Journal articles on the topic 'Doctrinal Methodist Church'

AbstractThis article investigates British Methodism's doctrine of the Church in relation to its own ecclesial self-understanding. Methodists approach the doctrine of the Church by reflecting on their 'experience' and 'practice', rather than systematically. The article sketches the cultural and ecclesial context of Methodist ecclesiology before investigating the key sources of British Methodist doctrinal teaching on the Church: the theological legacy of John Wesley; the influence of the non-Wesleyan Methodist traditions as represented by Primitive Methodism; twentieth-century ecumenical developments; and British Methodist Faith and Order statements on the subject. The phenomenon of 'emerging expressions of Church' makes the question of the nature and location of the Church pertinent at the present time for all Christian traditions.

Abstract The doctrinal standards of the Methodist Church in Britain assert a vocation of holiness yet what is unclear is the strategy through which this vocation might be enabled. The author outlines research that describes diverse responses to holiness within one particular British Methodist church. Throughout the article, the author asserts the relational nature of holiness and therefore presents an authentic and effective way for enabling local Methodist churches to engage with their Methodist doctrine through local and rooted relationships joining together in spiritual exploration and sharing in God's ministry.

When the Wesleyan, Primitive and United Methodist Connexions combined in 1932 to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain, much was made of their shared evangelical heritage. The doctrinal clause of the founding Deed of Union affirmed that the Connexion ‘ever remembers that in the Providence of God Methodism was raised up to spread Scriptural Holiness through the land by the proclamation of the Evangelical Faith and declares its unfaltering resolve to be true to its Divinely appointed mission.’

Congregational song occupies a central place in the history of Methodism and offers an insight into the theological, doctrinal, cultural and educational principles and practices of the movement. The repertoire, performance styles and musical preferences in evidence across Methodism at different points in its history reflect the historical influences that shaped it, the frequent tensions that emerged between local practices and the movement's hierarchy and the disputes that led to a proliferation of breakaway groups during the nineteenth century. The focus of this article will be the implicit tension between the evidence of local practice contained within the Illingworth Moor Singers' Book, which forms part of the archives at Mount Zion Methodist Church and Heritage Centre, near Halifax, UK, and the repertoire and performance practice advocated by John Wesley in the latter part of the eighteenth century. While the study of a single, locally produced collection cannot be regarded as representative of wider practices, it is nonetheless useful in highlighting the need for a more nuanced approach to the history of Methodist music, which takes account of local circumstances and practices.

This study was designed to investigate the comparative ego development, religious orientation, and doctrinal beliefs of three Protestant groups: life-long fundamentalists (n=25), fundamentalist converts (n=25), and nonfundamentalist converts (n=25). Subjects from the Southern Baptist Church (fundamentalists) and United Methodist Church (nonfundamentalists) were used. Three instruments were employed: the Wiggins Content Scale of Religious Fundamentalism from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Loevinger's Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development, and Allport's Religious Orientation Scale. The fundamentalist and nonfundamentalist groups were doctrinally different; however, the groups did not differ in levels of ego development. The two fundamentalist groups scored higher on Allport's measure of intrinsic religious orientation. Methodological suggestions were made for future research of fundamentalists.

This essay originated as a contribution to the joint course on eucharistic theology and practice for St Mary's Seminary, Oscott, and The Queen's College in Birmingham. Its purpose was to highlight, in a context in which Roman Catholic, Methodist, United Reformed, and Church of England ordinands were considering divergent approaches to the eucharist, that many of the questions were faced by the Church of England internally because of its doctrinal breadth. The Eucharistic Prayers of The Alternative Service Book 1980, therefore, can almost be regarded as ‘agreed statements’, but in the setting of worship and as a means of worship, and so are worthy to be set alongside purely theological statements such as the Final Report of ARCIC 1 or the WCC document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry as a liturgical contribution to the continuing ecumenical debate.

AbstractThis article argues that gospel hymnody was integral to the construction of modern evangelicalism. Through an analysis of the debate over worship music in three denominations, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Christian Reformed Church, and the Reformed Church in America, from 1890–1940, I reveal how worship music was essential to the negotiation between churchly tradition and practical faith, between institutional authority and popular choice that characterized the twentieth-century “liberal/conservative” divide. While seemingly innocuous, debates over the legitimacy of gospel hymns in congregational worship were a significant aspect of the increasing theological, social, and cultural divisions within denominations as well as between evangelicals more broadly. Gospel hymnody became representative of a newly respectable, nonsectarian, and populist evangelicalism that stressed individualized salvation and personal choice, often putting it at odds with doctrinal orthodoxy and church tradition. These songs fostered an imagined community of conservative evangelicals, one whose formation rested on personal choice and whose authority revolved around a network of nondenominational organizations rather than an institutional body. At the same time, denominational debates about gospel hymnody reveal the fluid nature of the conservative/liberal binary and the complicated relationship between evangelicalism and modernism generally. While characterizations of “liberal” and “conservative” tend to emphasize biblical interpretation, the inclusion of worship music and style complicates this narrow focus. As is evident through the case studies, denominations typically categorized as theologically liberal or conservative also incorporated both traditional and modern elements of worship.

This article explores the way in which early anti-Methodist literature was utilised as a disguise for heterodoxy. It draws particular attention to Thomas Whiston, an Anglican divine, who published a polemic in 1740, entitled The Important Doctrines of Original Sin, Justification by Faith, and Regeneration. Whiston advertised this tract as an attack on the Methodists and their perceived ally, William Law. However, this paper argues that anti-Methodism was merely a smokescreen which enabled Whiston to profess his loyalty to the established Church, while he advanced various heterodox views. Whiston's controversial opinions included his rejection of the Augustinian doctrine of original sin, along with his subtle show of support for the annihilationist views which his uncle, William Whiston, had recently expressed in The Eternity of Hell Torments (1740). Crucially, such views were repugnant, not only to Methodists, but also to numerous High Churchmen who similarly despised evangelical ‘enthusiasm’.

It was the Primitive Christians of the “purest ages” who inspired and encouraged the Methodist leader, John Wesley, to create a movement based on his vision of the ancient Church. Wesley was convinced that Methodist doctrine, discipline, and depth of piety came nearer to the Primitive Church than to any other group. Methodism, he argued in his sermon forLaying the Foundation of the New Chapelin 1777, was the “old religion, the religion of the Bible, the religion of the Primitive Church.”

