In the last few weeks I have become particularly aware of a cultural shift.
An atheistic or agnostic society has adopted church type rituals.
There is now an athiest church. Celebrations of life at someone’s death. Midwifery can become a ceremony in itself. Even destination marriages.
None of these require God. And all of these contain elements of ritual for which the church is truly suited.
I think we need to be aware of our society’s rituals. At the same time, is there a way in which our rituals are welcoming for a society lost without God?
Lost because our pathway ends up going nowhere without God – we live and die . . . and that is it? What if our society had greater hope than that, and their rituals were from birth to grave and then beyond?
Sounds like the church has all those rituals in place already!
Maybe we just need to tap into the needs of our society and see how we can be of service to them.