Progressive Links
Open Circle is affiliated with The Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC). TCPC provides guiding ideas, networking opportunities, and resources for progressive churches, organizations, individuals and others with connections to Christianity.
They promote an understanding of Christian practice and teaching that leads to a greater concern for the way people treat each other than for the way people express their beliefs, the acceptance of all people, and a respect for other religious traditions.
They affirm the variety and depth of human experience and the richness of each persons' search for meaning, and we encourage the use of sound scholarship, critical inquiry, and all intellectual powers to understand the presence of God in human life.
They are opposed to any exclusive dogma that limits the search for truth and free inquiry, and we encourage work that eases the pain, suffering and degradation inherent in many of the structures of society, as well as work that keeps central to the Christian life fair, open, peaceful, and loving treatment of all human beings.
To view the 8 points of TCPC's progressive Christianity http://progressivechristianity.org/the-8-points/.
Patheos is the largest online religious portal in the world. There are links for every major religious expression in the world. The Progressive Christian page features blogs and columns by dozens of progressive Christian bloggers, authors, and theologians.
Westar Institute is a member-supported, non-profit research and educational institute founded in 1986 and dedicated to the advancement of religious literacy. Westar's twofold mission is to foster collaborative research in religious studies and to communicate the results of the scholarship of religion to a broad, non-specialist public.
Until a few years ago, essential knowledge about biblical and religious traditions was hidden in the windowless studies of universities and seminaries—away from the general public. Such research was considered too controversial or too complicated for lay persons to understand. Many scholars, fearing open conflict or even reprisal, talked only to one another. The churches often decided what information their constituents were "ready" to hear.
Through publications, educational programs, and research projects like the Jesus Seminar, Westar has opened up a new kind of conversation about religion. This is an honest, no-hold-barred exchange involving thousands of scholars, clergy and other individuals who have critical questions about the past, present and future of religion.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives was founded based on three basic tenets: 1) Changing the Bottom Line in America; 2) Challenging the Misuse of Religion, God and Spirit by the Religious Right; 3) Challenging the Many Anti-Religious and Anti-Spiritual Assumptions and Behaviors That Have Increasingly Become Part of the Liberal Culture.
Gaychurch.org is a web site dedicated to ministering to the gay and lesbian Christian community (GLBT) and to the friends of our community. The site features one of the largest gay Christian bulletin boards and gay "welcoming" Christian church directories in the world. A large section of the site is dedicated to articles pertinent to reconciling ones faith with their sexual orientation ("Gay and Christian?").!
PFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity. The Twin Cities Chapter Website can be found here.
OutFront Minnesota's mission is to make our home a place where GLBT Minnesotans have the freedom, power, and confidence to make the best choices for their own lives. OutFront Minnesota delivers programs and services to the GLBT and allied communities in the areas of public policy, advocacy, education and training, anti-violence, schools, and the law.
The Open Table Cooperative is an emerging movement within the Church of the Brethren that seeks to form a new, far-reaching progressive network within our denomination. We will help the church and its members grow and move forward with a unified heart, continuing the work of Jesus in a spirit of bold, visionary, inclusive love. The Open Table Co-op is envisioning a new way of being part of the Church of the Brethren where our diversity is celebrated and our unique gifts are honored.
Brethren Mennonite Council seeks to provide programming, support and advocacy for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and their families and friends in the Mennonite Church USA and Canada and Church of the Brethren.
They promote an understanding of Christian practice and teaching that leads to a greater concern for the way people treat each other than for the way people express their beliefs, the acceptance of all people, and a respect for other religious traditions.
They affirm the variety and depth of human experience and the richness of each persons' search for meaning, and we encourage the use of sound scholarship, critical inquiry, and all intellectual powers to understand the presence of God in human life.
They are opposed to any exclusive dogma that limits the search for truth and free inquiry, and we encourage work that eases the pain, suffering and degradation inherent in many of the structures of society, as well as work that keeps central to the Christian life fair, open, peaceful, and loving treatment of all human beings.
To view the 8 points of TCPC's progressive Christianity http://progressivechristianity.org/the-8-points/.
Patheos is the largest online religious portal in the world. There are links for every major religious expression in the world. The Progressive Christian page features blogs and columns by dozens of progressive Christian bloggers, authors, and theologians.
Westar Institute is a member-supported, non-profit research and educational institute founded in 1986 and dedicated to the advancement of religious literacy. Westar's twofold mission is to foster collaborative research in religious studies and to communicate the results of the scholarship of religion to a broad, non-specialist public.
Until a few years ago, essential knowledge about biblical and religious traditions was hidden in the windowless studies of universities and seminaries—away from the general public. Such research was considered too controversial or too complicated for lay persons to understand. Many scholars, fearing open conflict or even reprisal, talked only to one another. The churches often decided what information their constituents were "ready" to hear.
Through publications, educational programs, and research projects like the Jesus Seminar, Westar has opened up a new kind of conversation about religion. This is an honest, no-hold-barred exchange involving thousands of scholars, clergy and other individuals who have critical questions about the past, present and future of religion.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives was founded based on three basic tenets: 1) Changing the Bottom Line in America; 2) Challenging the Misuse of Religion, God and Spirit by the Religious Right; 3) Challenging the Many Anti-Religious and Anti-Spiritual Assumptions and Behaviors That Have Increasingly Become Part of the Liberal Culture.
Gaychurch.org is a web site dedicated to ministering to the gay and lesbian Christian community (GLBT) and to the friends of our community. The site features one of the largest gay Christian bulletin boards and gay "welcoming" Christian church directories in the world. A large section of the site is dedicated to articles pertinent to reconciling ones faith with their sexual orientation ("Gay and Christian?").!
PFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity. The Twin Cities Chapter Website can be found here.
OutFront Minnesota's mission is to make our home a place where GLBT Minnesotans have the freedom, power, and confidence to make the best choices for their own lives. OutFront Minnesota delivers programs and services to the GLBT and allied communities in the areas of public policy, advocacy, education and training, anti-violence, schools, and the law.
The Open Table Cooperative is an emerging movement within the Church of the Brethren that seeks to form a new, far-reaching progressive network within our denomination. We will help the church and its members grow and move forward with a unified heart, continuing the work of Jesus in a spirit of bold, visionary, inclusive love. The Open Table Co-op is envisioning a new way of being part of the Church of the Brethren where our diversity is celebrated and our unique gifts are honored.
Brethren Mennonite Council seeks to provide programming, support and advocacy for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and their families and friends in the Mennonite Church USA and Canada and Church of the Brethren.