UFMCC’s Commission on Faith, Fellowship and Order was formed three years ago to provide a forum for discussion of some of our community’s basic questions about faith, theology and biblical Viet is theology? How does it relate tothe Christ Story? Every personisa theologian, Every declaration about God is a theological stizzwent — even the denial of Godiseristence. ‘Theology isthinking about God and our relationship to God. It is the human atlempt to know and describe God. ltis reflection on the human experience in relation- ship with the Ukimate and the Infinite, ‘Theology sys that it is not Jenough to recte pious phrases and Biblical venes. To do theol- ogy isto get athe meaning of these phrases ad verses. We have ell heard pious phrases like “God bless you" and “God loves you.” These are nottheclogical state- ments per se. theologian would step in and ait, "What does it mean that Goi blesses us?” "What docs # mean that God loves us?” The Bible states that [God raised Jems from the dead. The job of thealogy is to take this Biblical effrnation end to answer the question, “Wkat is the im- portance of Gol raising Jesus from the dead?” “What is the meaning of ths erent?” To do theology thenis to reflect on the statements of fith, It is using our minds to try tounderstend and to interpret rather than just repeating belief, or apious phrase, or a Biblical verse, ‘Theology flsinto two cate- series — natu and revealed. [Natural theokgy tells that God is; ‘IBARINITY Pheember 1976 interpretation. At the 1975 General Confer- ence, FFO was charged with presenting a paper this year in Washington focussing on six major questions. Since then, District FFO workshops and local churches have studied, discussed, and debated the six ques- tions about MCC’s mis- sion and theological task. Here is the Com- mission’s “interim re- port”, adopted by the Conference for study during the current year. el revealed theology tells us who God is. Natural theology is that which }we can know about God and God's ways through observation of, and reflection upon, the uni- verse. However, there are things about God that we cannot know through observation and reason. ‘They must be revealed to us, This is the basis of revealed theology. We can find out for ourselves that there is a God. It must be shown to us what this God is like and what this God purposes, Jesus the Christ is God’s revela- tion in history, The God who is revealed in Jesus Christ is the same God who has been revealed from the beginning to the patriarchs and the prophets, This revelation continues for us in the Church which is the living Body of Christ ~ the continuation of the incama- tion. Therefore, our thinking as Christians about God must be in the context of God’s self. disclosure in Jesus the Christ. The unique revelation of God upon which Christianity relies is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That was God revealing God in the clearest possible way. ‘The historical revelation of God in Jesus Christ is mediated to us through the Holy Scriptures, Our present reflection about God must be consistent with the Jesus pro- claimed in the Scriptures, God's continuing revelation in Christ is known thorugh the people of God. In the Church's Scriptural teaching and preaching of the Christ Story, and in the continuing experience of the Risen Christ through the Church's worship and loving service, under ‘the guidance of the Holy Spit, Looked upon in this light, theology is a never-ending fask. It is never ended because being humen endeavor it must use human concepts end human words, The thought structures and Tanguage of humans are always changing, and thus theology is always changing. The basic truth and faith behind theology remain the same. The Bible and the his- torical traditions of thé Christian * ‘Church remain the same, The T6C:6fig, owever, which inter- esdesegven basics is always eisges developing. There is Jexpitbeology for three rasa: Fist, we grow in our indinour relationship with Galles, because we progress insemdastending of the given baigreievelop better tools jis study the Bible, duilisoy, tradition, ete. ‘Dabecase human culture emaitsi changing, and we mind sexys to communicate orfitrother people so that thpaninienstand it, The task oltsaogis to explain our faith aslarmasage to the people in temiitthey can understand, Texte ay theology is done aniwtld is aways changing to anmplstthat tesk. What is the theo- logical task of the Universal Fellow- ship of Metropoli- tan Community Churches? ‘Teobg is « humen attempt te Jamandiescribe God, Through tieSedojcal process we study Gxdgalhways, and God's daly wih humankind, Theol- cogyay itis not enough to redepiow phrases, Bible verses, otstenats of faith; to do teabgy to get at the meaning offie pases, verses and shimetzof faith end their im- Pleonsior the Church today. ‘idee the theological task lie Unters Fellowship of Netopolian Community