Basileia dares to imagine, cultivate and launch kingdomcultural initiatives and communities that together operate as an alternative to the Fallen World System.
Basileia imagines, cultivates and launches kingdomcultural initiatives and communities
Let’s break that down.
Basileia
Basileia (pronounced boss-eh-LAY-a), which is the Greek word for kingdom, is an expression of the one, holy, catholic (i.e., universal), apostolic Church in communion with Communio Christiana.
Imagines
The epic story of Paradise lost and regained reawakens our imagination and rekindles hope that the world, which was originally created bounteous and beautiful, though now broken, shall be restored.
Cultivates
Each individual has a unique kind of genius destined to be cultivated and expressed. Our belonging in order to believe approach to community life aims at identifying and calling forth this unique genius, both in each person individually and in each corporate Basileian expression of the Church.
Launches
The Missional Councils of Basileia mobilize every Basileia jurisdiction (i.e., expression) to be a beachhead from which missional initiatives are launched to expand the known boarders of the Kingdom of God in future-ancient ways into uncharted places of life and thought.
Kingdomcultural
Kingdomculture is the culture of the Kingdom of God. Whereas subculture runs from evil and counterculture rules over evil, kingdomculture replaces evil with good in chivalric ways (thus destroying evil) in order to redeem all things. The spirit of kingdomculture is the Father’s passion for the union and restoration of all things in Christ. The pattern of kingdomculture is the covenant.
Initiatives and Communities
If missional initiatives are likened to new wine, then Basileia’s communities (i.e., expressions) are the wine skins. Basileia’s missional initiatives are what kingdomcultural looks like in motion. Basileia’s communities are how we embody kingdomculture in order to be a faithful expression of the Capital C Church.
When kingdomculture (as put in motion by our missional initiatives) is embodied in expressions of the Capital C Church (which we faithfully seek to be), then we not only “go to church” on Sunday, but also “go from Church” Monday through Saturday as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, the alternative world system to the Fallen World System.
Thus Basileians imagine, cultivate and launch kingdomcultural initiatives and communities out of a vision for the Church as the alternative city, colony, unique society and empire of God. The Church is not merely a religious institution or movement in someone else’s city, colony, society or empire. The Church has her own institutions, language, flag, calendar, ceremonies, leaders, borders and Emperor, and so she is not a member in any sense of the Fallen World System. She goes to that system in order to replace it, not to be of it.
To imagine, cultivate and launch kingdomcultural alternatives is what we dare.
(More about Boyd)
The more I immerse myself in the universal language of myth and legend the more alive Scripture becomes, the more mystically transformative the sacraments and the Liturgy become, and the more clear the speaking of the Holy Spirit becomes.
Giving ourselves to the epic quest of embodying God in our leprous bodies is how we exhaust evil.
The Father’s language is way more wild, controversial, deeply mystical, and outright outrageous than mortal minds can handle. Thus, to hear and learn from the Father we must first eat what Tolkien calls lembas, the waybread of Elves.
Both the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan, like white and black pieces on a chessboard, are at war over whose world system shall rule creation.
Romantic fiction and science fiction give us the key that puts into proper perspective rulings like those of late by the U.S. Supreme Court redefining marriage. The key? Heroism.
The Roman Empire didn’t have a problem with Christian believers, but with Christian worshipers.
It doesn't matter if you're sailing a boat, smacking a tennis ball, kicking a football, climbing 8,000 meter peaks, playing chess, or drinking Christ’s blood from a chalice served by a priest in the Eucharistic worship of the Church. We’re all playing the same game for the same prize.
Providentially, only two days before watching the movie, Lucy, for the first time in my life I encountered the phrase, “the drug of immortality,” but not from a Hollywood scriptwriter.
Spiritualistic and materialistic notions of the world are scandalous. They both suffer from an underdeveloped sense of the Resurrection as an accomplished fact. The image of God in us isn’t just a “spiritual” reality, but also one for the physics books.
Having faith in God doesn’t magically make the world a better place. Having God’s faith in humanity does.
"Circle me, Lord." The First Adam didn’t pray this way nor invite his wife to join him in such a prayer. However, the Second Adam does pray this way and invites his bride, the Church, to join Him in praying this way too.
Forbidden fruit never satisfies. The more we eat, the hungrier we get. We’re at a turning point. Something big’s happening. We’re losing a taste for formulas. The prodigal son is coming to his senses.
As a Soul Friend, Tim is forming a colony of heaven on earth by giving people a place to belong in order to believe instead of requiring them to believe before they can belong.
In all great stories, there is a point where the hero and his or her friends make a costly choice. Contrary to the instinct for self-preservation, they take dangerous paths into the heart of darkness to destroy evil and save the world.
The mission to restore all things is the spirit and pattern of liturgical Eucharistic worship. Replacing the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God is the joy of worship.
Subcultural and countercultural forms of denominationalism effectively say yes to Hades and to hell with the Church. Kingdomculture dares to say yes to the Church and to hell with hell.
When we’re about the ultimate business of running our own city, we no longer “go to church” or “go to work” or “go to the store” or “go to school” as exiles, but go from Church into our own city to embody the Kingdom of God in our various specialized vocational callings seven days a week.
Our destiny, your destiny, my destiny is to shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father. Dare to imagine that. Dare to imagine becoming by Grace what God is by nature. As St. Athanasius says, Christ became “incarnate” so we might be “ingodded.”
In the kingdom of God, fire is a good thing. "Let the wind of Your Spirit blow and reverse the works of darkness: and Your fire will cover the earth." (Celtic Daily Prayer, p. 159.)
Basileia dares to imagine, cultivate and launch kingdomcultural initiatives and communities that together operate as an alternative to the Fallen World System.
On the Seventh Sunday of Pascha (Easter), 2014, Basileians joyfully marked a milestone in the process of ratifying Basileia's Constitution. The Basileia Alliance Presbyter Council met in Session on May 31, 2014, and after considering and weighing the input of all, recognized and judged accordingly that Basileia as a whole has now ratified the Constitution. Thanks be to God.
For mortals, fantasy isn’t real but pretend. But fantasy in the hands of faithful immortals is the power of sanctified imagination to fuse thought and action and build worlds in the language of poetry, epic story, ceremony, liturgy, and ritual.