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19th April 2013

Creation or Evolution?: Colin Coward

Spring is in the air in the Church of England. Although we sometimes wonder if we are imagining it, there are enough signs in different quarters that ‘Aslan is on the move’ for us to dare to hope that we are not.

This is the first half of a blog post written by the Revd Colin Coward on Changing Attitude this morning, which I am reblogging on Lay Anglicana as it is important that it should reach as wide an audience as possible. I urge you to visit the site to read the rest of it.
Colin Coward, April 19th, 2013

I woke feeling excited this morning. I sat at 06.15 gazing through my east-facing window at a sensational sunrise, the sky ripped open to reveal azure blue through the ruptured clouds, as I ate muesli and drank leaf Darjeeling tea.

The sunrise enhanced my excitement. I know from the various conversations I had yesterday, with members of the LGB&T Anglican Coalition, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Jo Bailey Wells, the Archbishop’s chaplain, David Porter, the Director of Reconciliation, briefly with John Lee, Canon Phil Groves and David Chillingworth, Primus of Scotland, even more briefly on a bus with Chris Smith, and at length with Andrew Goddard, that things are in flux at the moment. There is movement and potential. Change is in the air.

In certain directions, things may look bad – the Men and Women in Marriage report. In other directions, things are moving, conversations are happening, representations are being made. Behind the scenes, in private conversations, far more is happening than breaks the surface into news media. Events (dear boy) will continue to destabilise those who fantasise about being in control of the process of dealing with LGB&T people in the Church and cause ruptures in the most carefully prepared and managed plans. Evolution, in short, continues.

Having been transfixed by the sunrise I lowered my eyes to Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man. I’ve reached page 213, and suddenly, de Chardin’s narrative, which I had found rather plodding to that point erupted into visionary excitement.

I worry a lot, and so do the people who comment on Twitter, Facebook and the Changing Attitude web site, as to whether the Church ‘gets it’. Whether the Church even remotely understands my experience and the experience of LGB&T people lay and ordained, who are often at their wits end in reading about and dealing with their experience of Church. Teilhard de Chardin convinced me once again to stop worrying – the Church WILL get it. Of course it will, there’s no escaping the evolutionary processes of God.

And I am blessed, I live and work and move among people who ‘get it’, often at a profound level – people living into the new paradigm, new, passionate visions of God.

Writes de Chardin in 1948:…. [read more here]

Tags: Andrew Goddard, Canon Phil Groves, David Porter, Jo Bailey Wells, John Lee, Reconciliation in the Church of England, Teilhard de Chardin | Category: Church of England, LGBT

21st March 2013

Intercessions for Palm Sunday Year C: 24 March 2013

The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, who in your tender love towards the human race sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross: grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AllAmen.

¶ The Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Isaiah 50.4-9a

The servant of the Lord said: The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens – wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backwards. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

Psalm 31.9-16

Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in trouble; *my eye is consumed with sorrow,my soul and my body also.
For my life is wasted with grief,and my years with sighing; *my strength fails me because of my affliction,and my bones are consumed.
I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even to my neighbours, an object of dread to my acquaintances; * when they see me in the street they flee from me.
I am forgotten like one that is dead, out of mind; * I have become like a broken vessel.
For I have heard the whispering of the crowd; fear is on every side; *they scheme together against me, and plot to take my life.
But my trust is in you, O Lord. * I have said, ‘You are my God.
‘My times are in your hand; *deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
‘Make your face to shine upon your servant, * and save me for your mercy’s sake.’

