Simply Catholic and Welcoming You

St. Brigit’s Community Catholic Church Charism

A Priesthood Couple Genuflect Before The Altar

In speaking of St. Brigit's Community Catholic Church Charism we must first seek to clarify what is meant by the term charism itself. It has different meanings in different contexts. In church life we speak of charisms as the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and they are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

The Webster dictionary defines charism as;

an extraordinary power (such as healing) given a Christian by the Holy Spirit for the good of the church.

While these are both true, they do not, in fact, define a church or community charism. The charism helps guide how the community responds to the 'signs of the times'. There are many charisms in religious life - each faith, denomination and religious order within denominations will refer to their own charism.

A Charism then, refers to the distinct spirit that animates a religious community and gives it a particular character and identity.

St. Brigit's Catholic charism is God's gift to that ‘founding’ individual(s), and to the group he or she gathered together to answer this call to serve a section of God's people in special need.

A Love of God Should Extend to a Love of all His Creatures - This little Bird Saw Fit to Just Come Land on My Hand

St. Brigit's Community Catholic Church Charism, Experientially

So what has been my experience of that Community Catholic Charism?

Simply catholic! There is no need or reason to complicate the process of faith nor the miracles it can produce. Love God, love our neighbor and love ourselves. (Jesus Himself called these the greatest of all commandments.)

God loves everybody, no exceptions. Thus, regardless of denominations, we see all Christians as following their own path to Jesus and Salvation. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, all expressing our journey to God as best we each can.

Judge not lest ye be judged. God is greater, more mysterious, and more loving than we will ever comprehend. Thus we are called to love all and judge none. Each person and faith forms part of the wonderful tapestry of God’s creation. All are expressions of His love. We, therefore, love and respect all people and all faiths. Even those faiths we do not understand let alone embrace.

We are a "conciliar church" (meaning led by a council/college of bishops rather than one man/woman being indisputably 'in charge').

Being Priests Should Increase our Humanity In It's Best Aspects.

We're Still Just a Fun Loving Couple at Heart

St. Brigit's Community Catholic Church Charism, In Action

What does all this mean for us at St. Brigit’s Community Catholic Church?

At St. Brigit's we are called to be a diverse,inclusive faith community on fire with the love of Jesus Christ, passionate about what happens to each other and the communities we live in. St. Brigit's Community Catholic Church is a Federally Registered Not for Profit Church.

Our only exception to ‘inclusion’ is those people deemed by law to be a danger to the young or otherwise vulnerable. The law says that such people cannot be where the young or vulnerable gather so we cannot include them in our congregations, only in individual ministries. (We will absolutely provide ministry to such persons. We will not put the young or vulnerable at risk nor be a party to such individuals committing 'breach of conditions'.)

That said we will warn and then block (yes exclude) those who, for example, attempt to use our prayer groups as fundraising appeal sites. Likewise those who choose to deliberately disrupt services. (It is illegal in this country to disrupt religious services or meetings for religious purposes.) Such actions we view as self exclusionary on the part of those who choose to act in these ways.

Still we will not impinge on the human rights of individuals in this country or our church by exclusion nor impose ‘special conditions’ for their inclusion and participation in the sacraments of our faith. All are equal before God! That, however does not negate our responsibilities under law.

Our love, our welcome, is our proclamation of faith. This is why our clergy joyfully perform the Sacraments for all God's people regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, culture, age, marital status, and denomination.

Our outpouring of God’s love is not restricted to our own chosen denomination or faith therefore we are involved in Interfaith Chaplaincy. While we are first and always, clergy in St. Brigit’s Community Catholic Church, yet we do not wish to see anyone not have their unique spiritual needs met.

There is no proselytizing permitted while engaged in Interfaith Chaplaincy.

We are all God’s children. He loves all of us. Others may see God differently than us. They may walk a very different path in their pursuit of God, still we know that faith is a gift of and from God. We do not know why some are given the Christian faith and others are not or why Christians themselves cannot all be one. Instead we have differing denominations and differing ‘Rites’ within those denominations. So we try to emulate Christ and follow His commandment to love all and judge not.

We believe that we are all sinners before Christ. Therefore church and worship are God’s gift to sinners to gain salvation. We will not attempt to ‘select’ who can be included in our congregations or prayer groups. Any such selection is, by its very nature, exclusion by systemic pride.

Some clergy, particularly those from cultures that embrace such thinking, feel that they have a duty to keep their church ‘pure’ and ‘protect it’. I find it sadly ironic that Jesus taught the outcast, maligned, marginalized and otherwise lost or excluded ‘sheep’ from his flock, yet today such individuals are still not welcome in most churches! Unacceptable to us at St. Brigit’s.

My Little Wild Bird Friend Stuck Around For a While

I Hunt, Trap and Fish Yet, When My Spirit is Calm All Manner of Wild Creatures Come to Me Especially When I am Actively Admiring God In His Creation

St. Brigit's Community Catholic Church Charism, In Summary

Further, experientially, I have found that when we fight against something we somehow give it strength and it grows, taking ever more of our time and energies. Thus, if I am going to fight, I will fight FOR that which I love and believe in. Then, if it takes up all my time and energy I am involved in that which I love, not spending my time and gifts fighting against those things, people or principalities I stand opposed to.

If we give our all to that which we oppose, surely we are already defeated or at least distracted from our true purpose. I choose to spend my life, energies and ministry in labours of love. In this I find joy in my body and spirit.

If we give our energies to contending the scriptures or arguing against other faiths we simply miss the opportunity to embrace our own faith and the success we could have had in sharing our faith, love of the gospels and love of our Saviour with those who may well have been prepared to embrace Christ, if only we had not become distracted and missed them and thereby our own intended, ministry.

It is the lesson of the wheat and the tares. If we attempt to ‘weed’ the fields before the crop we planted is strong enough we will only kill both the weeds and the crop we desired.

I pray we will not become so engaged in protecting the so-called purity of my flock that I miss those I was in fact called to minister to. Worse would be for my doing so to drive off those still young in the faith who see such exclusions as oppressive, repressive or otherwise unchristian thus making me responsible for killing off these young ‘plants’ or ‘seedlings’ in the faith

Such selections, or attempted spiritual weeding if you will, are not the wisdom Christ taught and still teaches through the Holy Spirit. When the 'crops' are mature they will be harvested together and then sorted and judged by He who truly knows the value of each ‘plant’.

What then could we identify as the charisms of St. Brigit’s?

Love God. Love our neighbor and ourselves. - Love

God loves everybody, no exceptions. - Inclusion

Judge not lest ye be judged. - Non-judgemental

Simply put, non-judgemental love and inclusion and to move in life and faith by discernment in the Holy Spirit not by decisions of man.

St. Brigit’s Community Catholic Church Charism

St. Brigit's Community Catholic Church Charism, Experientially

St. Brigit's Community Catholic Church Charism, In Action

St. Brigit's Community Catholic Church Charism, In Summary

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