Ian Harris considers the phenomenon of "progressive Christianity".
Progressive churches are more interested in an honest search for truth than in the dubious certainty of ancient doctrinesFaith and reason
A living religion is constantly evolving.
It adapts from a particular time and culture to new times and different cultures.
Sometimes the change is gradual, sometimes abrupt.
Tensions develop between those who press for change and those who resist it.
The pattern has recurred in every religion over the centuries.
In Christianity it is happening again as a self-consciously new way of being Christian emerges, labelled loosely as "progressive Christianity".
The movement's wellspring is dissatisfaction with conservative attitudes and practices in the larger denominations, and it has been slowly and independently taking shape in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Britain, Canada and Ireland during the past 20 years.
Pressure for change has come mainly from the grassroots, as lay people began looking for expressions of faith that take into account the huge developments in knowledge, biblical scholarship and theological understanding over the past 200 years.
Instead of skirting around those changes, they want the Churches to embrace them and move on.
A few ministers and priests who feel the same way have encouraged them.
In another age, such people would have challenged their Churches to reform, or would have broken away to form new ones.
Today, the progressives choose to retain the links with their denominational heritage, but put their energy into finding their own spiritual path in a way more attuned to our own time and place.
Some talk of it as "rewiring the Church".
It is early days, and so far just five New Zealand congregations identify themselves as progressive.
All are highly visible, however: Knox Presbyterian Churches in Dunedin and Christchurch, St Andrew's in Wellington and St Luke's in Remuera, Auckland.
The other is St Matthew's Anglican Church in central Auckland.
This predominantly city pattern is matched by Uniting Church congregations in all the Australian state capitals.
In the United States there are some hundreds of progressive parishes drawn from 17 denominations, responding to the lead given by an Episcopalian (Anglican) priest in Washington DC, the Rev Jim Adams, who set up the Centre for Progressive Christianity in 1994.
Those churches have in common an emphasis on seeking an authentic spirituality for our times, rather than assuming that their churches have all the answers pre-packaged and expressed, firmly and finally, in their authorised liturgies.
Signing up to ancient creeds and doctrines is therefore not on those congregations' agenda.
Instead, the focus is on building communities bearing what one minister calls "the dangerous memory of Jesus", and exploring what that means for living today.
Progressive churches are more interested in an honest search for truth than in the dubious certainty of ancient doctrines.
They take the Bible seriously but not literally: it remains a prime spiritual resource, but not the only one.
They are open to all that modern science is revealing about the world and the cosmos, and expect to see that reflected in their worship.
Another emphasis is that they are more concerned about the way people treat each other than how they define their beliefs.
They oppose any dogma that limits free inquiry, and hold to a model of Christian community that emphasises the "fair, open, peaceful and loving treatment of all human beings".
Progressives are therefore ready to welcome on equal terms those whom many of their sister churches find it hard to accept, including homosexuals and feminists.
Secure in their own Christian understanding, they reject any claim that all other spiritual paths are in error, and have moved beyond polite acknowledgment of other world religions to respect.
Along with their liberal counterparts, they are concerned not just to alleviate poverty and social injustice but to address their causes, so they advocate for fairer communities, peace and the environment.
They underpin this by nurturing a spirituality centred on the stories, symbols and themes of their Christian heritage, but seek to express it in imaginative styles of worship which many traditionalists would find disconcerting.
Progressive Christians see themselves as providing a safe place for many for whom organised religion has proved ineffectual, irrelevant or repressive.
Though relatively few parishes have identified themselves as progressive, there are laypeople in most Churches who would find its approach attractive - and, obviously, many who would not.
Websites have sprung up to link them, for example tcpc.org in the United States.
It would be easy to claim too much for progressive Christianity, as it would be to claim too little.
The important thing is that it is here, it is vigorous, and it won't be going away.
• Ian Harris is a journalist and commentator.
