Catholics Join Emerging Church Conversation

The Christian Post:

A group of Roman Catholics are dipping their feet in the Emerging Church pool, joining a conversation that has long drawn the interest of mainline Protestants and Evangelicals.

While the Emerging Church has been hotly debated among Evangelicals, some of whom are staunch critics, the term “emerging” is far less known within Catholicism. Equally as unknown and confusing even among Evangelicals is the term “emergent,” which some use interchangeably with “emerging” and others have distinguished as a segment of a wider Emerging Church movement.

With that, there is "no natural resistance" to the Emerging Church, according to Fr. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico province.

"It is just an intriguing concept to many Catholics," he noted.

Today, Rohr is in conversations with Brian McLaren, one of the more well-known speakers of the Emergent Church, and is preparing to host an event next week around issues of the Emerging Church.

It is expected to be the first time Roman Catholics have ever hosted such an event.

The three-day conference, which begins on Mar. 20, is sold out with nearly 1,000 people from a broad spectrum of Christian faiths signed up to attend.

See related articles: First-Ever Catholic-Emergent Conference , Oozing with Mysticism and more articles on the Ecumenical Emerging Church Movement here.