Second Reading: Philippians 2.5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Gospel Reading: Luke 22.14-23.56

When the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!’ Then they began to ask one another, which one of them it could be who would do this. A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. But he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you have denied three times that you know me.’He said to them, ‘When I sent you out without a purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?’ They said, ‘No, not a thing.’ He said to them, ‘But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me, “And he was counted among the lawless”; and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled.’ They said, ‘Lord, look, here are two swords.’ He replied, ‘It is enough.’ He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, ‘Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’ Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’ While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?’ When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, ‘Lord, should we strike with the sword?’ Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple police, and the elders who had come for him, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness!’ Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance. When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, ‘This man also was with him.’ But he denied it, saying, ‘Woman, I do not know him.’ A little later someone else, on seeing him, said, ‘You also are one of them.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I am not!’ Then about an hour later still another kept insisting, ‘Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about!’ At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly. Now the men who were holding Jesus began to mock him and beat him; they also blindfolded him and kept asking him, ‘Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?’ They kept heaping many other insults on him. When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together, and they brought him to their council. They said, ‘If you are the Messiah, tell us.’ He replied, ‘If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I question you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.’ All of them asked, ‘Are you, then, the Son of God?’ He said to them, ‘You say that I am.’ Then they said, ‘What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!’ Then the assembly rose as a body and brought Jesus before Pilate. They began to accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.’ Then Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ He answered, ‘You say so.’ Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, ‘I find no basis for an accusation against this man.’ But they were insistent and said, ‘He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to this place.’ When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform some sign. He questioned him at some length, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him; then he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate.That same day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other; before this they had been enemies. Pilate then called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, and said to them, ‘You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. Indeed, he has done nothing to deserve death. I will therefore have him flogged and release him.’ Now he was obliged to release someone for them at the festival. Then they all shouted out together, ‘Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!’ (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting, ‘Crucify, crucify him!’ A third time he said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’ But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished. As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.” Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us”; and to the hills, “Cover us.” For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’ Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine,and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’ One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’ And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Today is a complicated day liturgically with the Liturgy of the Palms and the Liturgy of the Passion. Some churches, like our own, will simply have the Liturgy of the Palms (Luke 19.28-40) and some will have only the Liturgy of the Passion, which is what I have chosen here, following Visual Liturgy and David Adams ‘Glimpses of Glory’. It is the first day of Holy Week, and encapsulates all that is to happen. The RSCM in 2010 said: “the story is not of a man caught up in circumstances and meeting a tragic end, but of God’s willingness to enter fully into the complex and murky human world in order that it might be redeemed.”

Prayers of Intercession

¶The Church of Christ

Lord, whose son rode through the streets to a triumphant welcome, we welcome you today into our hearts. We ask you to enter our Church, permeating every hidden corner, so that we in turn may proclaim your name to the whole world. Remembering that many of those who shouted ‘Hosanna’ on Palm Sunday cried ‘Crucify’ on Friday, we ask you to help us remain steadfast in our faith. Brace your Church, O Lord, to enter into the unconditional sacrifice of the cross in order to walk with you thereafter in newness of life.

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

As the established church of the nation, we ask you also to cleanse our body politic from all corruption, all greed, all failure to treat other human beings with the loving kindness and respect that they deserve as one of your creatures. We pray particularly for our hospitals, where the suffering submit to the authority of the nursing staff. We pray for those whom the media deem to be newsworthy and have treated with contempt. We pray for children, where those in authority over them have abused that trust. We pray for all those who are vulnerable, and all those whom the state has given authority over them, that they may be worthy of our confidence in them.

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶The local community

Lord, we ourselves can barely scratch the surface of our national life, but with your help we can all do something to shape our own local communities. We ask you to inspire us to build up our neighbourhoods so that all may feel welcome, and a use may be found for everyone’s talents and abilities. Where structures become ossified and covered in barnacles, we ask you to help us scrape them back to their bare bones and reveal them in their true beauty, receptive to the insights of the present and future, while firmly rooted in the certainties of our past.

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶Those who suffer

Lord, we pray for those who are already sharing in the suffering of your son. Enable them, we pray, to offer up this suffering as a means of becoming close to you. Ease their pain, if it is your will, or graciously give them the strength to endure. As we enter into Holy Week, brace us all with fortitude, gratitude and the assurance that you are with us, world without end.

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

And the prayer of the Archbishop of Canterbury, as he journeys round his province. He asks us to light a candle and join him in saying:

Lord, your light is hope and comfort in this cold world.
As it burns let my fears be melted by your love.
Lord, your presence with me promised and faithful.
As this light fades, let me know your unchanging fire in my heart.
Lord, this flame is to light other candles, may I be peace and love to those around me.

