Progressive Christianity Prayers

[cmotherofpirl]

This is progressive christian [ their term , not mine, I don't think they are christian at all] version of the Our Father:
Non-Theistic Prayer
Rev. Dr. Charles Bidwell
If we cannot bring ourselves to pray to a transcendent, omnipotent, anthropomorphic deity, then should we abandon prayer? No, there is no need to abandon prayer either privately or publicly. I suggest that what we need to do is revise our understanding of prayer.

Positive Psychic Energy - Prayer may be conceived of being a form of psychic energy directed to a person or persons. It is our fervent wish that some good happen to someone. We concentrate on that person or persons. We imagine seeing them in our mind's eye. We send or transmit to them our best intentions. Somehow we sense that through the mysterious connection we all have with all other persons some force for good is transmitted or conveyed to those we concentrate upon during prayer. It may also be true that we can send negative impulses and wish the person harm, but I cannot recommend that in the spirit of Jesus.

Concentration of Resolve - Sometimes when we pray for a better world, a more peaceable kindom, a more just society, a safer community, an end to hunger and poverty, a reduction or end to loneliness and despair among some groups, what we are doing is focussing our desire to see some change occur. If we take a theistic stance and fool ourselves that we can call on God to intervene and make the change, then we will not direct much energy to being a force for that change. To believe in a non-theistic divine force, is to believe that we are a part of that life force and we are responsible for making the changes for which we pray. This is often the focus of public prayer when we pray that some change come about in our community.

With revision, I can still pray as Jesus indicated we could:
My Creator (soul's Source, spirit's Destination, Ground of Our Being, etc.)
in whom/which is heaven, or within which we can find heaven (as co-creators)
we revere/respect you
We will work to see your divine intent become a reality where we live.
We will work to see that everyone has the food they need to live and have health and energy to contribute to the welfare of Earth and its life systems.
We sense that we are forgiven for our admitted shortcomings to the extent that we art able to forgive others their failures.
We recognize the presence of evil in our world and strive to avoid being a part of it as well as pointing it out whenever we are aware of it.
We work for these changes in our lives and in the lives of others in the spirit of Jesus who cared for all those who were unjustly treated or oppressed.
May we make these things so.

Note that at no time does this indicate a petition to an external force to intervene and do the work which only we can do.

Corporate Prayer Endings:
Traditional - “Lord, hear our prayer.”
T1 - Global/personal - “This is my prayer.” or "This is our prayer."
T2 - “May I work to make it so.” or "May we work to make it so."
Traditional - “We pray in Jesus' name.”
T1 - Global/personal - “We ask this in the spirit of Jesus.”
T2 - “We agree on this as the spirit of Jesus touches us.”

Traditional - “Amen”
T1 - Global/personal - “May it be so.”
T2 - “May we make it be so.”

Scripture Responses
Traditional - "This is the Word of the Lord."
T1 - "This is a Word from God."
T2 - "Herein we seek God's wisdom."
T3 - "Herein we seek Wisdom."
After the Hebrew Scriptures
"This is part of our story."

Naming
Traditional - John, the Baptist
T1 - John, the Baptiser.
Traditional - Jesus Christ
T1 - Jesus, the Christ
T2 - Jesus, the anointed one
T3 - Jesus, an anointed one

Traditional - Jesus/Christ our Saviour/Redeemer
T1 - Jesus/Christ, our Companion on the Way
T2 - Jesus, our Window on Divinity
T3 - Jesus, our Beloved Sage

Traditional - God is love
T1 - “Love is God” and “Justice is Godly” and “Compassion is Divine”

[YHWH is not a Jew, God is not a Christian, and Allah (with his 99 names) is not a Muslim.]

Communion - Eucharist - Last Supper - Agape Meal - Passover Seder, etc.
An early Christian document, The Didache (Teaching of the Apostles), from the end of the first Century directs the faithful to celebrate the meal of thanksgiving (Chapters 9&10). There is no mention of sacrifice or blood shed or body broken. It might get away from the "sacrificial lamb" image for Jesus and the punishing, abusive father image of God within the doctrine of the atonement, if we ceased to mention body and blood and in its place stressed the ideas and images of the Passover meal of remembrance and celebration. Jesus celebrated the Passover Seder with his friends just before he was executed. He knew that he was in for serious trouble from the authorities and that he might never again eat with them and so he well might have said something like whenever you gather to break bread and drink wine, I hope you will remember me and al that I have tried to teach you.
The words of institution and the Great Thanksgiving can be altered so that what the worship leader and the people say reflects remembering Jesus, his relationship with all people, his open table and eating with those others would shun, etc.

The words can refer to bread broken and wine poured to be shared among those who gather to be in solidarity with Jesus' teachings of compassion and justice.

Servers might say different phrases at different times of the year:
"Bread for your journey" and "Juice for your joy"
"Bread of Solidarity" and "Wine of Freedom"
"The Bread of Blessing" and "The Cup of Community"

Scripture Interpretation (a model for NT exploration)
Jesus said (aphorism) - "Man was not made for the Sabbath, but Sabbath was made for man." (Mark 2:27)
Inclusivized - "People were not made in order to observe the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made for people."
Generalized/globalized - "People were not created in order to obey rules regarding a day of rest (or any other religious ordinance); the day of rest is a gift for all to enjoy."
Guiding Principle - That which is designed to be beneficial to everyone should not be dogmatically enforced upon anyone but it should be accessible by everyone who chooses it.

from St. Stephen's College: Non-Theistic Liturgy Resources Working Group [believe it or not this is a supposedly Christian college in Canada]

[Birgitta Noel]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1225654' date='Apr 1 2007, 10:23 AM']May we make these things so.

Corporate Prayer Endings:
Traditional - “Amen”
T1 - Global/personal - “May it be so.”
T2 - “May we make it be so.”[/quote]

Reminds me of Star Trek....Captain Picard, "Make it so!"


And how odd, non-theistic LITURGY?!

[jeffpugh]

Is this guy Bhuddist or something? Next does he want us to use grapjuice instead of wine and then go sit under a tree and think about how everyone is saved by their path??

OR

Does this person want to 'worship the Jesus in everyone' and sit in a circle and hug and share opium?

Okay... a little over the top.. .but Oy Vey... I hope no one takes this person seriously...

[Church Punk]

It sounds as though they have taken God out and replaced him with our selfs -

[quote] My Creator (soul's Source, spirit's Destination, Ground of Our Being, etc.)
in whom/which is heaven, or within which we can find heaven ([b]as co-creators[/b])
we revere/respect you[/quote]

What is up with this?

[cmotherofpirl]

This is a "christian" theological college in Canada: St Stephens. I found it on the Anglican webelf report.

[Socrates]

"Juice for your joy"