Category : Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

Pope: Holy Spirit is Silent Guide to Unity and Reconciliation

“It is the Spirit, in fact, who guides the Church in the way of all truth and unifies her in communion and in the works of ministry,” the Holy Father said. “Unfortunately, the temptation to ‘go it alone’ persists.

“Some today portray their local community as somehow separate from the so-called institutional Church, by speaking of the former as flexible and open to the Spirit and the latter as rigid and devoid of the Spirit.”

“Be watchful! Listen,” he urged. “Through the dissonance and division of our world, can you hear the concordant voice of humanity? From the forlorn child in a Darfur camp, or a troubled teenager, or an anxious parent in any suburb, or perhaps even now from the depth of your own heart, there emerges the same human cry for recognition, for belonging, for unity.”

The Pontiff reminded the young pilgrims that it is the Holy Spirit “who satisfies that essential human yearning to be one, to be immersed in communion, to be built up, to be led to truth.”

“This is the Spirit’s role,” he continued, “to bring Christ’s work to fulfillment. Enriched with the Spirit’s gifts, you will have the power to move beyond the piecemeal, the hollow utopia, the fleeting, to offer the consistency and certainty of Christian witness!”

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Posted in * Religion News & Commentary, Other Churches, Pope Benedict XVI, Roman Catholic, Theology, Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

Nicholas Healy- "By the Working of the Holy Spirit": The Crisis of Authority in the Christian Church

In sum, then, it may be that the crisis of authority in the Christian churches is not so much a crisis but just another instance of the messes and confusions that are part of life in the pilgrim church. But we may be able to use this crisis constructively, to look for more apostolic ways of being the church that may help us grow together into a church that will look somewhat different from today. Desperate measures to counter what may appear to be the collapse of all that is good and holy in the church may actually be counter to the working of the Holy Spirit. We recall Gamaliel s advice to the Sanhedrin when it was considering what to do about the new Christian movement. If it is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to stop it (see Acts 5). If, indeed, we are faced with genuine sin and stupidity, they are not something that our measures, however desperate or systematic or fair, can necessarily cure. Rather, our task-which is not an easy one, perhaps much harder in many ways than getting excited, busily forming committees, and fortifying ramparts-is calmly and prayerfully to hope and trust in the promises of Christ and in the working of his Spirit, rather than to put our trust in something we have made. For our belief is that it is the triune God, and not we ourselves, who, from age to age, gathers a people together to be the church.

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Posted in Ecclesiology, Theology, Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

Pope Calls the Holy Spirit the great Unknown

Benedict XVI’s message for World Youth Day 2008 presents the Holy Spirit to young people and the world as the “great unknown.”

The Pope’s message is a reflection on the theme he chose for the event to be held in Sydney, Australia, next July: “You Will Receive Power When the Holy Spirit Has Come Upon You; and You Will Be My Witnesses.”

“The common thread of the spiritual preparation for the appointment in Sydney is the Holy Spirit and mission,” explains the papal message, published in Italian and French by the Vatican press office. Translations into other languages are forthcoming.

The message continues: “Therefore it is important that each one of you young people, in your communities and with your educators, reflect on this protagonist in the history of salvation which is the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Jesus.

“There are many Christians for whom he remains the ‘great unknown.'”

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Posted in * Religion News & Commentary, Other Churches, Pope Benedict XVI, Roman Catholic, Theology, Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

A Look Back to 1960

The Rev. Dennis J. Bennett, for one, is sure the explosion is on the way; last week he took up new duties in Seattle at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church as the direct result of his interest in glossolalia. London-born Father Bennett, 42, a graduate of Chicago Theological Seminary (Congregational) who later became an Episcopalian, was assigned to St. Mark’s Church in Van Nuys, Calif, in 1953. Last October he agreed to meet with some members of a fellow minister’s church who had found themselves beginning to speak in tongues. First he was surprised to find that they were neither far-out types nor emotionally unbalanced; then he discovered that he had the “gift” himself and that the experience was “enriching.”

