| Moltmann continues to write about our place in the Community of the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit. With this development into the freely chosen participatory church and a personal life in faith, the overtaxed clergy both men and women, will be relieved of some of their load - without losing authority, as many of them fear. For they, too, are first of all Christians like other people, and like the rest they have a right to their own lifestyle and their own personal convictions before they take on the special charges and ministries of a congregation. they are members of the community of Christ together with the others, before they stand in front of the congregation and act for the congregation. Unless they are there with others, they cannot be there for others. Without solidarity there is no representation. To have overlooked this was the error of the earlier programme 'church for others'. The community of Christ is a community of free and equal people (Galatians 3:28f), who in the charismatic diversity of their gifts and vocations live with one another and for one another, and in the unity of the Holy Spirit together serve the kingdom of God in the world. We are first of all - baptized in Christ, Jesus. We are first of all a people who are moved by the power of the Holy Spirit and shaped within the gathering of the saints. It is then that our various gifts are held up in order that the whole body will be a part of the presence of the Spirit of our Lord wherever we gather and live. I find this to be a helpful view of our participation in the church. Connection: So how does the congregation in the power of the Holy Spirit come alive when that power is to be manifest throughout the whole body - all responsible? Come, Holy Spirit! We are not the best at 'being church' and must always ask for your coming to be now in the midst of us. Come, Holy Spirit. Amen. |
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