The Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) wants you to mark March 20-22, 2009 on our calendars for the CAC sponsored Conversations, Convergence and Action (CCA). The CAC website encourages us:

Come to the first large gathering of Roman Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and other Christians seeking to explore this emergence and convergence together. You’ll be inspired by provocative speakers and spiritual leaders and engage in in-depth conversation about our shared quests for:

• A fresh understanding of Jesus
• Spirituality that links contemplation and action
• Social justice and holistic mission
• Authentic community

Join Fr. Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Shane Claiborne, Alexie Torres-Fleming, and others for 3 days of spiritual enrichment, challenge, and shared exploration as we envision what the Christian community can be and do in this generation and in generations to come. (Online source, bold theirs)

Note the reference to the Emergence, which Apprising Ministries began to cover for you in Peter Rollins And Phyllis Tickle On The Emergence Of A Brand New Religion. The Emergent Village website bills CCA as The Emerging Church: First-Ever Catholic-Emergent Conference.

Why even The Center for Progressive Christianity, of which Marcus Borg and John Shelby Spong are Honary Advisors, is excited about CCA and has it listed on its Event Calendar. For those who don’t know Roman Catholic Guru Richard Rohr is also among those postliberals known as “Red Letter Christians.”

In fact Emerging Church spokesman Tony Campolo tells us that his friends Guru Rohr and Brian McLaren were actually among those who started this group, which also includes Shane Claiborne, Tony Jones and Jim Wallis:

Recently, I met with a group of religious leaders who have become increasingly disturbed by the alliance between evangelical Christians and the Republican Party… The meeting was joined by the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine; Father Richard Rohr, a well-known Catholic writer and speaker; Brian McLaren, a leader of the emergent church movement;… we decided not to call ourselves “progressive evangelicals.” We came up with a new name: Red-Letter Christians. (Online source)

Author of the book  Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, which is even recommended by Rob Bell, Roshi Rohr has becoming increasingly popular within the Emergence rebellion against Sola Scriptura. Sure, it’s just a crazy coincidence that all of these names keep showing up together; and, I’m the next Dalai Lama too.

In closing, AM brings to your attention where Christian universalist Spencer Burke of the Emergent Ooze tells us about something called Soularize, which he says featured “some of the most influential voices today”:

N.T. Wright, Richard Rohr, Rita Brock, Brenna Manning, Frank Viola… N.T. Wright describes our time together – “Soularize is a hugely stimulating conversation; it’s more than the sum of its parts. You bring together people from quite a variety of backgrounds and let them knock sparks off each other, talk together, and hang out together. For me, Soularize has been a wonderfully creative, exciting but relaxing experience.” (Online source)

Below in the video clip you’ll hear Burke discussing the upcoming Conversations, Convergence and Action with Roshi Rohr. The two peas in a corrupt spiritual pod discuss their mutual excitement about how in the Emergence we’ll be moving away from “belief systems” and instead into “experience” as the basis for Christian practice.

And what is the rallying cry of this coming religion of Emergence? Why, “All-ee, all-ee, in free!”

See also:

WHO IS RICHARD ROHR?

RICHARD ROHR: ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM