Have Life Abundantly

The world we know has been irrevocably shaped by certain major movements of massive significance: among them, the
Enlightenment and Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and the American Revolution—to say nothing
of lengthened life, heightened education, and awareness of women’s rights.

Largely untouched by the fundamental attitude of much of these changes is the Roman Catholic Church. It is probably the
only major global institution where the emphasis on a central monarchy has been steadily growing—the Roman papacy and
episcopal hierarchy. Change will inevitably come to the Church and that change will include the Roman Catholic Church. What
is proposed in this book is a flexible shape that opens the way to such change, implemented immediately at grass roots.

To express it simply, gatherings of the grass roots folk for
clergy-free small-group eucharists and more rarely for smallgroup
clergy-free celebrations of reconciliation; the equivalent
of current priests would focus above all on leadership in faith
communities. Very basically, reality needs to be given to the
priesthood of the faithful and emphasis given to the importance
of leadership in faith communities. The shape that this reality and
this emphasis will be given will vary enormously in each culture
and society. The need for some basic underlying direction is not
difficult to discern.