Abstract This article examines the development of holiness-inspired dissent in Canada by focusing on the Holiness Movement Church, a sect led by Methodist evangelist R.C. Homer and created in opposition to official Methodism in 1895. It investigates the relationship between holiness and Methodism and finds that the Hornerite schism served to discredit the doctrine in the eyes of Methodist leaders. The holiness crisis sheds light on the broad cultural support for the experience, and demonstrates that the pressures placed upon Methodism by dissent were integral to its transformation. The schism reinforced the Holiness Movement's critique of professional elites and the middle class. As such, Hornerism and late nineteenth-century Christian perfectionism can be viewed as part of a broad populist movement intent on defending traditional social values against the forces of modernization.

Methodism … left a stigma on the mind of the eighteenth-century poor whilst helping at the same time to smother the growth of a working-class consciousness. Its doctrines perverted all that was healthy in men’s emotions, its creed was cruel and grim, its view of life bleak and joyless. Its place in society closely resembled that of a malignant tumour.Thus a Sheffield undergraduate essayist, year of 1983. The essayist was Methodist bred. For him liberation lay in bondage to E. P. Thompson, year of 1963. His student vigour is as much to be applauded as his interpretation is to be deplored. For him as for so many much older historians the bold stroke or the broad view has become in fact a sweeping into tunnel vision and the emancipation has become in fact a confirmation of old folk wisdom: Methodism is puritanism is repressive is reprehensible. We come very close to the heart of the present volume’s matter: asceticism, or the attainment of spiritual perfection by means of self-discipline. Or at least we come very close to the heart of the matter as it is vulgarly seen, for although asceticism is not a word which is too frequently applied to English protestant Dissent, its associations with discipline, abstinence and repression are far too frequently so applied.

This article considers whether South Africa’s largest mainline Christian denomination, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, is in danger of embodying or propagating a contemporary form of ‘state theology’. The notion of state theology in the South African context gained prominence through the publication of the ‘Kairos Document’ (1985) – which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2015. State theology is deemed inappropriate and harmful to the identity and work of both the Christian church and the nation state. This article presents its consideration of whether the Methodist Church of Southern Africa is in danger of propagating ‘state theology’ in dialogue with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s important document, <i>Theological Position Paper on State and Church</i>. The article offers some insights into the complex relationship between the state and the church in South Africa in the apartheid and democratic eras. It further problematizes the relationship between the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and the governing African National Congress by citing some concerning examples of complicit behaviour from recent history. The MCSA’s polity and doctrine on church and state relationships are also considered before some critique and warning is offered in the light of Bonhoeffer’s <i>Theological Position Paper on State and Church</i>.

‘From some modern perspectives’, wrote James Belich, a leading historian of New Zealand, in 1996, ‘the evangelicals are hard to like. They dressed like crows; seemed joyless, humourless and sometimes hypocritical; [and] they embalmed the evidence poor historians need to read in tedious preaching’. Similar views have often been expressed in the historiography of Evangelical Protestantism, the subject of this essay. It will cover such disapproving appraisals of the Evangelical past, but because a high proportion of the writing about the movement was by insiders it will have more to say about studies by Evangelicals of their own history. Evangelicals are taken to be those who have placed particular stress on the value of the Bible, the doctrine of the cross, an experience of conversion and a responsibility for activism. They were to be found in the Church of England and its sister provinces of the Anglican communion, forming an Evangelical party that rivalled the high church and broad church tendencies, and also in the denominations that stemmed from Nonconformity in England and Wales, as well as in the Protestant churches of Scotland. Evangelicals were strong, often overwhelmingly so, within Methodism and Congregationalism and among the Baptists and the Presbyterians. Some bodies that arose later on, including the (so-called Plymouth) Brethren, the Churches of Christ and the Pentecostals (the last two primarily American in origin), joined the Evangelical coalition.

Hiram Mattison was fighting mad. Some of the holiness people in the Methodist Episcopal church had pulled a fast one. Early in 1867 the New York Preachers' Meeting had hosted a series of speeches on the question, “What are the best methods for promoting the experience of perfect love?” The discussion had been, in the words of one participant, “lengthy and pungent.” Mattison, a seminary professor and long-time opponent of the holiness movement, had weighed in with his professional theological polemics against the movement's doctrine and methods of promotion. He had expected that all the speeches would be published in a single volume. But the proponents of perfect love surreptitiously had withdrawn their manuscripts from the Methodist book room and had them published and copyrighted on their own. The original plan to publish a two-sided debate had been thus defeated, and the advocates of perfect love had scooped their opposition. What a move for people who professed to have attained Christian perfection, said Mattison. It must have paid well, he added, for three editions had been issued in just a few weeks.

AbstractScholars of American religion are increasingly attentive to material culture as a rich source for the analysis of religious identity and practice that is especially revealing of the relationships among doctrine, bodily comportment, social structures, and innovation. In line with this focus, this article analyses the ways nineteenth-century African American Methodist women turned to dress as a tool to communicate religious and political messages. Though other nineteenth-century Protestants also made use of the communicative powers of dress, African American women did so with a keen awareness of the ways race trumped clothing in the semiotic system of nineteenth-century America. Especially for women entering into public fora as preachers and public speakers, dress could act as a passport to legitimacy in an often hostile setting, but it was not always enough to establish oneself as a Christian lady. Considering the related traditions of plain dress and respectability within the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, this essay finds that AME women cultivated respectability and plainness within discourses of authenticity that tried—with some ambivalence—to use dress as a marker of the true soul beneath the fabric. Based primarily on the autobiographical and journalistic writings of women such as Jarena Lee, Amanda Berry Smith, Hallie Q. Brown, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, as well as accounts from AME publications such as the Christian Recorder and the Church Review, and other church documents, the essay also draws on the work of historians of African American women and historians of dress and material culture. For nineteenth-century AME women, discourses of authenticity could be both a burden and a resource, but either way they were discourses that were often remarkably critical, both of selfmotivation and of cultural markers of class, race, and gender in a world that made a fetish of whiteness.

This article discusses Griffith Jones (1683–1761) an influential Church of England rector in West Wales from 1711, who is usually described as a precursor of Welsh Methodism and Evangelicalism. It refers to an undated, damaged notebook, in the National Library of Wales, containing sermon notes in Jones's own hand. The article seeks to trace the source of his evangelistic outlook, noting his conformist loyalty to the Church of England's doctrine, order and worship. Contrary to the opinion which attributes his pursuit of evangelism, with its seeking of conversions, to supposed Puritan influences, the article shows that the Book of Common Prayer was its inspiration. Preaching is discussed as the predominant component of worship. Jones's thought as a popular evangelist is examined, with reference to the brief sermon outlines in Welsh. The article discusses Jones's view of the defiance of Christian standards and ignorance of the faith, in Wales. Jones's practice was to summon people to faith. He preached this to those within the 'visible' national Church, which included infants, adding a strong demand for moral conformity. His concept of 'membership' was not postEnlightenment voluntarism, but of a statutory and biblical duty. For Griffith Jones the liturgy was not a disincentive to piety, contrary to some Dissenters' misgivings. His wish was for spiritual and moral renewal, not further reformation of Anglican doctrine or practice. He saw catechizing as a means against schismatical vagaries. His famous Circulating Schools reinforced this policy.