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶The communion of saints

Lord of love, you have bound us together with those whom we love and opened the door of heaven through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Look upon us in your mercy and bring us all to the fullness of the risen life together.

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The illustration is by Phil Blewett, via Seed Resources

Tags: Intercessions for 24 March 2013, Intercessions for Palm Sunday Year C | Category: Intercessions

18th February 2013

Conversing with Elizaphanian: Metamorphosis and Stasis

Is there a stable place to rest at the end of the progressive path?

This is the question posed by Elizaphanian (The Revd Sam Norton) on January 25th, and which I have been mulling over ever since. I suggest you read the whole post, but among other things he says the following:

Western society has embarked upon a radical restructuring of its cultural life in three inter-related issues, to do with homosexuality, marriage and divorce, and the economic role of women. The classical understanding of the church, that sexuality is only to be expressed within a heterosexual marriage, has been widely abandoned…The church has been caught up in this cultural change and is now at risk of opprobrium and worse if it does not, in David Cameron’s ill-chosen words, ‘get with the programme’…The RC stance…has proven workable for thousands of years…Does the progressive, secular, post-Protestant form of Christianity have a destination?…Having said all that, I remain quite open to the idea that the Spirit is genuinely behind all these developments…and I certainly can’t see our society reversing many of them. Yet, as I also see our society as heading down the tubes with great rapidity, I don’t see that latter point as bearing much theological weight. I genuinely don’t know the answer to this, but it is what I am thinking about.

The short answer to the question.

My short answer to this question is ‘No’.

The slightly longer answer

First, it must be said that the question is perfectly understandable, and is widely being asked. The inference is that if the progressive path cannot offer a stable place to rest, it is unreasonable to expect the general public to follow the path.

The question is not a new one, and nor is my answer. Heraclitus, for one, got there first: All is flux, nothing stays still or, in other words, Nothing endures but change.

Differing roles of God and the Church

Since the dawn of time, one of the reasons people have believed in the gods is that life seems full of capricious change. One or more supreme beings seem to offer the only possibility of stability. We pray: ‘ protect us through the silent hours of this night, so that we, who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world, may repose upon thy eternal changelessness‘.

Over the years, the Church has seemed to represent the deity in offering a haven of stability. It is easy to see how God and the Church have become confused in the psyche of churchgoers, but the Church is a human institution and is not in a position to offer ‘eternal changelessness’. To do so would be like trying to ride a bicycle without moving – you would soon fall off.

There is no advice in the Bible about how to manage the Church after 2,000 years of history (unless you know otherwise?). St Paul’s epistles are full of advice to churches which are newly set-up and, although much of it still applies to us, the task that we face in the 21st century is, I suggest, that of enabling the mighty, rushing wind of the Holy Spirit to blow through the dusty corners of the Church, and not to try and keep it out by means of draught excluders.

Does the Holy Spirit offer a stable place to rest?

Possibly. From time to time. But ‘he is not a tame lion, you know‘. And my hunch is that, after a very long period in which the Church has tried to plug the leaking dike and hold back the sea, in a period of stasis, the time has now come for metamorphosis.’Not for ever by still waters, would we idly rest and stay. But would smite the living fountains from the rocks along our way.‘ Psalm 104:10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains.Psalm 105:41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out; like a river it flowed in the desert. Psalm 107:35 He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs;Psalm 114:8 who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.

I also think that in this life there is no room for ‘changelessness’: this is something we are promised in the hereafter. But for now there is work to be done.

Do we know where the progressive path will lead us?

No, we don’t entirely. We know where we would like it to take us as soon as possible – the raising of women to the episcopate, the inclusion of LGBT people, and the empowerment of the laity. In shorthand, a Church of all the talents.

But there will be unforeseen and unintended consequences. Unforeseen and unintended by us, that is. I wonder what God wants?