Father Bennett brought the idea into his own parish””and began to run into trouble. Of his 2,000 parishioners, he says, some 700 developed a positive, sympathetic interest”””they included the junior warden and the chairman of the women’s guild. They were about equally divided between men and women, and there was a large number of couples. The group included a Ph.D. and a brain surgeon.” But conservative Episcopalians were shocked. In April the vestry asked Pastor Bennett for his resignation, and Bishop Francis Eric Bloy of Los Angeles sent St. Mark’s a new priest and a pastoral letter banning any more speaking in tongues under church auspices.

Father Bennett has no plans to get glossolalia going again in his new post, a small missionary church, but he “mentions” it privately to people he thinks could benefit. “The gift of tongues is a freeing of the personality in expressing one’s self more profoundly, particularly toward God, even though the symbols are not understood by the speaker. It does not happen in a trance. The person is releasing something deeper than the ordinary symbols of language.”

Doyosi Ki-i-yeno. One evening last week, in an apartment motel in Van Nuys, seven Episcopalians of Father Bennett’s former flock met together to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. Bursts of laughter from a television set across the courtyard invaded the reverent silence, but the two men and five women paid no attention, praying aloud from time to time for individuals in sickness or trouble and for “those who are resisting the out pouring of the Holy Spirit….

California’s Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy dismisses the movement. “In the past there have been movements of this sort, but they never did the church any good.” But Seventh Day Baptist Paul Henry, a lawyer of Fontana, Calif., speaks for many of the “spirit-filled” when he says: “It’s only my guess, but I think it may be an outpouring just before the termination of this age.”

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Christian Life / Church Life, Church History, Episcopal Church (TEC), Theology, Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

Notable and Quotable

When the Holy Spirit gets hold of us, everything changes . . . our view of life, our value systems, our will toward our neighbor, our aims and goals in life, our perception of the world, our self-image, our “yeses” and our “noes,” our appreciation for things that never caught our attention before . . . absolutely everything. For the Holy Spirit opens to us a vision of what ought to be even though it is not yet; a hope greater than that to which any earthly hope can give words even though it is a hope yet beyond sight; a foresight of eternity even though we are bound to time; a love yet to be realized in its fullness even while it is known in shadowy form in our present estate. It is, as Peter said, quoting the prophet Joel, “when he pours out his Spirit on all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:17, 18)

None of that can quite be put into words, yet it clearly speaks of being in the world in a new and different way; of seeing what is not yet as though it already were and living by that vision; of reaching beyond what can presently be reached as though it were already near enough to be touched; of speaking about things that sound like speaking in tongues while they are already understood in the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord to whom the Spirit is constantly pointing; to whom the Spirit is constantly drawing and binding us; to whom we are constantly praying for the life of the world and our own life; for whom all of creation “waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:19)

Ah, what a vision the Holy Spirit gives us! He who first began the ordering of creation when he separated the light from the darkness and the waters above the earth from the waters under the earth as he “hovered over” that first creation (Genesis 1:2) still hovers over his creation, raising eyes to see what is yet unseen; filling hearts with a visionary hope in the midst of the darkness of this world; causing lives to be lived with boldness and confidence as though they were already beyond the reach of sin; who touches you and me through his revealing word, through water, bread and wine, and calls us ever so gently – although he is not above pressing on us when we resist – to trust the one who speaks in our text as though he were still with us.

We are not left as orphans! The Christ whom the disciples knew remains with us today as the Spirit of truth comes from the Father bearing Christ’s presence among us.

Hubert Beck.

Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, * General Interest, Notable & Quotable, Theology, Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

Denis Minns: Pentecost is just the start

We need to remember, as we celebrate Whitsun tomorrow, that progress in the Spirit is by fits and starts. The gift of the Holy Spirit is something we need to get used to, and the Holy Spirit needs to get used to us

The description St Luke gives of the Church in Jerusalem after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is one that has inspired many subsequent reform movements in the Church, and has been very influential in the foundation of many religious orders. It is not difficult to see why. It tells of the whole group of believers being of one heart and soul, with no one claiming private ownership of any possessions, but holding everything in common, and not a needy person among them (Acts 4:32-35).

