From the history of ISSUES

ISSUES, conceived in the living room of the late William Stringfellow, has been around as a voice for social justice at General Conventions since 1967. This year we are sharing  some articles from our history.

    September 10, 1979, Denver

We affirm that the prophetic task of a pilgrim people is a call to constant renewal, a continuing assessment of our values, a questioning of self, an understanding of Tradition as an endless series of new beginnings, every moment (with T. S. Eliot) “a new and shocking evaluation of all we have been.” To be concerned for the issues of renewal in church and society is to explore the corporate and community meanings of conversion. It goes to the roots of our theology, our liturgy, our spirituality. With the gloomy Dane, Soren Kierkegaard, we affirm:

Neither Church nor doctrine is to be reformed. If anything is to be done, it is the reformation of us all. The doctrine of the establishing Church, its organization are both very good. Oh, but our lives --- believe me, they are wretched. 

To be concerned for renewal, we believe, is to understand that the church is called to be a witnessing community of unquestioned integrity, where compassion, and awe, and joy will not distract us from the pain of the world, but will empower us to share in it, and by God’s grace, overcome it.