Sentences with phrase «internal life of the church»

Not exact matches

According to the Patriarch, the Council «will address internal issues of the unity and administration of the Church, but also matters such as relations with other churches and faiths, in order to present a unified voice and credible witness for the life of the world.»

Finally, statistics about the Church in the pre-Conciliar years are misleading, because there were many trends afoot» in theology, morality, politics, science, and exegesis» that were already having an unsettling impact on the internal life of Catholics.

That was the century when, during two terrible years, the Black Death killed more than a third of the population from Iceland to India, returning four more times before the era was up; when gangs of terrorists roamed and plundered Europe without hindrance; when the Hundred Years War took on a life of its own, frustrating efforts to end it, «an epic of brutality and bravery checkered by disgrace»; when new weapons and errant knighthood brought an end to chivalry; when widespread peasant revolt was answered by terrible aristocratic repression; and when internal scandal robbed the church of its ability to comfort and save.

In varying degrees, most of them want practical theology to become more critical and philosophical, more public (in the sense of being more oriented toward the church's ministry to the world rather than simply preoccupied with the needs of its own internal life), and more related to an analysis of the various situations and contexts of theology.

Somewhat similarly, the Catholic Church will remain a muted prophet if the witness of its own internal life speaks louder than its words — for example, in the area of fairness and human rights.

Looking at this side of the ambiguity, we see a church in which many first - world Christians of our day could feel comfortable and undisturbed: a church that lives without question or resistance in a state founded on violence and made prosperous by the exploitation of less fortunate nations; a church that accepts various perquisites from that state as its due; a church where changing jobs for the sake of peace and justice is seldom considered; a church that constantly speaks in the language of war; a church given to eloquent invective in its internal disputes and against outside opponents; a church quite sure that God will punish the wicked.

How much better to be a member of a church that, following a different «model of civic life,» has to confront its internal diversity.

Writing in 1982, after a decade in which the church as a whole had pursued the inner mechanisms of congregations, several sociologists reported as follows: «We share the conviction that in recent years congregational analysis has over-emphasized the internal dynamics of congregational life and has failed to sufficiently account for the influence of the social and ecological context of the church's inner life.

But if a church is... actively involved in seeking justice in the world, both globally and locally, and if it's cheerfully celebrating God's good creation... and if, in addition, its own internal life gives every sign that new creation is indeed happening, generating a new type of community - then suddenly the announcement makes a lot of sense.»

Through its internal life of eucharistic worship, thanksgiving, intercessory prayer, through planning for mission and evangelism, through a daily lifestyle of solidarity with the poor, through advocacy even to confrontation with the powers that oppress human beings, the churches are trying to fulfil this evangelistic vocation.

Moreover, due to the interference of the Portuguese missionaries in the life of the church, St. Thomas Christians were involved in internal dissentions and attempts at self - preservation.

But those who participate in the internal history of the covenant will see the call of Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, the lives of the prophets, Israel and Judah's release from captivity, the disciples» missionary fervor after the death of Jesus, and the establishment of the Church as all having a promissory significance that a «scientific» historian might not appreciate at all.

While the church frequently gave its blessings to civil persecutions, in its internal ecclesiastical practice its disapproval was even more frequently shown through the refusal of sacraments and ostracism from the common life.

Then, Dolan argues, Carroll understood the importance of creating a «republican» form of Catholicism in which the Church would absorb the new national experiment in democracy into its own internal life.

To take part in that enterprise — to embody its vision in its internal life of fellowship and worship — is the church's main function.

Also strong is LaKeith Stanfield (Atlanta) as a congregant in Pearson's church, gay himself, who struggles to keep his internal torments at bay while Pearson's change of tune cruelly dangles the possibility that these conservative doctrines that have ruined his life might be changeable.