Reference Links With or Without God   by Gretta Vosper
"Whether non-theistic religious gatherings can thrive and survive is anyone's guess. We are in the midst of a great experiement. I fervently believe that we need to see that experiment through to the end, giving our all to the creation of communities of "faith" that celebrate the communal nature of life and challenge us to engage in right relationship with self, others, and the planet." ... p356

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SESSIONS PAGE GENERAL REVIEWS
CHURCH CHANGE SEMINARY SECRETS OTHER

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DATE
GENERAL & ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sep
4
The 52 reference links gathered for the Dawkins Study have resonance with Vosper, who to some extent is answering the aethists with reform. She references the "4 horsemen" but also the many progressive voices in the Christian Church, quite o few of which are sampled in these videos and essays from last winter. Please review the list.
Westhill
United
Church
Sep
4
Westhill United Church is the church for which Gretta Vosper is minister. Westhill also has a podcast site and an interactive vlog (or video blog) site .
Sep
4
grettavosper.ca is the authors own website. If you check out her blog page you'll see an entry about Graeme Morton's two articles in the Calgary Herald last spring after her lecture at Hillhurst United Church, including links to the supportive articles.
Sep
7
http://books.google.com is a magnificent project that scans university libraries. For most books it provides somplete search of and substantial reading access if still in copyright, and complete reading if public domain. Also with ready links to buy or find in local libraries.
The United Church has been running a rather extensive discussion forum system called WonderCafe. From spring 2008 they have run chapter discussions of Vosper's book. Here is a link to the discussion on ToolBox, the last section. It is worthwhile to visit and check out some of the few thousand lines of conversation. You may want to join.
REVIEWS
Sep
4
Review - CCPC "Gretta Vosper exposes dilemmas faced by every thinking Christian and she indicates where there is possibility of reform. Some will seek responsible change from within their Christian tradition, others from without. “With Or Without God” should help provoke that change. ,,,"
Sep
4
James F. McGrath, Associate Professor of Religion at Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana. writes a lengthy supportive review on his blog "Exploring our Matrix". "... I am sure that Vosper herself does not expect readers to simply adopt her answers, but rather hopes that we will wrestle with the issues she and many others are wrestling with, and do so in an honest way."
Tidewater
Books of
Sackville
Sep
4
Tidewater Books of Sackville. "...this is a book that dares to discard old doctrines but does so with respect and dignity. Vosper imagines a new church that leads in ethics—fostering relationships, meaning and values that are solidly rooted in our own best selves."
Notes01 Sep
20
Notes of Lecture and Q & A, delivered at Hillhurst United Church, Calgary - Spring 2008. by Gretta Vosper, Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity on the themes of her new book.
Notes02 Sep
27
Book chapter topical subdivisions.
LINKS RELATIVE TO CHANGE IN CHURCH PRACTICE
Sep
5
"The Untold Story of the Role of Women in the Fall and Rise of Religion in Canada." Paper by Reginald Bibby, April 2005. "The key to the upswing continuing seems to lie with churches viewing involvement not as compliance with an attendance expectation, but as a natural response to meaningful ministry."
Non-Theistic Liturgy
Resources
Sep
5
Non-Theistic Liturgy Resources Document. This 82 page document is the result of much research by the St. Stephen's College Non-Theistic Liturgy Resources Working Group to create worship resources consistent with modern theology and Christian scholarship. Included are a few dozen hymns written by Peggy McDonagh. This document is on our server.
Sep
14
Non-theistic Liturgy Resources Working Group of St. Stephen's College. We are currently looking at a number of ideas and are inviting others to join in our deliberations and activities. We welcome suggestions and offerings of materials (liturgical and educational resources) for the collection that we are building so that we can offer these back to our human community via this website or other means.
Sep
14
A New Zealand woman Merkavah Vision has posted a very jumpy little (8:48) video (with excellent audio) of John Spong lecturing in her church on The New Christianity without a dependency on an older theism.
Sep
14
The University of Southern California has posted some of the Burke Lectures on Religion and Society including John Spong in 2005 speaking of what then would become his book on "The Sins of Scripture", The Terrible Texts of the Bible. (1:23:25)
Sep
14
Marcus Borg has been a strong voice for reforming the religious tradition of the church. In this short (7:56) video he talks about the need to teach the new understandings of scholarship about the bible to the people presently in the mainline church. Marcus Borg and the Bible.
Sep
14
The Faith Futures Foundation. Greg Jenks is a member of the Jesus Seminar, and has created this energetic source of scholarship and application from his base in Australia. He hosts the Crossan Jesus DataBase (the core of the Jesus Seminar work) and for a year now, a wiki inviting progressives the world over to add to the resource and knowledge base. He also builds book study guides.

featured articles explore questions of faith and practice, share news about coming events, progressive faith community listings, create pages for local communities and other groups, resources for groups using Living the Questions
LINKS TO ISSUES SEMINARIES TEACH BUT PULPITS DON'T PREACH
Sep
5
The Pathways Centre - a Forum for Theological Inquiry. An educational centre for thought-provoking, cutting-edge, progressive Christian faith and theology. This Centre is in Edmonton at Robertson-Wesley United Church, a co-founder. They have assembled an excellent list of resources and links very much related to Vosper's theme.
Sep
5
Cornerstone Forum Here's a blog from a contrary Catholic perspective. This post opposes the Non-theistic Liturgy Resources Working Group with Bennedict's "primacy of acceptance" - an interesting variant of man's responsibilities for the earth.
Sep 7 The Varieties of Religious Experience. William James. 1902 2002. On line at sacredtexts.com. An early work that still reads well on how there are different psychological responses to the mystery of religion. Still best explanation of conversion experience. The beginning of awareness that there was not one truth for all, one church for all.
Living the
Questions
Sep
14
Living the Questions - An Introduction to Progressive Christianity. (9:17). This is a program running with success in many churchs today including StDavid's. YouTube has many of the LTQ episodes. We hope to build a LTQ web resource locally soon.
Sep
14
The Jesus Seminar of the Westar Institute, with more than two hundred participating scholars, has attempted to distinguish fact from fiction in the words and deeds ascribed to Jesus in the gospels. They also bring theological scholarship to the people directly.
Sep
14
Religion in 20th Century America - Herbert Wallace Schneider. Harvard University Press.1964. As we have discussed, none of this is new. Here is a sample from a 1929 survey of 700 ministers on their beliefs about the basics of belief. See how there's "nothing new under the sun", and how the acceptance and understanding of the "fundamentals" was already passing. Note also that this generation of ministers were unable or unwilling to communicate their actual beliefs to their congregations who remained until most recently quite unawares of such seminary teachings. Vosper's complaint has been valid for 80 years! These are scans and so are a bit hard to read. This book is out of print. I have it in my library should anyone want it.
OTHER LINKS
God
is not
dead.
Sep
5
Bibles removed from hotel chain in Sweden. In a country where barely 3% of the population goes to church each week, the affair seemed just another step in Christian Europe's long march toward secularism. Then something odd happened: A national furor erupted.
The Golden Rule Sep
5
Humanity Healing Network has created a lovely little 8min video on the Golden Rule as the common element of all religions that gives the words of each whose meaning we share across time and the planet.
Sep
27
Would we Be Better Off Without Religion - St James Ethics Centre - Sydney, Australia, Aug 19th, 2008. 1:40 debate aired on ABC. "While the world's religions have inspired stunning acts of creation, they also have been implicated in some of the darkest deeds in human history. If God cannot be blamed for such moments of evil, His priests and prophets at least have a case to answer."

Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. ... Proverbs 23:12 (NIV)