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Way Forward (Turner) |
The way forward in the massive church struggle in which we are now engaged does not lie in ignoring it by saying that "it doesn't really touch me" or that "there are far more important issues than sex or inclusive language." Neither does it lie in bowing before it by saying that "change is inevitable and I must keep up with the times." Rather, we are called to give attention to our particular history by entering I more fully into the life of the "communion of saints." We are not called as defenders of orthodoxy to expend our energies in a fruitless battle with the communities that now contend for hegemony in our church. That enterprise is rather like Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. The more we punch away, the more firmly we become stuck in the other fellow's tar. No, the way forward is simply to change the subject; and this by showing others what it is to be a part of the "communion of saints" that lives and breathes in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America at the beginning of the 21st Century. The way forward does not lie in another church. It does not lie in a breakaway group claiming greater fidelity to the Gospel. It does not lie in a political strategy that will purify our church. Rather, it lies in a resolute determination to live as the communion of saints in this particular time and this particular place. The rest is up to God, and we know that, even in their sufferings, indeed particularly in their sufferings, God honors his faithful servants. So the question our history puts to us now is not how we become a community, but rather how we remain the communion of saints in the face of a pervasive distortion of Christian belief and practice that threatens to overwhelm us. I want to mention three practices in particular that in other parts of the Anglican Communion give outward identity to presbyters, and allow one to speak of. them still as a college. These practices are in decline and in places have utterly disappeared among the presbyters of ECUSA. They are, however, utterly essential for the health of the common life of the saints; their absence among ordained leadership is disastrous for everyone. The first practice is regular participation in the daily offices of the church. I know full well what I have just said, and I know full well what your inward reaction is apt to have been. Please don't groan inwardly and take your mind to a more interesting subject. And please don't think that I'm just being a scold. Please, remember for a moment these things. Within the Church of England and most other member churches of the Anglican Communion, clergy are bound by their office to say morning and evening prayer. No such discipline is laid upon the clergy of ECUSA. Indeed, so far as I know, no common discipline at all is required of us. It's all left to the discretion of the individual. Some have a regular practice; others, I suspect most, do not. We are busy with other things, at least I am, and these other things place the saying of daily offices out of reach. And after all, the success of our ministries is not measured by fidelity to this bygone practice. Nevertheless, think for a moment of what we have abandoned. We have abandoned daily recitation of the psalms, daily instruction from the Holy Scriptures, and daily recitation of the prayers that the church has carefully honed through the ages as necessary for a fully Christian life. We do not exist in a fellowship of presbyters where each of us is obedient to this binding, common, and communion-forming discipline. We do not daily place ourselves as one body within this carefully formed way of entering the presence of God. Is it any wonder then that we so often give a nervous giggle when people note that the only thing holding us together may be the Church Pension Fund? This bit of irony may indeed strike rather closer to the bone than we like. The point I am making I know may appear platitudinous; piously platitudinous at that. If, however, I add certain explanatory remarks, the point may lose its dull finish. First, departure from daily reading of the psalms signals removal from regular participation in all the forms of prayer thought necessary for growth in the knowledge and love of God. Second, departure from daily reading of the Scriptures, which each year takes one through the sweep of the biblical narrative, removes one from ever-refreshed knowledge of the full account of God's dealing with his creation. Thirdly, the eclipse of the collects of the church by selective forms of personal devotion (periodically engaged in) removes one from prayerful participation in the measurement of time by means of the seasons of the Church's year. In short, the decline of this common practice spins us presbyters out into a myriad of private spiritual worlds, and we should not kid ourselves by saying that we are all brought back together again by common participation in the Eucharist. I simply note that weekly celebration of the Eucharist has not been followed by the unity its advocates promised, but by ever-increasing division and hostility. The reason is not hard to find. Weekly celebration of the Eucharist has been accompanied by the decline or disappearance of the practice of daily common prayer and common reflection upon the Holy Scriptures. The eucharistic practice of the church and its presbyters no longer stands upon a foundation of daily practice. The result is the loss of a common space in which division can be overcome by daily participation in the communion the saints have one with one another through common practice and common participation in Christ. The result is also disappearance of the conditions that make mutual correction possible, and with the disappearance of mutual correction the possibility of finding unity of belief and practice disappears as well. The Way Forward - pg. 2 | |
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(This page is maintained by Rev. Dr. John Oakes and Kirsten Oakes .) |
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