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/āemergentā church. My wonderful church is at the core orthodox, but it tolerates (and encourages?) diverse and heterodox doctrines ā because weāre a church of diverse and heterodox people. Actually, to be honest, itās full of sinners and outcasts. It can be confronting sometimes because youāre actually exposed to all the other riffraff the other churches would reject at the door (like myself ). My church largely knows my suspicions that Yahweh will indeed restore everyone and Iām 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. Iām yet to discuss UR with the leaders there (itās in a transitional stage at the moment), but so far it seems that everyone else is receptive of discussion. I donāt think itāll be a problem.)
Both of my churches are on the end of the line for church-goers, so theyāre great for anyone who is fed up with dogmatism, conservativism and fascist bishops. Iām totally in giddy-girly-gushing-love with my churches ā how many Christians can honestly say that?! (-- although perhaps Iām just in a honeymoon stageā¦) I know this doesnāt 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. Thatās what I did (I contacted the Anabaptist Association of Australia/New Zealand and some emergent churches) and I couldnāt be happier with the outcome!
Actually, thatās 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 donāt 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 doesnāt manifest then neither will the body, the unity of faith.
youāre right, Christianity is family and kinship restored.
i think youāre 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 canāt just shunt them aside as fuel for the fireā¦
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 canāt regard you as being out of communion on that basis. (There are variants of universalism they cannot accept, though, so youād have to be careful about that or be rejecting communion with them.)
There can be other doctrinal and social issues with getting involved with themāas 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 ācatholicā as possible on this topic. I donāt think theyāll 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 donāt 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 donāt claim it to be a dogmatic truth binding on all for acceptance to be in communion with the church.
Concerning the opening question, itās 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.
Iām 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 donāt think thereās any Anglican (wasnāt C.S. Lewis Anglican?) or any Eastern Orthodox churches in my area, and those sound a little too āhigh churchā for me anywayā¦ so I guess the Methodist church would be my best bet, as thereās one nearby.
WAAB, how would one go about finding an āemergentā church? Not sure if they advertise themselves as such.
But if there is a way to find such a body of believers, I would definitely be interested. Iād love to find a place full of outcasts.
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?
And welcome mirrusca I hope you can find a new home too.