This study seeks to look at the meaning and significance of Glossolalia 1 in the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe. 2 This paper has also been influenced by debates surrounding speaking in tongues in most of the Pentecostal churches in general and the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe in particular. It was the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) that brought Pentecostalism to Zimbabwe. 3 The paper situates the phenomenon of glossolalia in the Zimbabwean socio-economic, spiritual, and cultural understanding. The Pentecostal teachings on the meaning and significance of speaking in tongues have caused a stir in psychological, linguistics, sociological, anthropological, ethnographical, philological, cultural, and philosophical debates. Yet those in the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe argue that their concept of glossolalia is biblically rooted. Surprisingly non-glossolalist Christians also use the Bible to dismiss the pneumatic claims by Pentecostals. The emphasis on speaking in tongues in the AFM has rendered Zimbabwean ‘mainline’ churches like Anglicans, Catholics and Methodists as meaningless. This is the same with African Indigenous Churches which have also been painted with ‘fault-lines’, giving an upper hand to AFM in adding up to its ballooning number of followers. This is as a result of their restorationist perspective influenced by the history of the Pentecostal Churches that views all non-Pentecostal churches as having fallen from God's intentions through compromise and sin. The AFM just like other Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe exhibit an aggressive assault and intolerance toward certain aspects of the African culture, which they label as tradition, 4 for example, traditional customs, like paying homage to ancestral spirits (Kurova Guva or bringing back the spirit of the dead ceremony), and marriage customs (polygamy, kusungira or sanctification of the first born ritual). The movement has managed to rid itself of the dominance of the male adults and the floodgates were opened to young men and women, who are the victims of traditional patriarchy. Besides glossolalia being one of the pillars of AFM doctrines, the following also bear some importance: personal testimonies, tithing, church weddings, signs/miracles, evangelism and prosperity theology.

During the nineteenth century, the High Church revival tradition initiated by Henric Schartau (1757-1825) was widely spread and accepted in western Sweden. According to Bishop Wordsworth of Salisbury, Schartau ‘had something of the character of Dr. Pusey in his relation to those who consulted him, but, in his position at Lund, and his general influence, he was perhaps more like his English contemporary, Charles Simeon (1759-1836), at Cambridge’. Wordsworth found great merit in his teaching, being ‘strong and spiritual, and without the defects of Moravian or Pietistic sentimentality’. During his Scandinavian journey in 1889, Randall Davidson characterized the followers of Schartau as a High Church party in their emphasis on private confession and their strict rules of conduct. On the other hand he found them to be zealous about the Sabbath, and preaching conversion in a quasi-Methodist way. Here, we shall study this movement through the examples of three women of urban culture. The Schartau tradition has been studied mainly with emphasis on its doctrines and clergy, and as a rural tradition connected to the unchanging values and structures of the old rural society. Through these examples of urban women, the general impact of the tradition is widened, and the emphasis is put on the changes in reception of the tradition among lay people in a changing society.

Sovereignty ought to be a natural concept for Christians whose rhetoric is full of words or collections of words like ‘Lord’ or ‘King’ or ‘Kingdom’ or ‘Crown Rights of the Redeemer’. It ought to be doubly natural for the Christian inhabitants of an earthly kingdom whose monarch protects a national church. In fact, ‘sovereignty’ is not a word which comes trippingly to ordinary Christian lips, and it is a religious concept as fraught with theological ambiguity for Christians as it is a political concept fraught with secular ambiguity for citizens. Indeed, for British Christians and citizens the ambiguities merge. For a Roman Catholic who recently edited The Times, ‘Liberty puts the individual in command of his own decisions; his vote is the ultimate political sovereign in a democracy; his purchase is the ultimate economic sovereign in a free market.’ For a critic of the Methodist-turned-Anglican who was Prime Minister when that was written, ‘Where the Church of England lists thirty-nine essential articles of faith, Mrs Thatcher names three: the belief in the doctrine of Free-Will; in the divinely created sovereignty of individual conscience; and in the Crucifixion and Redemption as the exemplary, supreme act of choice.’ Yet to a political journalist, interpreting the same Prime Minister’s view of British sovereignty as opposed to any Western European understanding, it seems that Parliament alone is sovereign: ‘no citizen or subordinate authority can have any unalienable rights against the state, which can lend out power to groups or individuals but never give it away.’ Whose vote then is ultimate political sovereign? Whose conscience then is divinely-created sovereign?

This article surveys passages from the writings of Hippolytus, Cyprian, Methodius, Lactantius and Alexander of Alexandria with a view to elucidating their implied understanding of the significance of the death of Christ on the cross. It is argued that the authors whose works are reviewed held the belief that Christ died in our place, bearing the punishment for sin we deserved, with the result that those who trust in him might receive forgiveness, eternal life, and all the other blessings of salvation. The evidence adduced in this article, together with that adduced in the previous articles on Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian, combine to show that the doctrine of penal substitution was not an invention of the Protestant Reformation, as has recently been alleged, but was present already in the thinking of the Church during the post-apostolic period.

Abstract: Under the royalist model - which perpetuated the right of patronage and the Catholicism condition as the official religion of the Brazilian Empire - the clergy and laity who entered the new constitutional phase, occupying a prominent place in the representative sphere, discussed plural issues, including the theme of ""religious freedom", differently treated by representatives of the regalist and ultra-mountain Catholicism. Considering the historicity behaved for appropriation of the doctrines and the institutionalized practices that structure the religious field, this article analyzes a particular controversy, which polarized regalists and ultramountinists in the regency period: the arrival of Protestants in Brazil. It particularly examines the publications of two ultra-mountain publicist priests who stood out as the main opposition to the arrival of Methodists in Brazil: Luis Gonçalves dos Santos - nicknamed "Father Perereca"- and William Paul Tilbury, English priest who had emigrated to Brazil and here changed his name to Guilherme Paulo Tilbury. From a theoretical point of view, it relies on the pertinence of Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical tools, when dealing with the configuration of the "religious field" in Brazil in the first half of the nineteenth century, revealing the nature of disputes over symbolic capital, interwoven with alternative models of the relationship between State and Church.

