This statement from the Vatican does not make sense to me.  We are all Children of God.  The Pentecostal churches have done so much work in spreading the Word of Christ.  Just yesterday I was speaking to a Minister who does Evangelist work.  He and his brothers go into rural lands not only in Africa but in places like India as well.  They pitch their tent and the speak the Word of Christ - he has healed many people in the Name of Christ.

He was telling me this wonderful experience they had; they had pitched a tent in a rural land, thousands come to listen, and he began speaking about Christ - he was reading from the Bible  'And I come as a whirlwind' and all of a sudden the whole tent was filled with a rushing wind, a mighty wind - many, many people were healed, cripples got up and walked, cancers were cured and the Spirit of Christ filled them all.  When they looked outside there was no wind - it was calm.  Aye, he does do great work.  It is a funny thing you don't see the Catholic church setting up tents in dark places to speak about the Word of Christ or providing soup kitchens to the poor - or do they?  I do not see them do it in my land, I see the Methodist churches do, I see the Reformed churches do, I see the Pentacostal churches do,  I don't see the Catholic churches doing this work .... or do they?

Revelation 22:17-  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.  And let him that is athirst come.  And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

I like what you contributed a lot Caryn.

The line from the above article about says it all to me "Christian communities born out of the Reformation of the 16th century". Seems fair enough to me to find Christ however we can without the help of the Papal Bull. So I wonder what does this corporation, The Vatican, have to offer me any more than the etheric Christ who is here to guide us with or without the churches help? I was a hard sell for Christianity until Steiner and the Gnostics, actually made sense of the Mystery of Golgotha for me. I am still cautious of most evangelistsm, many speak with forked toungues. I drink Ginger Ale not Coca Cola.

Cheers

Cisco

Hey well I like drinking a nice cup of tea with milk and sugar! 

Cisco, it must be in the anthroposophist nature to seek the depths (and heights) of that subtle ginger maybe with a sprig of mint taste!

I hear what you say about evangelists - until you meet one!  Gosh then one gets a feeling of the Spirit of Fire.  An outstanding characteristic of an evangelists is in the very essence 'Father, Thy Will be done and not mine.' You can see they have surrendered all personal attempts to control situations and are totally open to the Will of God.

Talking to this dear man, the evangelist, he was telling me when he went to India.  He received a message from God saying you must go to India, and he said right India, knowing he had not a cent to get there.  The next day he received a phone call from a business man ordering a big supply from the evangelists sons company providing enough money to go.  This is how the Spirit works! It makes me think of this song by U2 'Who knows where the wind will take you.'  To me, it is in this essence of evangelistsm the simplisty of Christ is shown - nothing else is needed but faith in the Spirit of Christ.

Through talking to him I understood evangelistsm awakens the Christ within people. He did say to me once people connect with the Spirit of Christ within they cannot just be sent away saying 'you are saved', they have the corner stone and now they have this need to nuture and grow the essence within and here I see how anthrosophy offers this nuturing and growth through art, poetry, eurthymy, astrosophy and not to mention Rudolf Steiner's teachings for these talk to our soul and awaken and nuture our souls path towards the Spirit. And with this is that wonderful synergy, you spoke about Cisco - here we can see just how free and at the same time just how precise the Spirit is.

You do have a point there Sebastian ...

Thanks for the read.
Caryn

I know I've posted this before but I feel there is a lot of truth in this sentence from the Creed of the Christian Community, which some of you may be aware is read during every celebration of the "Act of Consecration of Man".

"Communities whose members feel the Christ within themselves may feel united in a Church to which all belong who are aware of the health-bringing power of the Christ."

Put this way, the Pope's comments appear kind of incidental and beside the point to me.  The starting point is "Communities whose members feel the Christ within themselves.." 

Having come from a Protestant background I occasionally heard people speak of the theological concept of the "Church Universal and Triumphant" - that is, if you like a Church with a capital "C" that unites all those from the different creeds who are truly following a "Christian" path.  But once you start down that road, you ask, does your Church with a capital "C" include Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, etc. etc. ?

