[Editor's Note: Anthropologist Victor Turner focused on the dynamic relationship between the liminal condition affecting subjects of" rites of passage" and the relatively permanent state of the overall structure of ordinary life. He extrapolated his theory into a wider application to social and cultural dynamics. The author here argues that Turner's methodology is fruitful for analyzing ecclesia! life, bearing especially upon permanence and change. He then attends to the" types" of three contemporary liminal groups and the Church's possible response to them.]