In the several decades after their arrival in the New England states in the late 1780s, Methodists were the objects of a wide variety of attacks, some of them mutually contradictory. Their preachers were accused of being pickpockets, horse thieves, and sexual predators, while on the other hand some converts were mocked for their excessive moral seriousness. They were suspected alternatively of being agents of the English crown, spies for the French government, and Jeffersonian radicals. Further, to some it seemed that their episcopal form of government and ecclesiastical tribunals functioned as a sort of shadow government undermining the political institutions of the nation. They were attacked for their Arminian theology, in defense of which they vigorously condemned Calvinist doctrine. They were mocked as enthusiasts and fanatics whose preachers, pretending to an immediate divine calling, inflamed the passions of their listeners and whose gatherings degenerated into bedlams of disorder, confusion, and moral scandal. They were disturbers of churches, transgressing parochial boundaries, sowing disorder, and fracturing the covenant relationship between minister and flock, all of which recalled memories of the upheaval accompanying the awakenings of the 1740s. They were unlearned rustics not fit to instruct people in divinity, but they were also sly enough to worm their way into the hearts and minds of people by shrewdly hiding their true intentions and prejudicing their hearers against the standing ministers.

It may seem that the main goal of the parable of the lost sheep (Mt 18, 12-14; Lk 15, 4-7) is to make us aware how much God loves sinners and how deeply He wants to regain them. The Fathers of the Church, of course, knew that kind of interpretation, nevertheless very early in history they started to apply a com­pletely different explanation to the lost and found sheep. Already in the 2nd cen­tury we can find the statement that the sheep is not a single sinner but the entire human nature, which got lost through the original sin committed by Adam and was found and renewed thanks to the incarnation of God’s Son. In the Antiquity, it was universally believed that human life had a common dimension. That belief was a great part of ancient philosophy as well as the biblical tradition. Some of the Fathers understood the communion even deeper than others as they imagined the humanity as a living organic entity. The concept of the ontological unity of human nature was developed mostly by three Fathers: Irenaeus (2nd century), Methodius of Olympus (died c. 311) and Gregory of Nyssa (died c. 394). All three of them used the parable of the lost sheep as an example that could explain this doctrine. Besides, two more Fathers, Origen and Ambrose of Milan, spoke about the unity of the humanity when they explained the parable of the lost sheep, though their interpretation of this unity is completely different. However all five Fathers have something in common, which allows me to compare their deliberations on the parable together.

During the Middle Ages on the Eastern Orthodox Church territories there existed an encyclopedia book, entitled the Palaea Interpretata that was extremely popular and highly respected. The current paper studies one of the Biblical sources of The Palaea Interpretata – namely, the collection of selected psalms, entitled “David’s Prophesies” (давидъ же прорицаше). The discussion is focused on the compiler’s placing of the collection in The Palaea, in the part dedicated to David (i.e. after the excerpts from the First and Second Books of Samuel and before the First Book of Kings). David’s Prophesies belonged to the original content of The Palaea Interpretata. They had one major goal – to represent the Old Testament as a prototype of the New Testament and to prove the superiority of the Christian doctrine over the non-Christian ones. The Compiler of The Palaea Interpretata chose various psalms or parts of psalms, dividing them into twenty five orations with respective titles. To trace the editing performed over the Psalter text the current article draws a parallel with the text of seven psalters from the 11th–16th centuries. It establishes the greatest resemblance with the Bychkov Psalter of the 11th century, which reflects the Preslav version of the Psalter translation. At the same time, it becomes obvious that “David’ Prophesies” of The Palaea Interpretata have also retained many of the peculiarities of the primary translation of the Psalter as reflected in Sinai Glagolitic Psalter. The Glagolitic traces are to be found in the very text of “David’s Prophesies” of The Palaea Interpretata, which obviously derive from the psalter, serving as their source and protograph. The source was of relatively old origin; it contained traces of Glagolitic letters, and reflected the Psalter’s primary translation into Old Bulgarian by Cyril and Methodius, which had been edited in Preslav.

During the Middle Ages on the Eastern Orthodox Church territories there existed an encyclopedia book, entitled the Palaea Interpretata that was extremely popular and highly respected. The current paper studies one of the Biblical sources of The Palaea Interpretata – namely, the collection of selected psalms, entitled “David’s Prophesies” (давидъ же прорицаше). The discussion is focused on the compiler’s placing of the collection in The Palaea, in the part dedicated to David (i.e. after the excerpts from the First and Second Books of Samuel and before the First Book of Kings). David’s Prophesies belonged to the original content of The Palaea Interpretata. They had one major goal – to represent the Old Testament as a prototype of the New Testament and to prove the superiority of the Christian doctrine over the non-Christian ones. The Compiler of The Palaea Interpretata chose various psalms or parts of psalms, dividing them into twenty five orations with respective titles. To trace the editing performed over the Psalter text the current article draws a parallel with the text of seven psalters from the 11th–16th centuries. It establishes the greatest resemblance with the Bychkov Psalter of the 11th century, which reflects the Preslav version of the Psalter translation. At the same time, it becomes obvious that “David’ Prophesies” of The Palaea Interpretata have also retained many of the peculiarities of the primary translation of the Psalter as reflected in Sinai Glagolitic Psalter. The Glagolitic traces are to be found in the very text of “David’s Prophesies” of The Palaea Interpretata, which obviously derive from the psalter, serving as their source and protograph. The source was of relatively old origin; it contained traces of Glagolitic letters, and reflected the Psalter’s primary translation into Old Bulgarian by Cyril and Methodius, which had been edited in Preslav.

