New Church Perspective is taking a break...

New Church Perspective is officially taking a break. The volunteer team is moving, shifting responsibilities etc. so we've had to put the project on ice. Feel free to contact us with any thoughts for the future. In the meanwhile, you can keep reading other places, like: newchristianwoman.com, newchurchlife.org, newchurchconnection.org.

Editor's Box | NCP in 2012!

Dear Readers,

Thanks for hanging with newchurchperspective.com into 2012! We've had some technical challenges, especially with our subscription services, but believe these are now resolved.

We're publishing all new content on our home page, and you now have two subscription options: New Content or New Content + Comments. In addition to signing up to receive content emails, we'd love to have you "like" our Facebook page as this will help us reach more readers.

If you missed any essays during the last couple months when our subscription service was down, you can look over the latest digest post to review the recent articles. We list all these digest posts at the top of the archive page which offers a great way to skim over past material if you're looking for a specific topic or discussion.

Otherwise, we look forward to a great 2012 with another year of original weekly content exploring the New Church in life!

- Editor

Click to read more ...

Editor's Box | New Comment Format

IntenseDebate Comment System Debut 

I’m sure frequent readers have noticed our new comment system! IntenseDebate is a 3^rd party commenting system that allows us to have “threaded” comments. This means you can reply to a particular comment and your comment will appear in an indented cascade. We hope this system will facilitate even more vibrant commenting, as it will enable multiple discussions to occur after a post. To keep conversations clear, use the reply feature after a comment if you want to directly reply to something in the comment or use the “Post a new comment” box at the bottom of the page if you have something new to add. 

After we get a lot of comments (yay!) replies start to truncate after a comment, so that users can easily survey the scope of the entire comment section.To view replies to a particular comment click the “> X replies” hyperlink after a comment to drop down all the replies. 

Some users  have reported that they can’t see the comments or can't see all the comments, in which case you may need to scroll to the bottom of the left side-bar and click the most recent comment – all comments will then display.

If you want to make a comment, make sure that you are on the newchurchperspective.com domain, you should not see "squarespace" in your address bar.

Editor's Box | Financial Support for New Church Perspective

As we head through the final quarter of 2011 we're starting to look forward to 2012. And as we give thought to next year we start to think about how we'd like your money. :)

But only a modest amount: $5, $10 or so dollars; the amount you'd like to donate for another year of New Church Perspective. (Click on the donate button on the right hand column of the Essays page.)

Several of you have already made a contribution within the last twelve months (which we much appreciate).

It is easier to keep volunteer editors happy if we don't ask them to cover the costs of the site in addition to offering their time.

Whether or not you can offer a little money at this time, we appreciate your readership. You can also help out in other ways, most easily by sharing content with your friends.

New Series - Women as Ordained Priests or Not

Whether or not to ordain women into priestly leadership has been one of the most significant organizational questions facing churches over the last century. In some ways, the movement by now is a mature one in which many churches have already answered the question and drawn lines in the sand. But in other ways, just like in the romantic relationship between the sexes, the balance of role division and mutual respect remains elusive and dynamic.

Though the majority of New Church organizations now make no distinction between the sexes with regard to ordination into the priesthood, several continue to distinguish the role as a uniquely masculine function.

The essays published over the next several weeks give special attention to the General Church of the New Jerusalem as one of the organizations which retains an exclusively male priesthood. It is our hope that the topics of appropriate spiritual leadership and role division between the sexes are universal to all worship groups. Presumably the attention given to the General Church as a case study will have relevance and interest even to those in other traditions and organizations.

Certainly these topics are likely to hit readers at a gut level and raise deep emotional responses. Please join the conversation and add your perspectives. But use this as an opportunity to exercise and develop your ability to listen. Allow for the possibility that other people are sincere and well intentioned. You can remind yourself of our comment guidelines. Enjoy the series!

Looking for even more on the topic? We've compiled a collection of additional papers and studies.

Entries in the Series:

1. The 21st-Century Debate on Women in the Priesthood Part I: Dangerous Feelings by Alaina Mobaso.

2. The 21st-Century Debate on Women in the Priesthood Part II: “Side-Notes” and Tradition by Alaina Mobaso.

3. Women in the Ministry by Joel Glenn.

4. A Home for Love by Ronnie Schnarr.

5. A Dialog about the Ordination of Women in the General Church by Kristin Coffin and Brian Smith. PART: 1 2 3 4 5

Editor's Box| Fund the New Church Perspective Cause!

New Church Perspective just installed a secure donate button through paypal which allows our readers to support the project with funds! (You can use a credit/debit card if you don't already have a paypal account).

New Church Perspective does not cost that much to run as it is all volunteer efforts. But we do have costs for maintaining the site and domain. One year we covered these costs by contributions from the editors. Another year we received a single larger donation from a supporter. Going into the future, we'd like to ask users to support the project with amounts that seem appropriate and manageable. Our goal remains to be self-sustaining, and that includes not over-taxing our financial supporters. So please give, but stop well before it hurts.

We will make a new request each year. We recommend $10/year which is about 6 cents for each entry we publish. (Less or more are both also fine). If we happen to exceed our current expenses we have other opportunities to pursue.

This remains a free publication, so feel no guilt in continuing to read without supporting the project.

Remember that there are also plenty of other ways to support the project. The easiest way is to link friends to the entries you enjoy.