The answer will be different for different people, but personally my concept of it certainly does - my experience is that some people who are avowedly agnostic, atheist, UFOlogists or whatever nevertheless strongly "feel the Christ within themselves".  Surely intellectual adherence to some creed or other or to some organised "church" with a small "c" or other is not necessarily the point, let alone being a recognised "member" of such an organisation which professes to be the sole possessor of the apostolic succession.  The Catholic Church, the Christian Community, Baptists, Buddhists etc. etc. all are just in a certain sense small "c" churches in my opinion.  It's what the members do with it, and more importantly what they do with the Christ, that's really important!

 Tim, nice post. Thank you. It is each individual's relationship with Christ no matter where.

Oh, so now the Catholics own Christ. (Forgive me for not continuing your discussion above - I want to respond to the original post.) Many of you may find my ideas about Christ and Christedness (in preference to Christianity) radical, even shocking. I can't apologise for that, I have studied and experienced  the presence and the being of Christ for too long. If you are reading my reflections on Buddha's Eightfold Path you may realise that I consider Christ to be without boundary.

To give you a taste for my ideas about Christ I include an excerpt from my current work on The Revelation to John.

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Rev 1:4-6

The first thing we notice is that John is greeting seven churches. The word ‘church’ in koine (common) Greek, is the word 'ekklesia' which literally means ‘out of a calling’. These seven churches could relate to seven areas of our consciousness which respond ‘out of a calling’. Who is calling? Christ and the spiritual worlds are calling. In Ephesians 1, which seems to echo something of the four verses we are considering, we read that the church is Christ’s body.

...  according to the working of his (God’s) great might  which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all. Eph 1:20-23

If the ekklesia, the church, is Christ’s body, and we become part of this ekklesia, then we become part of Christ’s body and share his consciousness. It is an astounding thing to consider because then we can begin to wonder how we should respond to life if we share such a consciousness and body.
If we follow this idea through we realise that we must overcome the tendency to think of Christ as a being confined to a form like human beings are. Through our imagination we can see him as a force or a power. It doesn’t matter how we mould this image, as long as we create some image.  Paul saw him as a blinding light; others have said the same down the centuries.
If we are to understand this Revelation then we must work on our understanding that we become Christ. As our consciousness responds to this calling we actually become part of the Christ power, the Christ Impulse. This is the possibility that lies before us. If we do the work, all that Christ achieved for us is at our disposal. But we must do the work. <ends>

Thank you Kristina for these inspiring comments - I hope others can find them way down here at the bottom of this old journal entry.

If you ever wish to post a journal entry to the "Experiencing the Christ" discussion group or even just double-post your journal entries on the "Eightfold Path in the Gospel of St John" to both your discussion group and this one you would be very welcome!  I think that's easy enough, you just check an extra box when posting.

Rudolf Steiner did speak quite a bit on the Persian epoch - the fourth epoch which still hangs on to the fifth epoch although we are almost entering the sixth epoch.

The Gospel of St. Matthew whom is symbolic to Aquarius talks about the Son of Man coming 'And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory' 24:30

The Son of man is Aquarius and heaven is Uranus - Christ Being the Son of God within the Son of man.

Ekklesia is a good word.

I would like to add my gratitude to Kristina here. Some years ago I was visiting Meteora in Greece. A sociable priest asked me what was my religion. I was really stumped - being a non-church goer but not wishing to be dishonest about having a relationship to Christedness - and on the spot I finally responded Anthroposophist. He easily responded that he was an Orthodox, and that pretty much ended our conversation about religion!

I have regularly returned to this question and wondered how to offer a more adequate response. Currently my 'prepared answer' would be that I belong to the church for whose members Christ enacted the Mystery of Golgotha. Recently I have become very sympathetic to the Church of Christ's Deep Laughter. I believe it was Jeffrey's inspiration. There ought to be a simpler way of answering such a genuine question without being misunderstood as a pretentious twit. OK, so I may be a pretentious twit, but I would prefer not to be misunderstood! Me and my ideals...

I love the name 'The Church of Christ's Deep Laughter' - a wonderful sense and feeling of Joy.  Creation is awesome!