People's Catholic Seminary Video- Vision, Mission, Courses on Teachable- Rooted in Lived Experiences of People - Fosters Gospel Equality and Inclusiveness

https://youtu.be/mMltpgcUK6I

People's Catholic Seminary

 Creates deep connection with liberating message in Scripture and Christian tradition of mystics and prophets

Fosters partnership in ministry - new paradigm- following Jesus in 21st century

Raises up voices of marginalized 

Expands theological landscape

Cultivates a healing and learning community 

Dismantles patriarchy and

Promotes Gospel equality and inclusiveness.

Article: Rethinking Christianity for 21st Century- Impact on Theologies and Community in Digital World by Gregory Sterling

https://reflections.yale.edu/article/new-voyages-church-today-and-tomorrow/rethinking-christianity-21st-century

"Theology. If we believe experience is a vehicle of theology, we will need to learn to respect the different experiences that shape theologies across the world. These will have a direct impact on our theological reflection. In China there are natural tensions between the official church and the underground or house churches, although these appear to be improving. In Africa, Christians struggle with the relationship between their spirituality and indigenous religions.¹¹ The spirituality of African Christians is often a blend of native and Christian expressions.

These developments appear to me to be roughly analogous to the state of Christianity in the first three centuries C.E. At one time, there was a model of thinking of the early church as a single monolithic tradition. The tradition began with Jesus Christ, was developed by the apostles, and came to full expression in the work of the bishops who succeeded the apostles. Some offshoots from this tradition were heterodox, but they were exposed by the apostles and then by the heresiologists. This model of Christian origins is largely the construction of early Christian heresiologists like Irenaeus.

Twentieth-century scholarship overturned this model. Today it is recognized that Christianity emerged in different forms in various locales.¹² The experience of Christianity in 1st-century Jerusalem was quite different than the Christianity in Corinth. Initially there was no such thing as orthodoxy in the sense of a uniform and well-defined movement. Orthodoxy emerged from the coalescence of various forms or patterns of Christianity. This does not mean that there was no continuity with the earliest forms of Christianity, but that orthodoxy was a clear development. It was not enforceable until the rise of bishops and the adoption of Christianity by Constantine.

In other words, rather than thinking of enforced uniformity, we need to think of diversity within a larger unity. If this is unnerving, we should remember that it was the diversity of the early centuries that helped to give Christianity its vibrancy and allowed it to take root in multiple circumstances throughout the Roman world. I think we need to allow for the same freedom today.

3) Community. The digital world is the greatest innovation since the printing press, and it has altered the way we think about community. The statistical rise of the “nones” has generated a new sociological category – people who have a sense of spirituality but are allergic to religious institutions. This generation forms customized cyber-communities rather than flesh-and-blood communities. The fact that two-thirds of the nones in the U.S. are spiritual but not religious makes them different from their more secular European counterparts. Notably, the phenomenon of non-affiliation is generational: 32 percent of those age 18-29 consider themselves nones, compared to only 9 percent of those over 65.

The current generation is wary of institutional forms of Christianity for many reasons. The scandals of the institutional church, the larger distrust of institutions, the failure of churches to proclaim the gospel clearly or authentically have all contributed. In my opinion, a crucial factor is the way younger people think about community and by extension religion. They regard religion as a matter of optional personal programming. Many create their own networks rather than join one that incorporates them. They do not join churches. Congregations are struggling to relate. As one minister memorably remarked: “We have too many eight-track churches in a MP3 world.”¹⁴ We need to learn how to build communities through digital communications that address the needs of flesh-and-blood human beings. We need to show how diverse people can live together and love one another in the spirit of Christ."