Models of relations between the state and religious organizations and the basic principles of their implementation are analyzed with the aim to determine which model of relations is being realized in the Republic of Latvia as well as to establish whether a model of relations, secured by a normative act, corresponds to the one implemented in practice. Within this work, the method of analysis has been used when considering the models of relations between the state and religious organizations, as well as the comparative method in the comparison of application of the basic principles of these models in the Republic of Latvia. The relations between the State and religious organizations are examined from the administratively legal and constitutionally legal aspect. The normative acts of the Republic of Latvia are discussed, as well as their mutual interaction and the collisions having sprung up between them. Laws and regulations of the Republic of Latvia are evaluated in connection with the norms of other European Union Member States, which regulate the relations between the state and religious organizations, and their experience. Evaluating the practice of other countries and the implemented models of relations between the state and religious organizations monographs and scientific papers by the scientists of the respective countries have been used. The content of international legal norms regulating freedom of religion have been analyzed as well as the requirements of the normative acts of the Republic of Latvia and their interaction. As grounds for conclusions, rulings by the court are chosen in cases where the application of legal norms is adjudicated concerning the realization of the right to the freedom of religion. Three fundamental principles are pointed out in the research basing on which the relations between the state and religious organizations are formed: association between the state and religious organizations, cooperation between the state and religious organizations and segregation between the state and religious organizations. Basing on the abovementioned principles, all models of relations between the state and religious organizations are formed. The model being implemented in a state can be determined by the regulation of the activity of religious organizations ensured with normative acts, by the range of rights of religious organizations, by peculiar features of preconditions, by the range of privileges, and by the burden of responsibilities imposed on religious organizations. To a large extent, the model of relations between the state and religious organizations depends on state traditions, historical development, distribution and impact of the definite religion within the state territory. The principle of unity between the state and religious organizations indicate the unity between them, institutions of religious organizations are identified as state institutions. Implementation of the abovementioned principle can manifest as an absolute unity between the state and church when state laws are based on definite religious norms and, in case of collisions, the principles of religious doctrine are applied. Or, within the abovementioned principle, two models of relations can be distinguished: a model of religious state and a model of state religion (church). The principle of cooperation between the state and religious organizations provides for separation of the state and religious organizations, they are functioning as autonomous subjects, religious organizations form their own structure and define their inner administration, the state on its part does not interfere in the inner affairs of religious organizations. Nevertheless, the state and religious organizations cooperate in order to achieve definite aims. Such a model of cooperation can be called the model of cooperation. In countries where the principle of separation of the state and religious organizations is in force and the model of segregation is functioning, the autonomy of religious organizations and the state are strictly separated. Each of these subjects is functioning in its own sphere, in parallel to one another. Religious organizations are not vested the rights to perform the functions of the state, and they do not receive financial support. Registration of a religious organization is the starting point where the activities of the state and of religious organizations come into contact. Registration of a religious organization is a basis for the model of relations between the state and religious organizations to be implemented in the given country. In the Republic of Latvia, the process of registration of religious organizations is regulated by the Law on Religious Organizations which provides for the order of registration of religious organizations as well as the legal status of the religious organizations to be registered; registration has a multi-stage structure. Initially, a congregation is registered as reregistrable, but later it acquires a regular status and after uniting the congregations can form a religious union (church). Religious unions (churches) have the right to establish dioceses and institutions. The next step in the mentioned chain includes religious organizations whose relations with the Republic of Latvia can be regulated by special laws. The State has established special relations with Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Old Believer, Methodist, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist and Moses faith (Judaist) denominations. These denominations have a peculiar status in the Republic of Latvia, the range of their rights differs from the rights of other congregations. Relations between the religious unions (churches) of these denominations and the State are regulated by special laws that define their rights and status. The Latvian Constitution (Satversme) contains a reference to the model of relations between the Republic of Latvia and religious organizations providing that the State is separated from the church. Evaluation of the features of a model of separation and its application to the relations between the Republic of Latvia and religious organizations allows to determine whether the implemented model is a model of separation or whether the relations between the State and religious organizations realized in practice belong to quite another model. The requirement for autonomy of religious organizations and the State can be regarded as satisfied, since the demand for non-interference by the State in the inner activities of religious organizations (except for the cases of violating laws) is included in the Law on Religious Organizations. Separation of religious organizations from the public rights sector presently is not being implemented. In state schools there are religious instruction lessons, religious organizations carry out religious activity in medical institutions and prisons, a service of chaplains has been established whose activity is funded from the state budget. Equality of the forms of activity of religious organizations is not guaranteed, since there exists a multi-stage registration system. A state function of performing marriage ceremonies is delegated to religious organizations. Thus, state functions are delegated to religious organizations. Besides the religious organizations are offered direct and indirect financial support which manifests in allotting tax relief as well as allocating direct grants from the state budget. The model having been established in the Republic of Latvia is a model of cooperation between the State and religious organizations. In the Constitution no state religion is provided but also no segregation of the State and religious organizations is realized. The State acknowledges the autonomy of religious organizations, however, the religious organizations receive financial support, definite functions are delegated to them, and religious organizations are operating in the public sector. Satversme lacks provisions that would truly provide that no state church exists in Latvia, but at the same time definite procedures and operations are being delegated to the church as stated by the law. The idea of amending the Satversme of the Republic of Latvia ought to be considered that would contain the provision about the model of cooperation between the State and religious organizations being realized in practice.

Scholarship on the protection of religious rights and freedoms in the context of religious associations in South Africa has gained in momentum since the decision by the Equality Court in Johan Daniel Strydom v Nederduitse Gereformeerde Gemeente Moreleta Park some years ago. Emanating from this were diverse scholarly insights on what the parameters of religious associations should be, with specific focus on sexual conduct, religious doctrine and membership of religious associations. The South African judiciary has not been confronted with a similar challenge since the decision. However, with the advent of the judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Ecclesia De Lange v The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa in 2014, questions as to the parameters of the rights of religious associations in the context of sexual conduct and religious doctrine again present themselves. This article consequently analyses the mentioned judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal to further an understanding of the parameters of associational rights of religious institutions against the background of a truly plural and democratic society, as supported by the Constitution of South Africa.

Being the church in Africa requires a continuous self-assessment by Christian denominations, asking whether it is sufficiently contextualised both in its doctrines and practices. This self-critique is essential so as to not perpetuate negative colonial influences in the way churches operate. The Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) has a rich history of challenging itself to become truly instrumental in working towards ‘A Christ-healed Africa for the healing of the nations’. This article explores the history of the MCSA’s engagement with its doctrine and practices of ordination, its journey of decolonisation and its presentation of an emerging Africanised theology of the presbytery.

The doctrine and practices of ordination in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) trace their origins from the Wesleyan Methodist Church. These initially adopted ordination practices proved to be culturally incongruent with ministry in the southern African context, raising the question as to whether the MCSA has made sufficient adaptations in its doctrine and practices to be culturally attuned to its context. Using a theoretical literary study, the article traces the colonial heritage of the doctrine of ordination and defines significant shifts and influences in the decolonisation and Africanisation of ordination in the MCSA. This article argues that while there have been significant changes, the doctrine and practices of ordination require further shifts to represent a truly African church.