Commentators describe this passage as a “summary”, but it is a very curious kind of summary, for no sooner has Luke given it than he appears to contradict it, at every point. First we hear of a married couple who tried to deceive the community by presenting only part of the proceeds of the sale of their property as though it were the whole (Acts 5: 1-11). A little later we are told of dissension that divided this early Christian community, if not along racial lines, then certainly along linguistic ones. The Hellenists (Greek speakers) grumbled against the Hebrews (Hebrew or Aramaic speakers) because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of bread (Acts 6:1-6). Christians are not supposed to grumble, even when they have something to grumble about, as St Paul told the Corinthians in peremptory fashion (1 Corinthians 10:10). But here we find grumbling among those who have just been described as being “of one mind and one heart”. How can these Hellenists have had anything to grumble about if the Jerusalem community held everything in common, and there was not a needy person among them?

The solution the Apostles found to this problem hardly allows them to be seen to best advantage as giving testimony to the Resurrection of the Lord with great power (Acts 4: 33). For whereas Jesus had characteristically attended to the physical and spiritual needs of the people, and had encouraged his disciples to do the same (cf. Mark 6:12-13), here we find the Apostles distinguishing between service to the Word and waiting on tables, and clearly regarding themselves as being too important to be involved in the latter. Nor did their solution address and heal the original division, for the seven they appointed to wait at tables all had Greek names: presumably there were separate soup kitchens for Hellenists and Hebrews thereafter.

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Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, Biblical Commentary & Reflection, Church Year / Liturgical Seasons, Pentecost, Theology, Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

Speaking in tongues: Faith's language barrier?

On a wave of emotion, the man at the front of the church broke into a language only he and his God could understand.
“Ah le ah ne al la ne,” said Bill Siordia, a worshiper at The Pentecostals of Pleasanton, a small congregation in the San Francisco Bay Area. With closed eyes and palms raised skyward, he continued in a whispered rush. “Ma ne ah ne ta la ah ka wa.”

Siordia, 44, a warehouse worker, was speaking in tongues, a form of verbal prayer scholars call glossolalia. For him ”” and a growing numbers of Christians worldwide ”” the experience is a direct means of communication with God that is a transcendent and crucial part of his faith.

“It is kind of a high,” Siordia said later, describing the most common form of speaking in tongues as an indecipherable expression of personal prayer and praise. “It is like being with the Lord. I feel that sense that everything is OK.”

This Sunday, Christians will celebrate Pentecost, when the Bible says God sent a “mighty wind” among Jesus’ disciples and they prayed in unknown languages. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit,” the Book of Acts says, “and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Though all Christians mark the day, only some speak in tongues. Those who do describe an immediate, ecstatic and personal experience of God. Those who do not have called it phony, weird and even dangerous.

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Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, Theology, Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

William Pike: Pentecost – The Crazy Uncle We Just Ignore

The concept of the Holy Spirit would eventually be seen as equal with the Father and Son as manifestations of the Triune God ”“ a monotheistic concept in which Christians attempt to explain three ways in which the single God is experienced by and revealed to believers. In modern times, the evangelical movement known as Pentecostalism places deep importance upon a personal experience with the Spirit, and especially upon being “baptized” by the Spirit in the model of the original Pentecost.

Outside of this and similar movements, however, the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian theology and worship is too often misunderstood and underemphasized. And indeed, with rare exception, Pentecost Sunday will go by once again like the crazy uncle at Christmas dinner ”“ forgotten and ignored; it will go largely unnoticed by the global church it helped plant so many years ago.

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Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, Church Year / Liturgical Seasons, Pentecost, Theology, Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)