not being able to say the Nicene Creed prompts a question. We attended your week long seminar in Berkeley, CA, last summer …

We believe in God, the creative force that sustains and nurtures humanity in ways beyond our understanding. We believe that Jesus of Nazareth embodied the power of this force; extraordinarily able to grasp its meaning, he revealed …

I believe in God, The Universal Personal Spirit of unsurpassable love, who from nothing created this immense universe of both causal regularity and chance events, and with its emerging creatures possessing various capacities and freedoms to respond to God’s love and vision for their place and function in the universe.

While adherents claim to feel more Christian, or Buddhist, or Jewish than ever, they are finding more solidarity with one another than ever before.
They seem to be moving toward a similar “sweet spot,” one that integrates similar core values within the differing beliefs that frame those values.

We are not alone.

Poetic words that will linger beneath each small start that now rests within the nursery.

In acceptance I learn change

Peace makes us One with each other

THE PROJECT: Martyrs Prayers is an extraordinary endeavor born out of love – love for the Church, love for music and, perhaps most importantly, love for friends. As a musical and spiritual milestone, the album represents an event that has drawn together luminaries of the music world in order to honor those who, through the centuries, gave their very lives for their faith, their freedoms, their communities and their friends.

Our Father who dwells within – All in all,
In you I live and move and have my being.

L: Our Father
R: Sounds a bit sexiest to me, what about our Mother?

L: Our Father who art in heaven
R: Well we could do with him down here, right enough, rather than up there

Dear One, closer to us than our own hearts, farther from us than the most distant star, you are beyond naming.