Carissmeans to state the areas ffdogcal concern MCC oBbewking itself and the Gkiiin Church, We must begin Iyaloing the personel revela- fixpreato Troy Perry and codimesnow in our corporate felix To adequately ap- Poth, we must remember titrmulation is God’s self dis- chsretobumanity ebout Him/ Fell Te initial revelation was thdGod does love everyone, in- doinggy men and women; the ‘inning revelation is that God ‘iba curch to exist in this ‘wall folve ond proclaim that nee. Grrtivolozical task is then, ‘wolold:(1) to determine the EL:7 implications of God’s universal love for our church’s life and ministry; (2) to determine the implications of God’s revealing ‘that message through @ church “-~ composed of worshipping com- munities constituted primarily of gay Christians, Our theological Teflection, however, about MCC as an instrument of God's revelation must be evaluated in the light of God's revelation in Christ Jesus. Suggested areas of concem to explore are: (1) Ecumenism — To bind to- gether a group of believers from diverse religious traditions pr matily because of sexual identity. MCC is attempting to be an ecu. menical fellowship, i.e, to adopt astatement of faith and corpor ate expression that is toth co- hesive enough to bind us to- gether into a community of Christians but open enough to allow for individual beliefs. (2), Human Sexuality —"To say that “God accepts everyone, re- gardless of their sexual orienta- tion,” does not adequately ex- plain the relationship between sexuality and aChrist-centered life. Again, the ebove quote is a pious phrase that needs to be explained, e.g., What does it meani to be ac- cepted by God? What is sexual orientation? Is every sexual act in- cluded? If not, what determines which ects are and are not? What does it mean to be sexual? To be Christian? To be both? . (8) Prophetic Mission—"The message of our fellowship is prophetic in that it may chal- Tenge some of the traditional views of the Judeo-Christian heri- tage, (4) Human Liberation — We often hear from the pulpits of MCC that Christ Jesus is our Liberator. In itself, to say that “Christ Jesus is our Liberator” is not a theological statement but a “pious phrase” on which we need to do theology to find the deepest meaning. To get this meaning we must ask cerlain questions, e., From whom or what does Jesus liberate us? How does Jesus liber- ate us? Is this liberation only a future event, ie,, “pie in the sky by and by,” or does Jesus liberate us now? Is Jesus only concerned with “spiritual” liberation? Does the liberation that Jesus offers have anything to do with the lib- eration movements, eg., Black, Latino, Native American, Gay, Feminist, of today? If 60, how much and in what ways? Once we begin to answer questions like these, we can then begin to say that we ere developing a theology of human liberation, fe., we are Aiscovering what the deepest im- plications of what it means to say that Christ Jesus is our Liberator. How do we define the community to which we are called to minister? Current discussion about the community to which MCC is called to minister has begun to polarize into two identifiable views: Church, its missionary efforts and resources must be directed toward all people, There may be no im. plication of exclusivity in our ministry. (b) On the other view, the community that MCC is called to serve should be defined es pri- marily, but not necessarily ex- clusively, the Gay community, Since many churches ere unable or unwilling to faithfully preach to Gospel to Gay people and do not effectively respond to thelr spiri- tual and social needs, then Gay persons must have the oppor- tunity to seek their own worship- ping communities, Despite noises to the contrary, this definition of community has been the one that ‘most people in MCC have im- plicitly accepted. They have done 50 with uneasy conscience, be- cause it appears to be contrary to Scriptural demands, Since Christ's Church is for everyoné, then all Christian congregations must re- flect that all-inclusiveness in their constituency. Thus the problem facing us in responding to this, question is the dilemma of ep- parent Scriptural demands versus sociological reality. : Sociological reality hes, in fact, placed persons in community, ‘MCC must, therefore, relate not December 1976 / IN UNITY: 29erly bo pesons 2s if isolated, ltespertoxsincommunity. ‘TheChurd’s mission involves jammuity. If by community we eu ndviduels seeking mutual éeelpnentof God-given poten- fais, our sk has begun, vay, the Christian community feabegning,« becoming: never [apeict completion, Yet we must speak of com- yin a'ratiety of senses, for swekave recognized, persons at in community. By com ¥e mean a central, minis- ising core grup; we may mean a Church community of cor whose intensity of in- jenent isnot equal; or we may leak of even wider communities himhich we may be called to in direct or remote ways. Owevery