Date of Award
Fall 2021
Degree Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
First Advisor
Fr. Raymond Dlugos
Second Advisor
Joseph T. Kelley, Ph.D., D.Min.
Abstract
My college admission letter dated August 25, 2020, the personal statement for my college application, included here, states my heartfelt concern about the declining church, for my family, for all people, and for society in general.
"My faith journey has been so rich and informs who I am, as a child of God, living in God's Grace, and Love, and Forgiveness, and taught me so much of how to live in the wider universe, teaching what was unavailable from my family or schooling. I am so grateful for God’s Grace and Peace, and I can not understand how others live without this spiritual grounding. How do the unchurched live and grow? What makes them, and society in general, whole? I have a special interest in the future of the Church, and declining participation, and specifically, on a personal level, how do my husband, children and grandchildren develop a spiritual, moral anchor, without a church community to grow in and be loved. How do they discern right from wrong, good from bad? What are their formative experiences? How do they deal with grief and emptiness, despair ? Where is Hope? And what is/will be the formation process or institutions to replace formal religious institutions?"
Much to my surprise, I have found answers to most of these questions that I thought were unanswerable at the beginning of the program, through reading, studying, and writing. My second Seminar paper for RTS5601G, “What’s Happened to My Church?: Emergence Christianity and the Postmodern Culture”, was written about the changes at South Church Andover, United Church of Christ with interviews with the many members of the congregation who were involved in the leadership of those changes. I have read books over the past twenty-five or more years by Marcus Borg and Diana Butler Bass and others about rethinking how we read and study the Bible and understand Jesus. Now I have added books by Phyllis Tickle, John Dorhauer, and Brian McLaren about the emerging church, and read websites to learn about Progressive and Emergence Christianity.
My thesis continues in the same vein of study, this time focusing on individuals changing, within a faith community, with my changing as an example, cognitive dissonance caused by the challenge to long held religious beliefs, changes of culture, and rapid changes within the progressive church, with a still emerging “more Christian, Christianity”. I have continued to read and reread books by Marcus Borg, Phyllis Tickle, and John Dorhauer, and have added books new to me by Brian McLaren. I have come to understand and more fully embrace the profound changes of society and to my spirituality and the emerging Christian church.
Recommended Citation
Clarke, Janet, "What’s Happened to My Church, South Church Andover, UCC? Individuals Change Within a Community of Faith, Changing the Church, Evangelical to Progressive" (2021). Religious & Theological Studies Student Work. 8.
https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/rts_studentpub/8