By Br. Ed Tverdek, OFM
People who experience a disquiet with their Catholic/Christian faith – who sense doubt, disenchantment or a lack of commitment – often don’t realize the gift they’ve been given. The opportunity to observe one’s religious convictions from the outside and to question why we cling to them at all seems frightening at first, and we might understand it as something to regret and to confess in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
When sheer habit and the primal fear of being consigned to eternal damnation no longer motivate us, we seek a deeper grounding in our faith, and we do so discreetly, so that others don’t learn of our “weakness.”
The net result is hundreds, thousands and perhaps even more Catholics sharing this discomfort in private, never realizing that they have common concerns – concerns that are quite likely similar to those of the growing ranks of people with no religious identification at all (“the nones”) but who seek meaning and purpose in their lives.
The Ockham Center for Faith, Reconciliation, and Dialog is a new ministry initiative I launched in the Chicago area that seeks to be a forum for those who’ve come to question their Christian faith as well as those of firm conviction who wish to consider their faith (to the extent possible) “from the outside.”
Why do we believe? Is doubt a hinderance or an opportunity? Where does sin – our self-distancing from God – play into this? What is the salvation we seek in Christ? How can we live our faith in a way that transforms us and helps to transform the very precarious world we all inhabit? What concerns do we share with people of other faiths – and people of no faith?
These are just a few of the questions The Ockham Center embraces and confronts.
The Center’s name is, of course, no accident. While we retain a Franciscan Catholic approach in general, we pay specific homage to the underappreciated 14th-century theologian and philosopher William of Ockham.
Much like his principle of parsimony we now call “Ockham’s Razor” served to shave excess conceptual baggage from the medieval metaphysics and theology of his day, The Ockham Center seeks to reach out to people whose ears have fallen deaf to church-speak, empty pieties and the dense technical jargon we’re often subject to as people of faith.
The Ockham Center is building a virtual community of interested participants. As it grows, I will be assessing what practical next-steps might be in order: in-person and hybrid seminars, workshops, and guest panelists in downtown Chicago (the Center is seeking temporary and eventually more permanent meeting and office space in the Loop) as well as the possibility of online forums and satellite offices to serve a geographically dispersed membership.
We’ll be looking to gain tax-exempt status, soliciting grant support with the goal of eventually employing a part- or full-time social worker and community organizer to better serve our local neighbors and provide meaningful outreach to the dispossessed and disenfranchised.
Our dream is to eventually be a physical and spiritual sanctuary where diverse forms of ministry can thrive together and where people (including friars) with different gifts in the arts, humanities, and sciences can come and ply their trades in an effort to reach the unreached and those falling out of touch with their faith and with the world.
Interested in joining us on this journey? Check out the website for more details, sign up to stay in touch, and contact me (etverdek@friars.us) if you’d like to contribute to the effort in your own ministry.