existence is a ministry Rothe otal world community. A ion of this total family of Get chien, ix communion nih God or esiringed, is one nig ofthe word “ecu- mity ss persons related to uel communion in ‘whose spiritual core we rot herelofore reached, but owhon we may nevertheless ta a olherlevels, We must ay to any person, ‘What, be we to dowith you?” for all eath’s people are related in ean community, and all ere el objects of the Church's sty. Tneach response to the ques- ofthe definition of MCC's ty of ministry, an im- patant theological concept is (9 The fist ansiver chooses indusive nature of the tin Gospel as the decisive Beclogical consideration, If xual or ethnic minorities and have been discriminated giinstelewhere, this position itmustnot be so here, NOC must be a model for inte- pation and nondiscrimination, () To thesecond answer, the patil theological concept is the jf election: a called and Khosen people, on the model of He caling of Israel or the es- AINUNTY / December 1976 tablishing of the Church, In both instances a group of people, who. {for the most part were previously ‘uncommitted to one another in ‘any significant manner, shared a ‘common experience of having their oppression/slavery trans- formed into liberation by the divine hand, Each community found motivation for common ‘commitment to one another on ‘the basis of their common libera- tion experience. Bech was com- manded to keep the relevance and power of the liberation experience alive by reflecting on it, as a lcommunity, in the format of ‘worship, Similarly, to challenge the theological legitimacy of Gay people forming a worshipping community separate from the wider institutional religious com- munity is to challenge God's wisdom and right to act as S/He will, ‘These two themes — inclusion and election — now find them- selves set in opposition, But the lopposition is only the clash of a generally understood idea (in- felusion) with one often tragically misunderstood (election). We must examine the latter, for its proper understanding is pivotal to four consideration, Istacl continually _ struggled with the concept of election, In a positive vein, the prophets pro- claimed the purpose of Israel's election to be a “light to the nations.” On the other hand, Israel, propelled by a distorted election-consciousness, attempted to exterminate the Caananite people — whom it viewed as re- ected and unacceptable before God. Genocide against Jews, Gays, and others has been the conse- |quence of distorted notions of election; an example is the case of Nazi Germany ~ Hitler only sought to carry out what churches had been preaching for centuries, If @ group thinks of itself as speci- ally chosen “insiders,” it is likely to become self-righteous and to conclude that the non-eléct have no right to exist. ‘The Christian's model for election” is Jesus, He under. stood his calling as's call to servanthood. Jesus was a servant, recognizing the value of every « [person and every person’s poten- tial relatedness to God. His- torically, however, the Church, like Israel, hes often misunder- stood its election. Therefore it hhas needed prophets to lift up the election model of Jesus the Christ, ‘The community of faith may be expected to share a common ex- perience, commitment and call, While it must never be exclusion: ary, it may reflect a sociological commonality. But if it is Chri tian, it does not exist for itself, ‘The moment it does, it misunder- stands election and becomes a threat to every “outsider.” Jesus came to include every outsider, every victim of oppression. We must make common cause with all oppressed people, precisely be- cause of our particular call. We must learn to understand ‘oppression in all of its forms as ‘that which inhibits realizing of ‘one’s potential for relatedness to God, the self and the neighbor, It's likely for the foreseeable future that our congregations may be largely Gay in composition. ‘That is congruent with our call ‘and our beginnings. But also con- gzuent with our call is the fact that we exist for the world, Our very existence is a prophetic witness to the world and the |Church, ‘To seek to serve only the “Gay-community,” however, is not only a misunderstanding of Jour call; it is also a misunderstand- ing of our humanity. We must eam to discard our limiting cate- [gories for human persons, and recognize that in Christ there is neither Jew not Greek, slave nor ree, male nor female, straight Inor gay. How might we focus or bring to bear the Christian Gospel on the needs of the coin- munity we have defined? ‘The Christian Gospel is the Good News” that God comes to lus in Christ, speaks to us, and acts {for us and through us in tncon- |ditional love. The Gospel can and Imust reach into human existence at every point, Because that is our jaffirmation, we dare to focus and loring to bear the Christian Gospel jon the néeds of the community TGC:8