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5 Responses to “I want your brain” »»

1. Brigid Walsh
   Comment by Brigid Walsh | 08/26/05 at 1:34 am

   Steve, have edited the Francis stuff but don’t know how to get it back on your site. Would you care to email me so that I can send it back as a Word attachment? Sopleto is Spoleto. There is reference to Brother Elias in one paragraph and Ellias of Cortona in the next. If they are one and same person, perhaps the spelling should be uniform.

   There are three male Franciscan orders to-day: the Franciscans (OFM), the Conventuals (OFM., Conv), and the Capuchins (OFM., Cap). I had the privilege of a Franciscan childhood under the Capuchins (a truly international community in the 1950s) at Wynnum Central in Brisbane. At that stage, Wynnum was one of only three Capuchin houses in Australia. I know of two female Orders, the Poor Clares and the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. I think there may be an actual Franciscan Order as well. In addition, there are Franciscans within the Anglican Communion including the Third Order (Tertiaries). One of the best known Franciscans to-day is the American priest Richard Rohr whose writings and tapes are readily available and who has visited Australia on a number of occasions to speak and to lead retreats. Richard Rohr is the animator of the Centre for Action and Contemplation in Alburquerque, New Mexico. More details are available at the CAC website http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/ Richard was last in Australia in 2000 to speak at the Shared Meanings Conference Retreat which was held at the ANU in Canberra and attended by approx 135 men and women from across the Christian denominations.

2. Brigid Walsh
   Comment by Brigid Walsh | 08/26/05 at 1:36 am

   Forgot to mention that informaton about the Shared Meanings Conference Retreat is available on the net at http://www.kyrie.com/sharedmeanings/conf_retreat.htm

3. Brigid Walsh
   Comment by Brigid Walsh | 08/26/05 at 8:47 am

   Steve, when you state that “Catholics have religious orders. Protestants have mission agencies.”, this opens up quite a few avenues of discussion. Firstly, within the Roman Catholic tradition, who does the evangelizing? In the Catholic view, this has been the role of priests and religious. There is still this emphasis. However, in the 20th century, lay organisations, of which PALMS is one, have sprung up. To understand the modern Catholic attitude towards evangelization and missionary activity one has to study the papal encyclical, Evangelii Nuntiandi http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangelii-nuntiandi_en.html
   In this the distinct roles of the Pope, Bishops, Clergy, Religious and Laity are spelt out. I might stand to be corrected here but I think this is the first time that lay people were acknowledged as having a role in evangelization.

   Other factors to be considered are the Roman Catholic distinctions between orders and institutes and the apostolate, particularly the apostolate of the laity. The roles of orders and institutes are defined and embedded in canonical law. The concept of the apostolate is the apostolic work of the Body of Christ. For more about the apostolate of the laity, see Apostolicam Actuositatem.
   http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651118_apostolicam-actuositatem_en.html

   A modern movement which is involved in both spiritual renewal and evangelization is the Cursillo movement. http://www.cursillo.catholic.org.au/
   It is a method of Christian spirituality to develop and sustain adult leaders in the work of evangelization. This movement is also within the Anglican Church and, I believe, has its equivalent in the Uniting Church.

4. Brigid Walsh
   Comment by Brigid Walsh | 08/26/05 at 8:54 am

   I find interesting the development within the free churches of Orders i.e. Urban Neighbours of Hope who take vows, live in community, and are involved in apostolic work and evangelization and missionary activity. http://www.unoh.org/ It will be interesting to see how such organizatins establish themselves and progress their work. Many of the dynamics underlying orders within the broader Catholic tradition ie. Roman Catholic, Orthodoxy, Anglican, Lutheran are not established within the free churches.

5. Steve
   Comment by Steve | 08/26/05 at 11:07 am

   Brigid, thanks for your interest and input. I’ll take some time to work through it. I think Protestants have a lot to learn from the heritage of Monasticism and relgious orders. I hadn’t heard of Cursillo before. I even found a Presbyterian version on the web!

   Mission strategist Ralph Winter, has written an important article to help Protestants understand the link between the monastic tradition and mission societies.

   http://www.missionfrontiers.org/2005/03/PDFs/TwoStructures.pdf

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