What We're Saying / Total Common Ministry Blog

What We're Saying

Total Common Ministry and Ordination

"is this man sufficiently weak to be a priest?" This interesting question is raised in the Seattle Times by The Rev. Patrick J. Howell, rector of the Jesuit Community at Seattle University. He says the quote originated with Fr Michael Buckley, S.J. in an address to seminarians. Is the man weak enough so that he cannot ward off significant suffering from his life, so that he lives with a certain amount of failure, so that he feels what it is to be an average man. Is there any history of confusion, of self-doubt, of interior anguish? Read more »

Total Common Ministry and Ecclesiastics

Twenty-one of us gathered at St. John's in Olympia on Tuesday to start a detailed study of ecclesiastics. We discovered that term originally involved church architecture and adornment. Maybe that's a bit of a stretch. Our understanding is more current: as relating to a church's organizational structure and formal operating practices. In other words, it's how we relate to all the various parts of the body, how we work together. We formed four study groups to draft descriptions of this. Read more »

Total Common Ministry and Evangelism

Bob Champoux, a member of the diocesan Evangelism Commission and of St. Margaret's, Bellevue, will present a workshop on evangelism for the eight Total Common Ministry churches at their fall meeting at Ascension in Seattle on Nov. 5. He offers a three-point method of (1) getting attention, (2) hospitality when they come, and (3) making existing members part of the evangelism team. Comprehensive and critical? Indeed!
Kim Forman TCM missioner Read more »

The Role of the Baptized

"All baptized people are called to make Christ known as Savior and Lord"  This statement from Page 531 in the Book of Common Prayer is featured today, June 15, in "A Year of Days," by our former PB Edmond Browning.  "When I was in seminary forty years ago, I was taught that a good priest was to be all things to all people," he writes.  "But I didn't know then, as I know now, how important it was to let other people be Christ to me.  Or how effective people would be in being Christ to one another.  That is what the Church is; it is the body of Christ. Read more »

Graduation Time at Christ Church in Anacortes

Christ Church in Anacortes conducted a modified graduation ceremony Sunday, May 29 for their five full-time members of a Ministry Support Circle for TCM.  Congratulations to the five and to the entire parish.  This has been more than three years in the making.  The five "graduates" have been faithful in study, discernment, service and reflection outlined in the TCM curriculum for this diocese.  They each turned over to the bishop's office a detailed portfolio of their work, and they are the first circle to meet this requirement of the Commission On Ministry. Read more »

Welcome to the Total Common Ministry Blog

In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells us "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."  That's a good summary of what Total Common Ministry seeks to achieve.  One major aspect of abundant life surely must be the sense of mission and ministry that TCM encourages for every member.  It involves discerning the gifts God has given us, developing them and sharing them.  So, now we TCMers have this interactive blog medium to share, let's use it.  Let's use it a lot. Read more »

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