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In Search of the Emerging Church
The 'new monasticism'
by Tom Roberts on Dec. 28, 2009Here's my latest installment in this ongoing series. This story features a group of twenty-somethings, living in community and exploring the “new
monasticism,” a term that is difficult to precisely define but that roughly describes a search occurring in communities, ironically often of Protestant evangelicals, that have formed with a strong focus on social justice and reforming Christian practice.
On of the people in the feature, Chris Haw, describes the new monasticism as “somewhere between a monastery and a potluck dinner.”
Here's the full story: A place for renegades: Community confronts the 'dark side of the American dream'
Sacred Heart Parish in Camden, N.J.
by Tom Roberts on Dec. 14, 2009My 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.
A conversation with Fr. Michael Doyle
by Tom Roberts on Dec. 08, 200921st in the series
In mid August, I spent a day with Fr. Michael Doyle at his parish, Sacred Heart Church in Camden, N.J. He’s been there for 35 years and has become a bit of a legend in the city and well beyond for innovative ministries and for programs that have begun to transform areas of South Camden. He and I had a long conversation, only portions of which could be used in the profile that appeared in the print edition of NCR and online. (See A love for transformation) as part of my "In Search of the Emerging Church" series.
I thought many readers would enjoy his more extended comments about such matters as the nature and purpose of a parish, his view on art and beauty, on peacemaking, liturgy and on honoring the poor. Below is an edited version of the conversation. As possible, I’ve tried to break up the interview into topic sections.
--Tom Roberts, NCR editor at large
Patrick Keenan: A dose of Advent hope
by Tom Roberts on Nov. 23, 200920th 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.
Breaking the poverty cycle
by Tom Roberts on Nov. 19, 200919th in the series
Camden, N.J., is a place where a parish holds services to remember the tens of kids killed by gunshot and other violent means, a roll call of the dead of this peculiar urban warfare. Pick any day, any hour and drive past corners where the posture of the kids and their blank eyes say hopelessness.
Read the full story here: A place that breaks the poverty cycle
In time of 'diminishment,' Jesuit connects to 'a God of hope'
by Tom Roberts on Oct. 29, 200918th 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
Mission creativity in Las Cruces
by Tom Roberts on Oct. 15, 200917th in the series
Bishop Ricardo Ramirez, 72, a member of the Congregation of St. Basil, was appointed founding bishop of the Las Cruces diocese in 1982. He is widely recognized as a skilled pastoral leader who has great rapport with the people of his diocese, which remains among the poorest in the country. It depends a great deal on financial help from outside the diocese and has had to be creative in tending to parishes with few priests. Ramirez sat down the morning of Aug. 11 for an interview with NCR at the diocese’s Pastoral Center.
Read the full story here: Recognizing lay gifts bears fruit in Las Cruces, bishop says
Two who embody the forces shaping the Catholic community
by Tom Roberts on Oct. 07, 200916th 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
New Mexico church may hold answers for the future
by Tom Roberts on Sep. 30, 200915th in the series
ALBUQUERQUE AND LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- New Mexico has about it an austere, out-of-the-way character, long stretches of desert and horizons of abraded, reddish mountains, evocative of the biblical quality of unseen significance. Few might look to New Mexico when conversation turns to the future of the church.
If so, they could be missing something. This land of hidden prospects might hold some answers for the future.
Read the full story: Hidden prospects.
Contemplative tradition is shaping the emerging church
by Tom Roberts on Sep. 18, 200914th 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.