Salvation: from Pelagius to Joseph Smith Every Christian church believes that she is a true church and proclaims that man can be saved and has eternal life. This dogma of salvation is usually based on the Bible as the Word of God. Mormons claim that Joseph Smith, founder and first president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, received a divine message to restore the church that Jesus had started. In studying the plan of salvation the Mormons proclaim it is quite clear that that way of salvation was not restored in their church, but that it followed a pattern of false doctrine that was revealed time and again in history. The core of their preaching of salvation is that man has the free will to choose his own salvation. Mormons are not the first to preach this message. This article will show that Pelagius oisty-kated the free will of man. In the Reformation the Anabaptists preached the same message, being a third movement next to the reformed and Roman Catholic believes. The Anabaptists became part of the churches of the Netherlands and at the Synod of Dordt the theology of the free will was rejected and answered. The dogma of the free will of man did not end at this Synod: 150 years later John Wesley preached the same message of salvation during his and Whitefield’s campaigns at the dawn of the nineteenth century in the USA. During this time Joseph Smith started to seek the true church and founded the Mormon Church. Although his theology differs quite strongly from the Methodist Church in which he grew up, the core of the way of salvation is the same: man has free will in choosing his salvation.

The use of the term authenticity in the social science literature can be rather eclectic at best and unscrupulous at worst. (Vanini, 74)We live in an age of authenticity, according to Charles Taylor, an era which prizes the finding of one’s life “against the demands of external conformity” (67–68). Taylor’s argument is that, correctly practiced, authenticity need not result in individualism or tribalism but rather a generation of people “made more self-responsible” (77).Philip Vanini has surveyed the turn toward authenticity in sociology. He has parsed the word authenticity, and argued that it has been used in three ways—factual, original, and sincere. A failure to attend to these distinctives, mixed with a “paucity of systematic empirical research” has resulted in abstract speculation (75). This article responds to Taylor’s analysis and Vanini’s challenge.My argument utilises Vanini’s theoretical frame—authenticity as factual, original, and sincere—to analyse empirical data gathered in the study of recent religious innovation occurring amongst a set of (“alternative worship”) Christian communities in the United Kingdom. I am drawing upon longitudinal research I have conducted, including participant observation in digital forums from 1997 to the present, along with semi-structured interviews conducted in the United Kingdom in 2001 and 2012.A study of “alternative worship” was deemed significant given such communities’s interaction with contemporary culture, including their use of dance music, multi-media, and social media (Baker, Taylor). Such approaches contrast with other contemporary religious approaches to culture, including a fundamentalist retreat from culture or the maintenance of a “high” culture, and thus inherited patterns of religious expression (Roberts).I argue that the discourse of “alternative worship” deploy authenticity-as-originality as essential to their identity creation. This notion of authenticity is used by these communities to locate themselves culturally (as authentically-original in contemporary cultures), and thus simultaneously to define themselves as marginal from mainstream religious expression.Intriguingly, a decade later, “alternative worship” was appropriated by the mainstream. A new organisation—Fresh Expressions—emerged from within the Church of England, and the Methodist Church in Britain that, as it developed, drew on “alternative worship” for legitimation. A focus on authenticity provides a lens by which to pay particular attention to the narratives offered by social organisations in the processes of innovation. How did the discourse deployed by Fresh Expressions in creating innovation engage “alternative worship” as an existing innovation? How did these “alternative worship” groups, who had found generative energy in their location as an alternative—authentically-original—expression, respond to this appropriation by mainstream religious life?A helpful conversation partner in teasing out the complexity of these moves within contemporary religious innovation is Sarah Thornton. She researched trends in dance clubs, and rave music in Britain, during a similar time period. Thornton highlighted the value of authenticity, which she argued was deployed in club cultures to create “subcultural capital” (98-105). She further explored how the discourses around authenticity were appropriated over time through the complex networks within which popular culture flows (Bennett; Collins; Featherstone; McRobbie; Willis).This article will demonstrate that a similar pattern—using authenticity-as-originality to create “subcultural capital”—was at work in “alternative worship.” Further, the notions of authenticity as factual, original, and sincere are helpful in parsing the complex networks that exist within the domains of religious cultures. This analysis will be two-fold, first as the mainstream appropriates, and second as the “alternative” responds.Thornton emerged “post-Birmingham.” She drew on the scholarship associated with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, glad of their turn toward popular culture. Nevertheless she considered her work to be distinct. Thornton posited the construction of “taste cultures” through distinctions created by those inside a particular set of signs and symbols. She argued for a networked view of society, one that recognised the complex roles of media and commerce in constructing distinctions and sought a more multi-dimensional frame by which to analyse the interplay between mainstream and marginal.In order to structure my investigation, I am suggesting three stages of development capture the priority, yet complexity, of authenticity in contemporary religious innovation: generation, appropriation, complexification.Generation of Authenticity-as-OriginalityThornton (26, italics original) writes:authenticity is arguably the most important value ascribed to popular music … Music is perceived as authentic when it rings true or feels real, when it has credibility and comes across as genuine. In an age of endless representations and global mediation, the experience of musical authenticity is perceived as a cure both for alienation … and dissimulation.Thornton is arguing that in this manifestation of youth culture, authenticity is valued. Further, authenticity is a perception, attached to phrases like “rings true” and “feels real.” Therefore, authenticity is hard to measure. Perhaps this move is deliberate, an attempt by those inside the “taste culture” to preserve their “subcultural capital,”—their particular sets of distinctions.Thornton’s use of authentic slides between authenticity-as-sincerity and authenticity-as-originality. For example, in the above quote, the language of “true” and “real” is a referencing of authenticity-as-sincerity. However, as Thornton analysed the appropriation of club culture by the mainstream, she is drawing, without stating it clearly, on both authenticity-as-sincerity and authenticity-as-originality.At around the time that Thornton was analysing club cultures, a number of Christian religious groups in the United Kingdom began to incorporate features of club culture into their worship services. Churches began to experiment with services beginning at club times (9.00 pm), the playing of dance music, and the use of “video-jockeying.” According to Roberts many of these worshipping communities “had close links to this movement in dance culture” (15).A discourse of authenticity was used to legitimise such innovation. Consider the description of one worship experience, located in Sheffield, England, known as Nine o’Clock Service (Fox 9-10, italics original).We enter a round, darkened room where there are forty-two television sets and twelve large video screens and projections around the walls—projections of dancing DNA, dancing planets and galaxies and atoms … this was a very friendly place for a generation raised on television and images … these