Our

Beliefs

FAQS

What Does Emergent Mean?

We are a community that is being guided by the Holy Spirit into the Church that She is creating. We follow in the traditions of the catholic faith, while opening up ourselves to new truths. We do not hold the Bible or Tradition to be the authority in our faith. We believe and are guided by The Holy Spirit, Science, History, and Love.

We choose to get to know the living Christ in our everyday interactions. We believe our mission is to fight for Social and Environmental Justice, Deconstruction of Harmful Faith Beliefs, and Respecting the Dignity and Humanity of Every Human Being. We even believe that other faith traditions are valid worship of our Loving God who is known by many names.

 

How do you differ from other Catholics?

The Bible does not define, not is it a central part of our faith. Meditation is a central part of our worship. We believe that a person of any gender can be a priest. We do not have The Apostolic Secession. We believe in the power of laying on of hand for healing, ordination, consecration, and prayer. We have same-sex marriages. We have open communion. We do not have a pope, just Jesus Christ our High Priest. We allow you to use contraceptives. We are Universalist. We do not require you to believe Blessed Mary remained a Virgin. We love contemporary worship music. Majority Vote shows us the will of God. We believe there is salvation, even in Hell. We firmly support a woman’s right to choose.

How do we view the Bible?

In our faith, we study scripture in the historical context that which it was written. The Bible is not a scientific or historical textbook in the modern sense. Rather, it is a narration of ancient Israel’s tradition and that of the early church and the life of Jesus. It contains the ancient Israel and early Christian traditions and concepts of the past. A mixture of myths and legends, cultural memories, revisions of traditions, and literary brilliance. It is a complex portrait of the past that encodes the values of biblical religion and creates a rich array of perspectives on the world. There are authentic historical memories in the book. It is somewhat unfair to note the scientific inadequacies, since it was not written to be a work of modern science. The Bible is a powerful tool in which we are provided a window into the nature of God.

What Gender is God?

We believe that God is Male, Female, Neither, No Gender, and All Genders. God is not confined by human boxes such as gender. God can be a Woman; God can be God the Father.

Jesus was a Middle Eastern man. Fully Human, Fully Divine.

The Holy Spirit in our Chapel will mostly be referred to as a woman, but we do not confine Her to that gender.

What Bible and lectionary do you use?

Most of our Services will use the New Revised Standard Vision Updated Edition (NRSVue). We follow The Women’s Lectionary by Ashley M. Wilcox and the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL).

We cannot pick a Bible for you, but we recommend a Bible accepted by mainstream academia such as the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), Revised Standard Version (RSV), New American Bible revised edition (NABre), Common English Bible (CEB), The Revised English Bible (REB), New International Version (NIV), The Message, and the King James Bible (KJB). The KJB is good if you know Shakespearian English.

We believe the Holy Scriptures are composed of the Old and New Testaments along with the Deuterocanonical Book.   These Deuterocanonical Books for those following Western traditions are Tobit, Judith, Additions to the Book of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, and 2 Esdras. While those who look toward Eastern Christianity may include 1 Esdras, Psalm 152, the Prayer of Manasseh, 3 Maccabees, and 4 Maccabees. CHF uses all of them.

What are you passionate about?

Meditation/Prayer

We believe our life of prayer is life-changing. Prayer is healing, releasing, and brings us into direct conversations with God. In our gatherings, we come to understand that all people are children of God, that God is not always found in the church, that the Risen Lord Jesus Christ is out in the world where we are called to bring a movement of love and witness of this great Love in this good creation.

Feminism

We have always promoted the education and ordination of women. We strive to make strong and independent women who make their own choices. We are fierce feminists.

LGBTQIA+ Full Inclusion

We promote and fight for the rights, protection, and full inclusion of LGBTQIA2S+ people. We firmly believe God has created multiple genders, that a person’s Gender Identity is a person’s real gender by God’s Divine Will, and that same-sex marriage is the direct will of God.

Man-Made Climate Change

We believe that one of the largest threats to our world is man-made climate change. We are horrified by the mass extinction event we humans have brought about. We promote green and environmental lifestyles to promote the well-being of God’s creation.

Faith Deconstruction

Sometimes, a person belongs to a religious group that has teachings and belief systems that greatly damage us. These systems are known to destroy lives and relationships. People are left hurt, left having created major emotional walls that put major strains on a person’s ability to have healthy relationships with themselves, the “church”, their families, and/or left distant or even hating the people we should love. People are left with a warped view of the Love that is God. Our group is committed to helping people find a new relationship with God and faith by providing resources and a space for people to have a deconstruction of their faith in a healthy, judgement-free environment.

We are all missionaries, or we are nothing

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

About The Feminist’s Prayer Book

This is the Prayer Book of our Order and what we use for our worship! This Book is for the women that always felt left un-empowered by liturgical styled churches. We hope we have provided a few prayers to get you started on your faith journey. It’s time to reclaim the Christian Faith from freaking narrow minded sexist men, and help spread the message of love and gender equality that Jesus really called us to spread. Spread the Good News that women, ALL WOMEN, are made in the image of God. That women can be and are completely equal to all genders; women are prophets, priest, intelligent, bold, strong, and fucking amazing!

Ladies, this book will hopefully allow you to see that not all Christianity is bad, and that it is capable of change. It must change, as it always has.

All of you can write your own prayers! All of you have been empowered by the Holy Spirit! I hope that you know that you can absolutely spread the Christian Faith in the feminist perspective.

May God Our Mother Bless All of You!

The Community of the Holy Family Creed

We pledge ourselves completely to the way of Love. We work to express our love, as Jesus teaches us, in three ways: by loving God, neighbor, and self. By walking fully in the Path of Jesus without denying the legitimacy of other paths that God may provide for humanity. By engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, economic class, or any label man lays on god’s creation. By standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others. By basing our lives on the faith that in Christ all things are made new and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imaginations—for eternity. By claiming the sacredness of both our minds and our hearts, and recognizing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth. And by protecting the creations of God seeking environmental justice.

Our Statement of Inclusion

The Community of the Holy Family, along with our Covenant Partners, labor for an atmosphere of inclusion amongst all members.

  • We welcome all people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental ability, income, or political beliefs since Christ commanded us to Love Thy Neighbor.

  •  We love and respect our transgender and non-binary siblings in Christ as we value all humankind just as Jesus embraced everyone into His fold, we too embrace everyone to be one in our Community.

  •  We include, guide, and support those who have traditionally been marginalized by religious organizations.

  •  We will always purposefully maintain an atmosphere of universal reverence, compassion, and sincerity towards all humankind.

  •  We believe in an all-inclusive world where people of all different lives, faiths, and beliefs can have humble relationships knowing we are all created in the image of God.

  •  We believe that discrimination has no place in our Community and that diversity heightens cohesiveness in our civilization.

  •  We denounce hatred of any kind, especially anti-LGBT bigotry, intolerance, xenophobia, prejudice, racism, sexism, and all discrimination.

We encourage an environment of purposeful inclusion, an environment where all can feel protected, cherished, and allowed to form meaningful relationships with each other. We, who seek to proclaim the Gospel to each generation, in the power of the Holy Spirit to allow all people to recognize the love of Christ.

 treasure the array of humanity, a diversity of differences in age, sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, range of abilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, financial means, education, and political perspective. We believe in a Monastic Community that welcomes, accepts, and serves all people in the name of Christ.