Theos-Talk Archives (October 2006 Message tt00461)

"Freedom of Thought
Membership in most of the Christian Churches rests on the acceptance of 
a common belief. There is frequently wide discrepancy between the real 
belief of a thoughtful individual and the official profession which is 
expected of him. This leads to suppressed disbelief, to say nothing of 
insincerity, and tends to check the free exercise of the mind.

The Liberal Catholic Church permits to lay members entire freedom in the 
interpretation of Creeds, Scriptures and Traditions, and of the Liturgy. 
It asks only that differences of interpretation be courteously 
expressed. The Church holds strongly that belief should be the result of 
individual study or intuition, not its antecedent. A truth is not a 
truth for a man, nor a Revelation a revelation, until he sees it to be 
true for himself. As a man grows spiritually, so will he grow into the 
perception of truth. No mere lip profession or superficial assent of the 
mind can take the place of this growth, and to ask anything less than 
this is a sacrilege. Christ surely meant His religion to be one of love 
and freedom, one which would help people at their different stages of 
spiritual growth. He did not prescribe formulæ whose literal acceptance 
should be a condition of salvation. The consequence of being unable to 
recognize a truth is simply to lose the help that the knowledge of the 
truth would give.

The Liberal Catholic Church considers, therefore, that it acts in 
accordance with the spirit of its Master in welcoming gladly into its 
ranks those who are still seeking for truth. As a working basis of 
fellowship, it asks of its members not the profession of a common 
belief, but their willingness to worship corporately through a common 
ritual. It tries to help them discover truth for themselves by providing 
them with opportunities for spiritual growth. It asks of them sincerity, 
purity of motive, tolerance, breadth of mind, courtesy of expression, 
willingness to work, and a constant pursuit of high ideals — confident, 
above all, that the power of the Blessed Sacrament of Christ’s love may 
well be trusted to work God’s own true purpose in their souls."

http://www.liberalcatholic.org/about/Principles.asp

Gary Barnhart wrote:
> For those who may be unaware of the continued existence of the 
> "church" begun by Leadbeter and others, you may wish to at least 
> preview their website and even look them up in Wikepedia. A couple 
> sites are:
>
> http://www.liberalcatholic.org/ <http://www.liberalcatholic.org/>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Catholic_Church#External_links 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Catholic_Church#External_links>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>