people … are doing it themselves and in the center of the city and in the center of their society: at worship itself.This description makes a number of appeals to authenticity. The phrase “a generation raised on television and images” implies another generation not raised in digitally rich environments. A “subcultural” distinction has been created. The phrase “doing it themselves” suggests that this ‘digital generation’ creates something distinct, an authentic expression of their “taste culture.” The celebration of “doing it for themselves” resonates with Charles Taylor’s analysis of an age of authenticity in which self-discovery is connected with artistic creation (62).The Nine o’Clock Service gained nationwide attention, attracting attendances of over 600 young people. Rogerson described it as “a bold and imaginative attempt at contextual theology … people were attracted to it in the first instance for aesthetic and cultural reasons” (51). The priority on the aesthetic and the cultural, in contrast to the doctrinal, suggests a valuing of authenticity-as-originality.Reading Rogerson alongside Taylor teases out a further nuance in regard to the application of authenticity. Rogerson described the Nine o’Clock Service as offering “an alternative way of living in a materialist and acquisitive world” (50). This resonates with Charles Taylor’s argument that authenticity can be practiced in ways that make people “more self-responsible” (77). It suggests that the authenticity-as-originality expressed by the Nine o’Clock Service not only appealed culturally, but also offered an ethic of authenticity. We will return to this later in my argument.Inspired by the Nine o’Clock Service, other groups in the United Kingdom began to offer a similar experience. According to Adrian Riley (6):The Nine O’clock Service … was the first worshipping community to combine elements of club culture with passionate worship … It pioneered what is commonly known as “alternative worship” … Similar groups were established themselves albeit on a smaller scale.The very term “alternative worship” is significant. Sociologist of religion Abby Day argued that “boundary-marking [creates] an identity” (50). Applying Day, the term “alternative” is being used to create an identity in contrast to the existing, mainstream church. The “digitally rich” are indeed “doing it for themselves.” To be “alternative” is to be authentically-original: to be authentically-original means a participant cannot, by definition, be mainstream.Thornton argued that subcultures needed to define themselves against in order to maintain themselves as “hip” (119). This seems to describe the use of the term “alternative.” Ironically, the mainstream is needed, in order to define against, to create identity by being authentically-original (Kelly).Hence the following claim by an “alternative worship” organiser (Interview G, 2001):People were willing to play around and to say, well who knows what will happen if we run this video clip or commercial next to this sixteenth century religious painting and if we play, you know, Black Flag or some weird band underneath it … And what will it feel like? Well let’s try it and see.Note the link with music (Black Flag, an American hard core punk band formed in 1976), so central to Thornton’s understanding of authenticity in popular youth cultures. Note also the similarity between Thornton’s ascribing of value in words like “rings true” and “feels real,” with words like “feel like” and “try and see.” The word “weird” is also significant. It is deployed as a signifier of authenticity, a sign of “subcultural capital.” It positions them as “alternative,” defined in (musical) distinction from the mainstream.In sum, my argument is that authenticity-as-originality is present in “alternative worship”: in the name, in the ethos of “doing it themselves,” and in the deploying of “subcultural capital” in the legitimation of innovation. All of this has been clarified through conversation with Thornton’s empirical research regarding the value of authenticity in club culture. My analysis of “alternative worship” as a religious innovation is consistent with Taylor’s claim that we inhabit an age of authenticity, one that can be practiced by “people who are made more self-responsible” (77).Mainstream AppropriationIn 2004, the Church of England produced Mission Shaped Church (MSC), a report regarding its future. It included a chapter that described recent religious innovation in England, grouped under twelve headings (alternative worship and base ecclesial communities, café, cell, network and seeker church models, multiple and mid week congregations, new forms of traditional churches, school and community-based initiatives, traditional church plants, youth congregations). The first innovation listed is “alternative worship.”The incoming Archbishop, Rowan Williams, drew on MSC to launch a new organisation. Called Fresh Expressions, over five million pounds was provided by the Church of England to fund an organisation to support this religious innovation.Intriguingly, recognition of authenticity in these “alternative” innovations was evident in the institutional discourse being created. When I interviewed Williams, he spoke of his commitment as a Bishop (Interview 6, 2012):I decided to spend a certain amount of quality time with people on the edge. Consequently when I was asked initially what are my priorities [as Archbishop] I said, “Well, this is what I’ve been watching on the edge … I really want to see how that could impact on the Church of England as a whole.In other words, what was marginal, what had until then generated identity by being authentic in contrast to the mainstream, was now being appropriated by the mainstream “to impact on the Church of England as a whole.” MSC was aware of this complexity. “Alternative worship” was described as containing “a strong desire to be different and is most vocal in its repudiation of existing church” (45). Nevertheless, it was appropriated by the mainstream.My argument has been that “alternative worship” drew on a discourse of authenticity-as-originality. Yet when we turn to analyse mainstream appropriation, we find the definitions of authenticity begin to slide. Authenticity-as-originality is affirmed, while authenticity-as-sincerity is introduced. The MSC affirmed the “ways in which the Church of England has sought to engage with the diverse cultures and networks that are part of contemporary life” (80). It made explicit the connection between originality and authenticity. “Some pioneers and leaders have yearned for a more authentic way of living, being, doing church” (80). This can be read as an affirmation of authenticity-as-originality.Yet MSC also introduced authenticity-as-sincerity as a caution to authenticity-as-originality. “Fresh expressions should not be embraced simply because they are popular and new, but because they are a sign of the work of God and of the kingdom” (80). Thus Fresh Expressions introduced authenticity-as-sincerity (sign of the work of God) and placed it alongside authenticity-as-originality. In so doing, in the shift from “alternative worship” to Fresh Expressions, a space is both conflated (twelve expressions of church) and contested (two notions of authenticity). Conflated, because MSC places alternative worship as one innovation alongside eleven others. Contested because of the introduction of authenticity-as-sincerity alongside the affirming of authenticity-as-originality. What is intriguing is to return to Taylor’s argument for the possibility of an ethic of authenticity in which “people are made more self-responsible” (77). Perhaps the response in MSC arises from the concern described by Taylor, the risk in an age of authenticity of a society that is more individualised and tribal (55-6). To put it in distinctly ecclesiological terms, how can the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic be carried forward if authenticity-as-originality is celebrated at, and by, the margins? Does innovation contribute to more atomised, self-absorbed and fragmented expressions of church?Yet Taylor is adamant that authenticity can be embraced without an inevitable slide in these directions. He argued that humans share a "horizon of significance" in common (52), in which one’s own "identity crucially depends on [one’s] dialogical relations with others" (48). We have already considered Rogerson’s claim that the Nine o’Clock Service offered “an alternative way of living in a materialist and acquisitive world” (50). It embraced