The illustration is Heraclitus (c.1630) by Johannes Moreelse (c. 1603–1634) via Wikimedia

Tags: empowerment of the laity, Heraclitus, LGBT and the Church, stagnant and running water in the Church, Women Bishops | Category: Church of England

1st January 2013

Naming Jesus: Chris Fewings

NAMING JESUS

Dear name! The rock on which I build
My shield and hiding place,
My never failing treasury filled
With boundless store of grace!

John Newton

Today is the Naming of Jesus in the church’s calendar. Many of our hymns specificially celebrate this name, the ‘name above every name’. Our own names and nicknames are an important part of who we are and how we relate to other people. A change of name can be highly significant. Jesus (Yeshua in Aramaic, his own language) is the same name as Joshua, God saves (Yehoshua in Hebrew). In our liturgy we rarely address Jesus – we pray to his Abba in his spirit, with his breath – but private devotions are different.

In the Christian East, the habit of invoking the name of Jesus merged with St Paul’s injunction to ‘pray without ceasing’. This is sometimes traced back to the cry of blind Bartimaeus in the gospel story: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. The cry for help, for healing, is an essential part of this tradition (‘mercy’ is said to be a poor translation of the Greek eleison – perhaps ‘grace’ comes nearer): it undermines our illusion of self-sufficiency and reminds we are contingent beings.

Byzantine monks in the middle ages developed a meditation technique around this prayer, which they aspired to have always on their lips or in their hearts when they were not speaking or praying in some other way. In the nineteenth century, the book The Way of the Pilgrim popularised the prayer for Russian lay people. The revival of interest in contemplative prayer in the last fifty years in western Europe (and the Orthodox diaspora) has brought it to our attention too.

The prayer of the name is not unique to Christianity. Repeating a simple sentence or mantra in meditation, usually including a divine name, is found in Hinduism, Sufism, and Pure Land Buddhism for example. The closing lines of John Newton’s hymn

And may the music of that name
Refresh my soul in death

remind me of a Hindu practice of urging the dying to die with the God’s name on their lips, as Gandhi-ji did.

The traditional Orthodox form of the prayer is Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. I used this in daily meditation for a few years in my twenties, although for me it gradually became Lord Jesus Christ, give us your grace (which also fitted the rhythm of my walking). I would sit on a prayer stool in front of a candle and an ikon – well, a photo of a mosaic in the dome of Cefalu Cathedral in an art book borrowed from my parents. With varying degrees of distraction, I would repeat the prayer mentally, vocally, or just moving my lips.

I continued to think of new variants of the words, which has its down side as the traditional form is given – it’s just there – and there’s no need to think about whether it makes perfect sense. Occasionally I use the form Yeshua bar Miriam, breathe in us. Although it may seem a highly privatised practice, I’ve witnessed the CWSG Anglican contemplative community saying the prayer together daily, using a traditional prayer rope.

In late 1987, my safe little world shook up by falling in love and a week-long Ignatian retreat, I tried something new: lying on my back, hand on heart or rather aorta, the word Jesus ticking with my pulse. The following year I moved abroad, no longer lived alone, and stopped meditating, but the prayer never quite left me. Sometimes at night I think the two syllables Je-sus with my rising and falling breath (it goes well with the Eastern practice of paying attention to the air passing over your nostrils). Often I listen to the radio at the same time, and if I fall asleep, so much the better.

These are very personal details and in a way I’d rather keep them to myself and write in more general terms, but I mention them in case something in my own story gives someone a way in to a useful practice of their own.

One thing that fascinated me in my twenties was that I seemed to have finally found a way to ‘let Jesus into my heart’. This phrase had been central to my evangelical childhood, and I thought I’d done just that at the age of eight, using the sort of prayer of invitation I’d been taught. It was my own initiative, but If I hadn’t done it I wouldn’t have quite belonged in a very Evangelical family. I was puzzled that nothing much changed. However, I grew used to thinking of myself as a born-again Christian, which was reinforced by more emotional Charismatic gatherings I took part in early adolescence.

