Liberal Churches Focus on Personal Morality (ritual, gospel, tradition, creation)

[Green Gaia]

From 'Liberal' Pews, a Rising Thirst for Personal Moral Code

Christian Science Monitor

Mainline Protestant congregations, known for emphasizing the social-justice and global-equity dimensions of the Gospel, are increasingly making space for airing parishioners' day-to-day moral dilemmas, which they used to leave largely between an individual and God.

Often, this thirst for a personal code of conduct is being satisfied among lay members themselves, who gather in small groups in homes, cafes, and church basements to talk over daily moral challenges.

What's new is that it's appearing in "blue state," liberal-leaning churches, which appear to be taking a page from the playbook of conservative megachurches that have long used small groups to reinforce Christian morality - and to help members feel connected and satisfied.

Guidance in private moral matters helps keep the spirit alive, says Jim Adams of the Center for Progressive Christianity in Cambridge, Mass. "I think people want it and need it," he says. "Progressive churches that are thriving do pay as much attention to the personal as they do to the social and the political.... That's where people get what they need to sustain their lives."

When Bob Potter joined St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in midtown Manhattan, little did he expect that he would soon be advising fellow members how to live their lives. But when a man in his church discussion group was diagnosed with a terminal illness, Mr. Potter and five others in the group asserted a robust moral guidance, urging him to reconcile with every member of his family who had become estranged since learning he was gay.

"We encouraged that, and to a certain extent, we bridged the gap" by phoning reluctant family members and encouraging meetings, he says.

Such daring encounters with one another's moral struggles have become remarkably regular at "St. Bart's," a progressive congregation whose average Sunday attendance has leapt from 100 to 1,200 since the early 1990s. Small groups that discuss personal dilemmas deserve much of the credit, according to Rector William Tully.

Other churches reversing years of decline say the same is true for them as well.

"This modern resurgence of interest [in small groups] in the past 15 years is authentically a new thing," says Ian Evison, director of research at the Alban Institute, a think tank for mainline American Christianity in Herndon, Va. "People found themselves with all these self-help groups, and it tended to create a culture for how things are dealt with."

In this new wave, groups of six to 12 members are convening - officially, at least - to pray, watch films, do crafts, or simply eat and chat without any obligation to say much at all. Yet under these nonthreatening auspices, church-based groups - especially in Northern states, - are coming to offer something quite profound in the eyes of church watchers. They report a subtle re-creation of safe spaces and sources of guidance that had gradually become the domain of workplace spirituality teams and 12-step recovery groups, which often rent space from churches.

Churchgoers are increasingly willing to go to their peers in the pews for guidance, says Mr. Evison, in part because few want to rely on clergy for one-on-one counseling in an era charged with sexual-abuse scandals.

Another reason has to do with urban lifestyles that include fewer "occasions for natural friendships" among adults who miss the blunt advice given in childhood and college days, according to Mr. Adams.

Whatever the causes, some hope they've found an effective way to stem decades of declining numbers in mainline churches.

Highly progressive and politically minded Unitarian Universalists, for instance, have helped small groups take root in hundreds of congregations across the denomination. Meanwhile, their denomination has been adding members over the past 10 years at a pace unseen elsewhere in progressive religion. The correlation, Adams says, is not a coincidence.

In Potter's group from St. Bart's, members find sustenance by topping off an evening of food and scripture with specific prayers for one another's needs and sometimes a helping of tough love.

One unemployed participant used to vent his depression at their biweekly gatherings, but after a swift résumé clinic with a consultant in the group, he made sure to arrive each time ready to tick off everything he'd been doing to find work. Bible group boosts courage.

Across the East River in Brooklyn, the phenomenon continues in a subtler form. Janice Etchison says three years ago she would never have thought about joining something so intimate as a home-based prayer group.

But St. Bart's church boosted her courage, and soon she found herself listening on the phone as a fellow group member would confide feelings surrounding her ongoing affair with a married man.

"She felt I was willing to hear her and accept her," says Ms. Etchison. She didn't push issues of right and wrong but instead let the woman talk herself to a decision to break off the relationship. She took that tack in part because "we are not judgmental people."

What's more, in her view the moral backdrop needed no reinforcement: "I think in things like this, between women it's understood what can happen."

Forging small groups for support and encouragement is not entirely new to mainline Protestantism.

In the 18th century, Methodism founder John Wesley pioneered "class meetings" for 12 or fewer who would help one another live morally upright lives. Today's accountability groups - seen in the so-called "red states" as men and women convene, often separately, to confess the week's moral missteps and pray for strength to do better - follow in this Wesleyan tradition.

Where today's groups are clearing new ground seems to be in the more culturally reserved "blue states." A grounding in doctrinal moorings?

Here, churches are casting their nets widely to capture the interest of all generations, even people averse to all things touchy-feely. But in creating safe spaces through groups that might be organized around anything from parenting to meditation, churches run the risk of losing the solid Christian moorings of their morality, according to church historian Elizabeth Nordbeck.

Rest of the article here

[Seyorni]

Traditional, conservative churches seem to me to be big on talk and symbolic morality, but it's the liberal, progressive congregations that challenge individuals to examine their own actions and motivations. Conservative churches support the status quo and preach against change. It's the liberal churches that tend to champion issues like woman's sufferage, abolitionism, labor unions, social security &c.

[Dadball]

The practice of small groups goes back to the early church. Protestants moved away from this and other type of early church disciplines because they were too "Catholic". Over the last 15 years, there has been an emergance of these disciplines. I myself use this forum as a form of small group and study. These spiritual disciplines are used to strengthen our relationship with God and our Brothers & Sisters.