Considering the state of the Anglican Communion, and the decline/struggle of Christianity in the western world in general, what should be the top priorties for Order of Preachers to be doing?
Be as imaginative or practical as you like.
God ask us to consider such questions.
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I will venture a response though it is not a complete response; only partial. My understanding is that Dominic and his followers responded to a need to preach the Gospel in the face of growing and spreading heresies (secularism?). The Bishops and other Church leaders were unable (in numbers) or unwilling to take up the task. Dominicans today may be a part of the Church and at the same time apart from "official churchdom." Is not the task the same? Are we not to respond by preaching the Gospel and respond to errors?
I agree with Phil. The Order of Preachers was originally founded as a response to the spread of heresy, the idea being that people at that time were adopting heretical views expressed by others because they did not know any better. The same thing is happening today, and our task is the same as our predecessors' task was then: to be witnesses to the true Gospel in all that we do.
I am currently reading Why Go To Church by Timothy Radcliffe, OP.
Some may recognize his name as the former master of the RC Dominican Order. This book was the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book for 2009. I find the book absolutely fascinating, warning: if you are a highlighter type be warned that you may highlight almost the entire book.
Radcliffe celebrates the diversity among Christians, "... even if their Eucharists take other forms" (pg 77).
From page 61: "Sharing our faith is always more than stating our convictions: it is finding our place in that conversation which has continued ever since Jesus began to talk with anyone whom he met in Galilee, and which is the life of the church.".
So I agree with Bros. Phil and Scott in that our dialog as preachers is to that of the orthodoxy and truth of the Gospel of the Trinity and not the gospel of man.
Br Carl
To serve. To be the lowest and the least. To humble ourselves before those who have strayed, and be Christ to them. Not to try to model success/attractiveness/loquacity, but to beg to serve the Bartimaus in everyone's life, the blind and bereft inner being crowded to the curb by materialism and cynicism.
Anyone can stand on high and tell people how they should live their lives. Better to take on poverty, material, psychological, spiritual, so that we can see God and let others see God through us. Better to fail for God than succeed in the world's eyes.
I am humbled, as always, by Br. George's comments, I think, though we should make an effort, if we are to fail for God, to fail on a grand scale (not in a grand way). The more people we reach allows us to have a greater chance of success in bringing people to Christ, which is the ultimate goal of our Order, the goal of our individual callings.
"Humbling" ourselves before the masses can become a dangerous task, in that we must not place ourselves above our message, allowing the minions of Satan to sway us with "glamor, glory or popular opinion." I do, however, believe that we must find a way to preach and teach as many people as we can "so that we can see God and let others see God through us." from on a mount or on a plain, but to the masses, feeding as many as we can the nourishment of Jesus Christ.
Brothers,
Great comments so far. I think you're right that we must both preach the faith and respond to harmful ideas, but to Brother George's comments, we must do it as St Dominic did robed in humility.
The challenge of course will be how to put this generic senses of purpose into practical details, esp. how can we do these things together as an Order?
Since we are spread out geographically, we should do something that we can work on via computer. One thing that comes to mind is a publication, i.e., a newsletter. Catherine House or the AOP as a whole could do this. I'd be very happy to help with it.
Another idea--a videotaped educational program that could be distributed to parishes. There are lots of possibilities.
We have talked for sometime about having a newsletter and we really need one.
The letter could agree apologetic issues and trends in society as well as updates about the order.
Some of it's content could be published as a blog.
I also like the idea of making an educational resource, like a DVD teaching series about Christianity written by, produced, by, and taught by members of the Order.
Good stuff.
I'm behind both ideas and would love to help.
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