Dear Friends:
In the last four years, the number of “unique hits” on the website of The Center for Progressive Christianity, www.tcpc.org, has more than tripled, up to about 38,000 per month. Much of this growth in interest happened virtually overnight, right after the 2004 presidential election, when the country woke up to the enormous political influence of the religious right. Millions of people have been seeking an alternative to chauvinistic, dogmatic, narrow-minded Christianity ever since.
For over six years I have served on TCPC’s national executive council, and I have witnessed the growth of progressive Christianity in spirit and in numbers. Our organization has been the primary portal for this movement for over a decade. Our founder, Jim Adams, retired rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, rightly can be credited with defining and popularizing “progressive Christianity” as a fresh form of the faith, through TCPC. Operating on a financial shoestring, with a global network of volunteers, we have been remarkably effective at promoting and extending this movement.
We’re now at a turning point. Much more is being asked of us than ever before. We need your help to respond effectively to the needs of the progressive Christian movement.
Many new groups have emerged in the movement just in the
past two years, taking on challenges with gusto and creativity. CrossWalkAmerica
just completed a walk across the country to promote open-minded, open-hearted
faith in the “heartland”. Living the Questions is producing
high-quality adult education resources for people seeking pluralistic,
inclusive expressions of the faith. The Beatitudes Society is encouraging the next generation of socially-conscious seminarians, providing them with justice-and-peace oriented internships. Social Redemption, Faith in Public Life, Christian
Alliance for Progress, Faithful America, CrossLeft, and the Institute for
Progressive Christianity have emerged to address the social and political
implications of the gospel. Authors like Diana Butler Bass, Hal Taussig,
Eric Elnes, and others are rising up to take their places alongside early
seminal thinkers in our movement such as Marcus Borg and John Shelby
Spong. An old magazine, Zion’s Herald, has just renamed itself The
Progressive Christian, and promises to be a significant source of
inspiration. Pacific School of Religion now explicitly identifies
itself as a progressive Christian seminary, and just started a rich new website
with theological reflections, Progressive Christian Witness. And there are more groups emerging.
These people and organizations turn to The Center for Progressive Christianity for leadership. TCPC’s events around the US, our international presence through closely related groups in English-speaking countries, our extensive web-based resources, publications, and links, and our nearly 300 affiliated churches and thousands of affiliated individuals make our organization the central hub of the progressive Christian movement.
A few years ago, we could respond effectively to the needs of the movement with our team of volunteers, a part-time paid “webmistress”, and annual budget of about $60,000. But things have changed. The greatly increased expectations that the movement makes of us are beyond our capacity to meet.
We aim to expand greatly the scope of our curricula, publications, links, and resources available on our website (which underwent a major upgrade this past year). We aim to promote vigorously the ingenious, committed efforts of the other organizations in the movement, and help them coordinate their work. We aim to increase the number of our affiliated churches by an order of magnitude, so that seekers of progressive Christianity can find congregations where they will be welcomed, all over America. We aim to hold many more regional events around the country each year, where people can meet each other and discover great new ideas and practices. We aim to create small groups and regional associations all over the US, to deepen and spread the grassroots of our movement. We aim to widen the current opening in the culture toward pluralistic, compassionate, non-literalistic Christianity, and make our movement much more visible to the general public. We aim to help churches grow, through local and national media campaigns that highlight their progressive identity.
It’s going to take a lot of hard work, and it’s also going to take a lot of money.
I won’t make a habit of asking for donations in my “Musings” blog! But right now, I don’t hesitate to ask you to make a generous financial contribution to The Center for Progressive Christianity (4916 Pt. Fosdick Dr NW #148, Gig Harbor, WA 98335, or donate online at www.tcpc.org). We are a small, lean outfit, and that means that your gift will make a significant difference in our work. Please contact me if you would like details about TCPC’s finances and plans.
Just as important as your money donation will be your willingness to give time and energy to TCPC. This can take many forms; give me a call at 415-847-8997 and I can share with you some ways that you can help right now. As the head of our TCPC fundraising committee, I am seeking people around the US who would be willing to open their homes for gatherings of potential donors, to share the story of our organization and the wider movement. If you would be willing to help in this important way, please email or call me. Or call our board President, Fred Plumer, at 253-303-0022.
At this time of Thanksgiving, I am brimming with gratitude
that Christianity in America is turning toward compassion and inclusion, one
step at a time. You, dear readers of “Musings”, are the ones taking these
positive steps in your communities and churches. I’m thankful to walk
this path with you!
Every blessing,
Jim Burklo