With Heart and Mind: event 8
Saturday 21 September 2002 from 10 am to 4 pm
Subversive Orthodoxy
A workshop with Ken Leech
Saturday 21 September 2002
10 am — 4 pm
Bring a packed lunch
£10 waged . £5 low-waged . £2 unwaged
A part of the 'With heart and mind' series
'With heart and mind' is a series of workshops and lectures at All Hallows Church during 2002 which seeks to explore a radical contemporary reading of the Christian tradition, bringing it into dialogue with depth psychology, science, politics and other faith traditions. The aim is to feed both heart and mind, encouraging the use of both reason and intuition in our shared quest for hope and meaning.
Subversive Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy has often been seen as a dirty word by open Christians — a way of controlling exploration and asserting a closed system of belief. However, there is also a view that sees orthodoxy as potentially subversive and indeed radical. In this view 'orthodoxy' does not mean 'right belief' but 'giving true glory to God'.
Ken Leech is a firm believer in the subversive potential of orthodoxy. A community theologian from East London, Ken's ministry down the years has been about combining a radical political and social witness with an orthodox catholic spirituality and theology. He writes on the incarnation:
It asserts that the Word was God, not a semi-divine being, not a superman, not an inferior, but True God from True God. There is equality within the Godhead. It was the principle of equality for which the early fathers fought in their battles with the heretics, and it is the same battle which orthodox Christians are fighting today. For if the life of God is a life characterised by equality and sharing, then human beings, made in that image and raised into that life by the Incarnation, are called to a similar life. That is why orthodox Christianity must lead in an egalitarian direction.
Much of what is mistaken for Christian orthodoxy is in fact deeply heretical, owing more to the Emperor Constantine than to the Council of Chalcedon. Much so-called theism is simple monotheism rather than faith in the Triune God in whose social life we share. Even a 'belief' in the Incarnate Christ can be a purely conceptual affair, and thereby miss the point.
For the Incarnation is more than a belief, it is a principle of life and of transformation. The principle that salvation and all spirituality comes through the flesh and through matter lies at the heart of the entire Christian understanding. Spirituality which is rooted in the Incarnation can never be world-denying or private. Nor can it be reduced to the 'imitation of Christ'. Rather, it is a call to be transformed into the divine life.
Ken will be delivering three addresses during the day, with plenty of time in between for questions and exploration together in groups.
Ken will also be our preacher at All Hallows on the following day, helping us celebrate the feast of St Matthew.
For further details contact Ray Gaston on 0113-242 2205
or e-mail
contact@allhallowsleeds.org.uk
To make sure of your place, please send in your booking form with payment by 31 August. After this date please contact Ray Gaston to check availability.
Click here to download a PDF version of this leaflet, including the booking form, which you can print out and send in.