Today we continued to explore Progressive Anglicanism. Central is the fact that God is Love. Where do we learn about Love as younger persons? Most understanding of love comes from our homes the family of origin, which can give us a distorted message.
The early Christians were formed by the Greeks in their thought. The Greeks had 6 understandings for Love:
Eros - Human Sexuality and the mysteries of sensuous love
Philia -Deep Friendship like David & Jonathan or best friend
Ludos -playful love as in the rough play of brothers or the teasing by sisters of each other
Agape - Love for all in community the core of the Church community
Pragma - long standing safe friendship as in your high school friend of 60 years
Philautia -love of self caring for appearance and standing for your values
Gaining the total understanding of love in all areas comes from experience and observation from our family of origin. Sometimes this is not possible due to family issues and we need to gain this especially in the last named five areas from extended family, family friends and from the church community.
As church, we often provide the place of acceptance and love which impacts another person who through this gets to experience God. We are fully human and fully Divine as Jesus. We need to unleash our love and our Divinity to assist others experience God through love in the Church Community.
