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My own strivings for liturgies that refresh and renew are rooted in a redemptionist theology--a way of worshipping God that honors God's creation of women in God's own image, the diversity of women's experience, and the worthiness of every women's life. Redemptionism is as old as women's experience. It articulates women's right to be and believe in her own goodness, as well as a divinity in whose image she finds life and grace. Redemptionism is not about exclusivity or subordination. Nor is it about doing whatever is good for oneself, regardless of the community context one lives in. While it seeks to articulate white women's experience it does so in order to identify the roots of racism and weed them out. Proponents do not need to put others down in order to be true to their understanding of Christian faith. Rather proponents need to be clear that their spotlight on the truth is simply one beam of light that needs to be in conversation with many others. Trinitarian (honoring the interrelatedness-the perichoresis- of God, Christ-Christa and the Holy Spirit), Christological (rooted in our knowledge of God's revelation in Christ-Christa), Incarnational (affirming of God's presence in creation and humanity). Therefore I believe: Christian worship is biblically-informed not scripturally determined. Christ is an event inaugurated by Jesus and still being constituted Resurrection is not an afterthought of God that points to the importance of Jesus' crucifixion, for the sake of our salvation. Resurrection is God's answer to all crucifixions. Resurrection becomes real for us, when we live with courage and a lively hope, with our hearts and minds firmly rooted in God's saving grace. Grace involves being greatened by God, not diminished! To experience grace is to be filled full with the presence of God, so much so that we become icons of God's love and instruments of grace for others. Grace fosters a sense of self-transcendence and self-forgetfulness, rather than self-denial and self- centeredness. honors the experience of all people, and does not exclude the experience of women. understands sin as multidimensional. understands women's sin as the lack of self and the refusal to know herself as created in the image of God and thus worthy of God's love. fosters our ability to discern good and evil and choose the good. understands sin to be fundamentally a denial of our relationality and vulnerability and always contextualized by the use and abuse of power. encourages self-sacrifice by those who are privileged by power and who rule by domination. acknowledges self-sacrifice as a voluntary response for the sake of justice and love that is never gender specific. In other words, self-sacrifice is not descriptive of women' s responsibility in a dominarchal world. Redemptionist Christian Liturgy- rightly practiced - celebrates the immanence and transcendence of God for God is good and gracious, and abounding in steadfast love, all life is interconnected and precious, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become symbols of Christ/Christa to one another, our divinity is revealed in our humanity, relationality is a gift, God delivers us from evil, suffering is redeemable not redemptive, and never an instrument of divine love, salvation is always communal, involving healing in this life, love is "the power-to-act-one-another-into-well-being" God is love.
From a Progressive perspective Christian worship is
Theo-centric (God-centered),
Progressive Christian liturgy:
Progressive Christian Liturgy rightly practiced fosters:
praise and thanksgiving
emancipation
an experience of our body as good
a sense of wonder and awe,
a fear of dominarchy, not God,
an appreciation of divine presence as life-giving and life-affirming mystery,
a sacramental understanding of life-God exists in all things and all things exist in God,
a radical world openness "a wider-fellow-feeling"and a deep sense of hospitality
a sensitivity to the nature of language and its power to oppress or liberate the human spirit
our individual and collective "Yes!" to God's love for us,
our ability to live as "good news" people
human creativity and imaginative-feeling,
faith, hope, and love,
empathy and mutuality,
a welcome-table theology,
freedom and well-being in community,
our rejection of dominarchy's principle of power, patriarchal or matriarchal,
our accountability for our sins, our resistance to evil,
our acceptance of our belovedness,
our love for others, and our engagement with the world.
