Java & Jesus
Sunday, July 2nd, at 9 am
Attend in-person at the church in the
Alfred Swan Room, or attend remotely
by Zoom
Mary Neuhaus facilitating
All are welcome!
Please join us even if this is your first time!
Bring your own beverage, if you wish!
Our summer J&J programming will focus on the Phoenix Affirmations, which the pastors will be preaching about this summer. These are 12 Affirmations of the Progressive Christian Church on the practices of loving God, loving the neighbor, and loving ourselves. The reading(s) will be kept light most weeks.
Affirmation 7: Christian love of neighbor includes preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State.
Luke 20:25; He said to them, “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
1 Peter 2:17 Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
As Christians, we strive to live as responsible citizens of our country, just as we seek to live as Christ’s disciples. We celebrate the separation of Church and State as much for the protection of the Church, and other faith communities, as the State.
We affirm that the Path of Jesus is found where Christ’s followers honor the role of the State in maintaining justice and peace, so far as human discernment and ability make possible. We affirm the separation of Church and State, even as we endeavor to support the state in as far as Christian conscience allows.
We confess that we have moved away from this Path when we have confused the role of the State with that of the Church. We have moved further from the Path when we have renounced the Church’s calling to speak prophetically to the State by suggesting that the Church should or could take on the nature, tasks and dignity which belong to the State, thus becoming itself an organ of the State.
Prompt questions:
1) What does responsible citizenship look like for you?
2) How does the value of independence show up in our lives and our country?
3) How might liberation look differently if we valued interdependence rather than independence?
4) White Christian Nationalism is a violation of the separation of church and state. In what practical ways can our church address this problem?
List of Phoenix Affirmations by content:
- Walk fully with Jesus, don’t deny other faiths
- Prayer, meditation, scripture
- Celebrate creation
- Worship includes art
- Engage people authentically across diversity
- Stand with poor and oppressed
- Separate church and state
- Walk humbly with God, seek to understand enemies
- We and all people are loved
- Sacredness of minds and hearts, doubt and belief
- Care for bodies, time for rest, reflection, recreation
- Meaning and purpose, discernment of calling
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To join Zoom discussion by phone: 1 312 626 6799
Meeting ID: 836 4943 6657
Passcode: 315584
