The Evangelical Universalist Forum

What church could I attend and work at being a Universalist?

Hello people!

Do you know of any Churches wehere universalism is accepted. I thought Mars Hill could be one because of Rob Bell but it does not seem like it is!

Any suggestions?

Not the one I used to be at :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Sadly not :frowning:

Personally I would highly recommend Grace Communion International, gci.org/churches

Some Anglican churches would accept you, some (most?) Methodists see Surprised by the Methodist!

St Georgeā€™s Church, Barcelona!! :smiley:

Hey revdrew, can you point me to a link of train/plane and automobile timetables from Australia to there? Might pop overā€¦ :laughing:

Hmmm. Iā€™m sure it can be done - but would probably not be inexpensive. :wink:

Welcome mirrusca! If you want, you can tell us a little about yourself over at our introduction thread! Hope you find this forum helpful and encouraging!

You could always try a post-evangelical/post-modern/ā€œemergentā€ church. My wonderful church is at the core orthodox, but it tolerates (and encourages?) diverse and heterodox doctrines ā€“ because weā€™re a church of diverse and heterodox people. Actually, to be honest, itā€™s full of sinners and outcasts. It can be confronting sometimes because youā€™re actually exposed to all the other riffraff the other churches would reject at the door (like myself :laughing: ). My church largely knows my suspicions that Yahweh will indeed restore everyone and Iā€™m yet to be criticized or set straight about it. I think most emergent churches would have similar attitudes to such doctrines. (I also go to another Baptist church which also aims for the bond of peace, and warmly embraces sinners. Iā€™m yet to discuss UR with the leaders there (itā€™s in a transitional stage at the moment), but so far it seems that everyone else is receptive of discussion. I donā€™t think itā€™ll be a problem.)

Both of my churches are on the end of the line for church-goers, so theyā€™re great for anyone who is fed up with dogmatism, conservativism and fascist bishops. Iā€™m totally in giddy-girly-gushing-love with my churches ā€“ how many Christians can honestly say that?! (-- although perhaps Iā€™m just in a honeymoon stageā€¦) I know this doesnā€™t really help you, but get in contact with people you agree with doctrinally (whether you know them or not), and get them to help you find one. Thatā€™s what I did (I contacted the Anabaptist Association of Australia/New Zealand and some emergent churches) and I couldnā€™t be happier with the outcome!

You are the church :smiley:

Actually, thatā€™s not entirely trueā€¦ you are just a part of the Church. This is one of the reasons Christians should endeavour to be in communion with other Christians ā€“ to give a fuller expression of the Church/Bride. Yeshua is interested in communities, not individualist rogues. Christianity is an inherently social religion.

True WAAB, I donā€™t believe we should forsake meeting together. But we are part of one body, the body of Christ, who is the head. Sometimes there becomes an issue with men usurping His role as the head, and if the head doesnā€™t manifest then neither will the body, the unity of faith.

ā€œwe are all brothersā€, it looks like your churches are practising UR! Maybe that is more important than having it as their official doctrine?

something which i find eminently frustrating! everything would be fine if not for ā€œother peopleā€ :mrgreen:

They complicate everything!

Christianity is about how we treat other people ā€“ especially when opinions clash. Is it possible to practice Christianity apart from other people?

Sonia

youā€™re right, Christianity is family and kinship restored.
i think youā€™re rightā€¦you can have fellowship with God even alone, but real Christianity is in how you treat everyone that crosses your path.
grr
lol

Especially as universalists ā€¦ if we believe in the eventual reconciliation and unity of all people that means we have to deal with all people and canā€™t just shunt them aside as fuel for the fireā€¦ :sunglasses:

Sonia

absolutely! :mrgreen:

Back to the original question: the Eastern Orthodox (and remnants of other Eastern trinitarian communions, the Church of the East and the Oriental Orthodox), among the Catholic groups, are pretty tolerant of universalism, too. The number of teachers who hold it tends to fluctuate, so you may still have to put up with teachers and priests who hold to annihilation or ECT instead, but they canā€™t regard you as being out of communion on that basis. (There are variants of universalism they cannot accept, though, so youā€™d have to be careful about that or be rejecting communion with them.)

There can be other doctrinal and social issues with getting involved with themā€“as a matter of their history of development, they tend to be culturally cliquish, for example, although some branches are working on that.

While the Roman Catholic Church still dogmatically denies universalism, there has been a strong push among its top leadership in past decades toward being as ā€œcatholicā€ as possible on this topic. I donā€™t think theyā€™ll be able to get there officially without compromising their commitments to an inerrant/infallible leadership, but they might not give you trouble on it so long as you donā€™t try to teach it in an official capacity, or hold it against beliefs of the common union otherwise (e.g. no wrath of God at all).

By contrast, you could make the best case for it in an official teaching capacity among the EOx, so long as you donā€™t claim it to be a dogmatic truth binding on all for acceptance to be in communion with the church.

Welcome mirrusca,

Concerning the opening question, itā€™s likely that most Methodist churches are open to members believing in UR, though most Methodist ministers would not likely teach/preach from the UR perspective.

Iā€™m thinking of finding a new church myself sometime soonā€¦ the closest Grace Communion International churches (or rather, to be more accurate, as I agree with redhotmagma, church meeting places) to me, which Alex mentioned, are still inconveniently located, and I donā€™t think thereā€™s any Anglican (wasnā€™t C.S. Lewis Anglican?) or any Eastern Orthodox churches in my area, and those sound a little too ā€˜high churchā€™ for me anywayā€¦ so I guess the Methodist church would be my best bet, as thereā€™s one nearby.
WAAB, how would one go about finding an ā€˜emergentā€™ church? Not sure if they advertise themselves as such. :smiley:
But if there is a way to find such a body of believers, I would definitely be interested. Iā€™d love to find a place full of outcasts. :slight_smile:
Also, I was kind of wondering about the whole home church movement thing. I personally would like to meet with a smaller group of like-minded believers if possible. Anyone have any suggestions on how I would go about finding (or even starting) something like that? :slight_smile:

And welcome mirrusca :slight_smile: I hope you can find a new home too. :slight_smile:

Blessings to you all :slight_smile:

Matt

This drew a heartwarming, warm chuckle from me. I feel like an incarnation of a Lifetime holiday movie now. :slight_smile:

David