a “strong political dimension, and a concern for justice at local and international level” (46). In other words, “alternative worship’s” authenticity-as-originality was surely already an expression of “the kingdom,” one in which “people [were] made more self-responsible” (77) in the sharing of (drawing on Taylor) a "horizon of significance" in the task of identity-formation-in-relationships (52).Yet the placing in MSC of authenticity-as-sincerity alongside authenticity-as-originality could easily have been read by those in “alternative worship” as a failure to recognise their existing practicing of the ethic of authenticity, their embodying of “the kingdom.”Consequent ComplexificationMy research into “alternative worship” is longitudinal. After the launch of Fresh Expressions, I included a new set of interview questions, which sought to clarify how these “alternative worship” communities were impacted upon by the appropriation of “alternative worship” by the mainstream. The responses can be grouped into three categories: minimal impact, a sense of affirmation and a contested complexity.With regard to minimal impact, some “alternative worship” communities perceived the arrival of Fresh Expressions had minimal impact on their shared expression of faith. The following quote was representative: “Has had no impact at all actually. Apart from to be slightly puzzled” (Interview 3, 2012).Others found the advent of Fresh Expressions provided a sense of affirmation. “Fresh expressions is … an enabling concept. It was very powerful” (Focus group 2, 2012). Respondents in this category felt that their innovations within alternative worship had contributed to, or been valued by, the innovation of Fresh Expressions. Interestingly, those whose comments could be grouped in this category had significant “subcultural capital” invested in this mainstream appropriation. Specifically, they now had a vocational role that in some way was connected to Fresh Expressions. In using the term “subcultural capital” I am again drawing on Thornton (98–105), who argued that in the complex networks through which culture flows, certain people, for example DJ’s, have more influence in the ascribing of authenticity. This suggests that “subcultural” capital is also present in religious innovation, with certain individuals finding ways to influence, from the “alternative worship” margin, the narratives of authenticity used in the complex interplay between alternative worship and Fresh Expressions.For others the arrival of Fresh Expressions had resulted in a contested complexity. The following quote was representative: “It’s a crap piece of establishment branding …but then we’re just snobs” (Focus group 3, 2012). This comment returns us to my initial framing of authenticity-as-originality. I would argue that “we’re just snobs” has a similar rhetorical effect as “Black Flag or some weird band.” It is an act of marginal self-location essential in the construction of innovation and identity.This argument is strengthened given the fact that the comment was coming from a community that itself had become perhaps the most recognizable “brand” among “alternative worship.” They have developed their own logo, website, and related online merchandising. This would suggest the concern is not the practice of marketing per se. Rather the concern is that it seems “crap” in relation to authenticity-as-originality, in a loss of aesthetic quality and a blurring of the values of innovation and identity as it related to bold, imaginative, aesthetic, and cultural attempts at contextual theology (Rogerson 51).Returning to Thornton, her research was also longitudinal in that she explored what happened when a song from a club, which had defined itself against the mainstream and as “hip,” suddenly experienced mainstream success (119). What is relevant to this investigation into religious innovation is her argument that in club culture, “selling out” is perceived to have happened only when the marginal community “loses its sense of possession, exclusive ownership and familiar belonging” (124–26).I would suggest that this is what is happening within “alternative worship” in response to the arrival of Fresh Expressions. Both “alternative worship” and Fresh Expressions are religious innovations. But Fresh Expressions defined itself in a way that conflated the space. It meant that the boundary marking so essential to “alternative worship” was lost. Some gained from this. Others struggled with a loss of imaginative and cultural creativity, a softening of authenticity-as-originality.More importantly, the discourse around Fresh Expressions also introduced authenticity-as-sincerity as a value that could be used to contest authenticity-as-originality. Whether intended or not, this also challenged the ethic of authenticity already created by these “alternative worship” communities. Their authenticity-as-originality was already a practicing of an ethic of authenticity. They were already sharing a "horizon of significance" with humanity, entering into “dialogical relations with others" that were a contemporary expression of the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic (Taylor 52, 48). ConclusionIn this article I have analysed the discourse around authenticity as it is manifest within one strand of contemporary religious innovation. Drawing on Vanini, Taylor, and Thornton, I have explored the generative possibilities as media and culture are utilised in an “alternative worship” that is authentically-original. I have outlined the consequences when authenticity-as-originality is appropriated by the mainstream, specifically in the innovation known as Fresh Expressions and the complexity when authenticity-as-sincerity is introduced as a contested value.The value of authenticity has been found to exist in a complex relationship with the ethics of authenticity within one domain of contemporary religious innovation.ReferencesBaker, Jonny. “Alternative Worship and the Significance of Popular Culture.” Honours paper: U of London, 2000.Bennett, Andy. Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity, and Place. New York: Palgrave, 2000.Cronshaw, Darren, and Steve Taylor. “The Congregation in a Pluralist Society: Rereading Newbigin for Missional Churches Today.” Pacifica: Australasian Theological Studies 27.2 (2014): 1-24.Day, Abby. Believing in Belonging. Belief and Social Identity in the Modern World. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011.Collins, Jim, ed. High-Pop. Making Culture into Popular Entertainment. Oxford: Blackwells, 2002.Cray, Graham. Mission-Shaped Church: Church Planting and Fresh Expressions of Church in a Changing Culture, London: Church House Publishing, 2004.Featherstone, Mike. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage, 1991.Fox, Matthew. Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1996.Guest, Matthew, and Steve Taylor. “The Post-Evangelical Emerging Church: Innovations in New Zealand and the UK.” International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 6.1 (2006): 49-64.Howard, Roland. The Rise and Fall of the Nine o’Clock Service. London: Continuum, 1996.Kelly, Gerard. Get a Grip on the Future without Losing Your Hold in the Past. Great Britain: Monarch, 1999.Kelly, Steven. “Book Review. Alt.Culture by Steven Daly and Nathaniel Wice.” 20 Aug. 2003. ‹http://www.richmondreview.co.uk/books/cult.html›.McRobbie, Angela. Postmodernism and Popular Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.Riley, Adrian. God in the House: UK Club Culture and Spirituality. 1999. 15 Oct. 2003 ‹http://www.btmc.org.auk/altworship/house/›.Roberts, Paul. Alternative Worship in the Church of England. Cambridge: Grove Books, 1999.Rogerson, J. W. “‘The Lord Is here’: The Nine o’Clock Service.” Why Liberal Churches Are Growing. Eds. Ian Markham and Martyn Percy. London: Bloomsbury T & T, 2006. 45-52.Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992.Taylor, Steve. “Baptist Worship and Contemporary Culture: A New Zealand Case Study.” Interfaces: Baptists and Others. Eds. David Bebbington and Martin Sutherland. Carlisle: Paternoster, 2013. 292-307.Thornton, Sarah. Club Cultures. Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Hanover: UP New England, 1996.Vanini, Philip. “Authenticity.” Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture. Ed. Dale Southerton. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011. 74-76.Willis, Paul E., et al. Common Culture. Symbolic Work at Play in the Everyday Cultures of the Young. Milton Keynes: Open UP, 1990.