“Perhaps if we could lead this generation beyond the words of these narratives into the truth to which these narratives point, we would not be so prone to change the Christ child into a Santa Claus, the manger into a Christmas tree, the heavenly host into Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, the risen Christ into a prolific Easter bunny or a hatching Easter egg, and Pentecost into a birth-of-the-church celebration.”

Bishop John Shelby Spong.  ‘Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism’  1991

How far in the postmodern age is a church possible?

A church requires at least some concentration of power, and some use of it to exert control over language, but if you are a thoroughgoing Christian heretic and dissident like me you cannot endure any attempt to control interpretation or finalise truth.

In the monotheistic faiths, the religious community has always been a power-structure and has always been in some measure coercive; so how can it change at this time of day?"

 Don Cupitt 1989 in ‘Radicals and the Future of the Church’ – perhaps the death of the church is necessary for Christianity?