In Search of the Emerging Church

26th in a series

PHILADELPHIA -- Reporting on the “emerging church” is a slippery matter, somewhat like reviewing a partially written play, or judging a meal by reading recipes.

It is one thing to understand that something new is under way, if only because outside forces make change inevitable in both the Catholic and evangelical Protestant worlds. It is quite another thing to understand what those two words, emerging church, might mean in real circumstances.

Perhaps the need to pin something down, to give form, however incomplete, to such an outsized idea, is why Shane Claiborne has become a highly visible sign of what many call the emerging church, or more audaciously, emerging Christianity. Claiborne himself prefers identifying with a movement that is a kind of subset of emerging Christianity, called “the new monasticism.”

For the rest of the story: Urban monk works to see 'the church we dream of'

Shane Claiborne24th in a series

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- When Shane Claiborne hops to the podium in the meeting room at the Hotel Albuquerque, he looks as stylistically unbounded as his spiritual quest that’s outlined on a bio sheet. He’s long and lanky with a goatee. He looks bookish in dark-rimmed glasses, his thin face framed by dreadlocks held in place by a handkerchief bandana. He projects a kind of urban underbelly chic with an accent as pure as the early days of NASCAR.

He is a product of East Tennessee Protestant evangelical Christianity transplanted to the Northeast, where he engages in a robust version of Catholic Worker-type community, advocating for the poor and for nonviolent solutions to problems.

The "In Search of the Emerging Church" series has not been submerged, just sidelined for a while. I was diverted to help with coverage of the expanding sexual abuse scandal and by a move East.

Previews of coming stories

In coming weeks I’ll be reporting on Dr. Susan Nagele, a physician from Illinois who was honored in January for her 25 years (and still ongoing) service as a Maryknoll lay missioner in several countries in Africa. As the U.S. church tries to fill the ranks of a diminishing priesthood with priests from other countries -- too often from developing countries with far worse ratios of priests to people than we experience here -- Nagele and others like her show the face of the future. If the U.S. church is to have a meaningful mission presence in the future, it will occur because of dedicated lay people who perceive a vocation to serve.

My story about Fr. Michael Doyle and Sacred Heart Parish in Camden, N.J., which appeared in the Dec. 11 issue of National Catholic Reporter can be found here: A Love For Transformation.

My extended interview with extraordinary priest can be found here: A conversation with Fr. Michael Doyle.

20th in the series

One of the privileges of getting out and around the Catholic community reporting on The Emerging Church series has been the opportunity to meet up with a new generation of Catholics who carry a deep witness to some of the most troubled corners of the country.

Patrick Keenan is one of them. He comes out of a Franciscan formation and a serious understanding and experience of the Catholic social justice tradition.

18th in the series

For Jesuit Fr. Jeff Putthoff, his ministry at a Camden, N.J., a technology training center, is his declaration about the future of the church as well as his answer, for the moment, to unsettling questions he poses to himself about what it means to be a priest and to be a Jesuit. They become particularly pressing questions in this era of dwindling numbers and resources, a time he refers to as a period of “diminishment.”

Read the full story here: Hopeworks 'n Camden

16th in the series

Though separated in age by at least two generations, and worlds apart in life experience, Sara Nolan and Sr. Bernice Garcia represent some of the strong impulses within the Catholic community that are shaping its future: the growing role of laity in the church, especially women; the conviction reinforced by the Second Vatican Council that Catholics, by virtue of their baptism, have an essential part to play in salvation history; and the rising awareness of the social dimension of a life of faith.

I spoke at length to both women during my recent visit to New Mexico, Garcia in the Santa Fe archdiocese, covering the central and northern portions of the state, and Nolan in the Las Cruces diocese, which stretches across the state's southern tier.

Read the full story here: Old meets new in faith lives of two New Mexico women

14th in the series

Albuquerque, N.M. -- Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation and Action in Albuquerque, NM. Rohr believes that the contemplative tradition, the third of what he describes as four pillars of the emergent church and his point of entry into the discussion, is precisely the sort of tradition that allows one to see "with a different set of eyes" and perhaps shift the focus a bit.

13th in the series

In interviews earlier this year with young Catholics (most were in their 20s and 30s, two were in their mid-40s) at Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Jersey City, N.J., it seemed clear that some ideas about church membership are definitely age- or generation-specific. Younger Catholics appear reluctant to use such labels as conservative or liberal in describing themselves or others, while traditional pieties and the church's tradition itself can play an important role in someone's decision to become Catholic.

Those around the table, all of whom had chosen to become active in a particular Catholic community, said they spent little time worrying about hierarchical matters or many of the hot-button issues that might concern those of an older generation. In general terms, they had opted for Catholicism for a host of reasons and, while not ignoring the problems or controversies, did not allow them to get in the way of their participation in church life.

Read the full story: Young Catholics accept the church as is