vocation

[ProdigalSeeker]

I am considering joining a religious order and was looking for info. I grew up methodist & am now elca, but it seems like our traditions through the baby out with the bathwater during the reformation. Does anyone know of orders that would accept and elca member? I've found a couple that don't require celibacy. I am looking to live communally for a while. Perhaps there is a place where believers just live and worship together? Thanks

[BigNorsk]

Are you talking about living in some sort of cloitured situation?

If you just love communal living, the Hutterites might let you in, but you'll be required to be rebaptised.

Marv

[ProdigalSeeker]

That type of living situation would be ideal, however the denomination wouldn't be congruent w/ my beliefs.
It seems that there is no opportunities that would be fitting. Considering I will have to take on roomies if I live secularly, I wonder if I should just put up ads for christian roommates.

[IowaLutheran]

I was at a day-long Lenten retreat at an ELCA church, where the people who were running the retreat were an Episcopal monk and nun.

Their website (www.holythoughts.org) states that a person wishing to enter vowed life there must be a member of the Episcopal Church, but I seem to recall some discussion at the retreat that they would be open to accepting ELCA people in their monastery because of the full communion agreement between our churches. Maybe I misunderstood, but I seem to recall them discussing that as a possibility. Whether or not other Episcopal monasteries would be open to that, I do not know, but it might be worth looking into.

[BigNorsk]

I'm having a bit of trouble knowing what your beliefs are. That is because the entire orders and cloitured life and such were thoroughly condemned by early Lutherans. Which would explain why you are having troubles finding Lutheran orders and cloitures to join.

So just what are your beliefs?

Marv

[IowaLutheran]

I'm having a bit of trouble knowing what your beliefs are. That is because the entire orders and cloitured life and such were thoroughly condemned by early Lutherans. Which would explain why you are having troubles finding Lutheran orders and cloitures to join.



The Reformers condemned the medieval form of monasticism, not the whole idea altogether. "At one time there were schools of Holy Scripture and other disciplines useful for the Christian Church in the monasteries, so that pastors and bishops were taken from the monasteries. But now the picture is quite different. In former times, people adopted the monastic life in order to study Scripture. Now they pretend that the monastic life is of such a nature that through it a person may earn God's grace and righteousness before God." Augsburg Confession, Article XXVII.

A monastic community with a focus on Scripture and not on doing "monkish"(Luther's terminology) things to earn merits before God would be fully acceptable in Lutheranism. Bonhoeffer's underground seminary in Nazi Germany would be a classic example of that type of community.

[ProdigalSeeker]

I don't really feel 100% congruent w/ any denomination, but do i agree with some philosophies with different ones. There are only a few points that are non-negotiable. Justification by faith alone, sola scriptura. symbolic presence of the eucharist, etc...

The reason (from what I understand of it) that Luther spoke out against the religious orders, is that they were set off as a separate and "better than" the citizens. They also "hoarded" biblical knowledge by keeping it in Latin, while the only people who knew Latin... Monks.

There are in fact, Lutheran Monks and Monasteries. An example is St. Augustine's house in Michigan. Members of the ELCA are also invited to be a part of several Anglican orders (as ELCA is in full communion with them).

I guess my feeling is Luther, Wesley, Melancthon, etc... great guys & their lives should be remembered and honored as such. However, they are not Jesus, and therefore are not infallible. Remember, Luther wrote books so racist, they helped to inspire the Nazi party.