As most of you know, I don't attend a church, because none of them I know about have universalist doctrines. As a result, none of them preach the gospel in my opinion and instead deliver the bad news instead, i.e. that God is going to torment most people in hell for ever.
Some of you don't feel strongly enough about universalism to leave your existing churches and prefer to try to change things quietly from within, e.g. by talking to sympathetic people behind the scenes. I know some of you believe that opinion is gradually shifting towards universalist among lay members, but there is clearly quite a tension here as the official teaching of these churches remains damnationist in nature.
The firm convictions of universalist are diametrically opposed to these teachings, of course, and there seems to be a risk that universalists will have to keep pretty quiet about their beliefs in this environment or risk expulsion. As a result there is a serious risk that the gospel will never be preached in these believing communities. It is also not easy to see how meaningful fellowship can occur with damnationists - what fellowship hath light with darkness?
The USA has clearly recognised these challenges and has had the strength in numbers to build a thriving Universalist Church in America. It feels like we will need to do this here at some stage, but it's hard to see how this could ever happen if universalists in the UK stay in their existing churches and keep (fairly) quiet about their beliefs.
I appreciate this is a polemical subject, but now seems to be a good time to raise it, as we hope to launch this site by the end of next week, God willing.
Interesting thoughts. In the meantime, most of you in the UK are going to be staying in your existing churches, I imagine. How do you manage to raise the subject of universalism to persuade others? And how often are you able to do this? Do you also find time to reach out to non-believers with the the good news of universalism? If so, how and when do you do this?
I am mindful here that we are commanded by Christ to preach the good news to all nations. And it's hard to see how we can fulfil that duty properly unless we become a lot more active.
I think the best place to start would be a large city like London, the law of large numbers will ensure that there is enough people within range to attend in person, problem is rental costs for buildings would be higher and advertising costs would also increase if the church were to be promoted in the most densely populated places. It might be better to reach people who are not currently attached to a church.
The Other potential option would be to create a group or fellowship that went across denominational ties, so for example im part of a fellowship called the Assisi Fellowship which has a heart for Franciscan expressions particularly contagious joy of the faith for those coming from a more informal low/evangelical not very prayer book orientated tradition to show how those prayers in the OSF book can be used in a more dynamic manner. One of the founding principles is in Contagious Joy that all are reconciled to God. The group is a Christian Universalist group as well as being Franciscan. This is a way to become more recognised and organised in the UK most certainly and has that ecumenical ability by being a group not specific to one denomination.
Well being in the UK like yourself I would say that there is a streak a current of many Universal Reconciliation believers within the UK across a few Denominations the most well known would be Rev Robin Parry in the Church of England and Rev Steve Chalke from a Baptist background. Speaking as someone within the Church of England congregations will always split on this topic and as a result an official teaching position is that they cannot say for certain but are hopeful for Universal Reconciliation. This means of course those with the opposite view are allowed to preach what you and I would call the bad news, however the fundamental difficulty we have in the UK is the difficulty in setting up a separate Church which to get anywhere here needs a modest but steady stream of money chiefly to be able to have a regular building, some Cofe Churches will entertain the idea of renting buildings to other Churches this is true but that varies from parish to parish add to that (speaking now as a Church Warden and someone who at one time attempted to do what you suggested independently) Even when you do rent a building because you cannot say if there will be vulnerable people at a service you have to assume that there will and you then have to have your own public liability insurance for safeguarding reasons as you cannot be covered by the Church who owns the building.
Speaking now as LLM in the COFE who at one time also Ministered independently, you can preach the Good News and I do regularly as mentioned with Robin Parry being a Cofe Priest and a very accomplished theologian within Universal Reconciliation before he became ordained there is a growing number of lay licensed and ordained people ready to state their views and beliefs around Universal Reconciliation but in terms of building a stronger UCA presence in the UK as a real Universalist Church that isnt Unitarian, the biggest thing to resolve will be around buildings and also working out how it would operate obviously within the Cofe you have the common fund way of moving money and the fact that it is the established Church.
You then have each congregation being independent mostly of any central organisation, but what is needed is that initial influx of money to be able to establish a regular place of worship, and Im not dismissing house groups and home church they are a great starting point but as they grow you get to a point where a building for services is needed and its also how we can reach the most people as well by using said buildings as a focal point. The Internet as well will be vital a friend of mine Dave Lucas who created the Ordinary Office really helped create a massive online community but even that got to a point where questions were being asked about some sort of physical building thats because digital and physical church are both just church and compliment each other immensely.
Im not trying to be negative by the way, I would love to see the CUA establish itself here in the UK I would love a place where I could serve my call to Ordained Ministry without being afraid it would upset some within the Church as it does being a LLM in the Cofe (Im an LLM and not ordained for a number of reasons but this being one and its why I previously attempted to minister independently via an Independent Anglican group ) But the dynamics here in the UK and US with being able to start a Church is where we have issues and the prevalence of the Cofe means anyone trying to breakthrough here either needs a substantial amount of money or find other denominations willing to work with them. Both take a lot of time energy planning and resources to do, Im not saying we shouldn't or shouldn't try but its a huge amount of work for a number of us to do, and we all still have to pay the bills in our jobs etc, and its why many of us decide to work within as you say and be a voice because it resolves several issues for us around building and inusrances etc. As I say with Steve Chalke and Robin Parry there is a growing network of voices within the Cofe and Chalkes Oasis Ministry. But again not against it just being practical that there is alot to decide and plan, to do this