At the age of 21, after years of searching, I felt a sense of liberation from the need to find the ‘true’ set of Christian beliefs among conflicting claims. A couple of years later I started using the Jesus Prayer regularly. It breathed new life in all the Jesus-talk and Jesus-songs and Jesus-think of my childhood. While still using it daily, I wrote this poem:

O King of the world!
This world, this mottle
Of sordid little sins and
Unexpected acts of human kindness
Is this your kingdom?
Do the deadends also belong to you?

Come on, King!
Get off your throne
And make us see.
Come on, Jesus of Nazareth!
Get out of your holy book
And show us who you really are.
Come on, Kingdom!

The main illustration is Christus Pantocrator in the apsis of the cathedral of Cefalù. Edited from Image:Cefalu Christus Pantokrator.jpg. This was by by Andreas Wahra in 2006, edited by Entheta. Via Wikimedia. The second illustration is a small eastern orthodox prayer rope (50 knots) dated February 2008 by Nesusvet, also via Wikimedia

Category: Christianity, Jesus Christ

12th December 2012

Intercessions for Third Sunday of Advent: 16 December

Collect

O Lord Jesus Christ, who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you: grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;

Zephaniah 3.14-20

Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp.The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” “The sorrows for the appointed feasts I will remove from you; they are a burden and a reproach to you. At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you; I will rescue the lame and gather those who have been scattered. I will give them praise and honour in every land where they were put to shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honour and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord.

Psalm:Isaiah 12.2-6

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say on that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Second Reading: Philippians 4.4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Luke 3.7-18

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptised by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” “What should we do then?” he crowd asked. John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” Tax collectors also came to be baptised. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.” The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptise you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

Grumbling aside:

I have discovered that the Church House intercessions are a swiz and a chiz! Doubtless those of you more quick-witted than I will have spotted that they suggest we use the same intercessions four weeks running. Do they think no one comes to church more than once a month, or do they think that no one will notice? Of course, many of our prayers we repeat day after day, and week after week, but I at least have never thought of intercessions in that light. And the lectionary this week is all over the place – the common thread I suppose is preparing for the second coming.

Having got that off my chest, I think that this week we can base ourselves on the intercessions they propose to accompany Advent Morning Prayer, and next week we will return to our own resources. (Or of course you can always use last week’s :>).

Watchful at all times, let us pray for strength to stand with confidence before our Maker and Redeemer.
That God may bring in his kingdom with justice and mercy,let us pray to the Lord: R
That God may establish among the nations his sceptre of righteousness, let us pray to the Lord: R
That we may seek Christ in the Scriptures and recognize him in the breaking of the bread, let us pray to the Lord: R
That God may bind up the broken-hearted, restore the sick and raise up all who have fallen, let us pray to the Lord: R
That the light of God’s coming may dawn on all who live in darkness and the shadow of death, let us pray to the Lord: R
That, with all the saints in light, we may shine forth as lights for the world, let us pray to the Lord: R
Let us commend the world, which Christ will judge, to the mercy and protection of God.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer

Lord, help us to make ready to celebrate once again the incarnation of your Son. May we seek Christ in the Scriptures and recognize him in the breaking of the bread as he seeks to transform the Body of Christ and his Church.

Lord, help us both to discern and to do your will. In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, we pray that you may bring in your kingdom with justice and mercy and establish among the nations your sceptre of righteousness. We pray that the rich and those in authority may bring relief and hope to the poor. We pray for all who are involved in tax-collecting, and in the use of our taxes.

Lord, help us both to discern and to do your will. In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, in your great love for your creation, we ask that you take from us all that harms us and make us whole in body, mind and spirit. Bind up those who are broken-hearted, restore those who are sick and raise up all who have fallen. We pray for the frail and the fearful, the weary and the weak.

Lord, help us both to discern and to do your will. In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, we pray that the light of Christ’s coming may dawn on all who live in darkness and the shadow of death. We rejoice with all who have left the troubles of this world and now experience the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Lord, help us both to discern and to do your will. In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, we pray that, with all the saints in light, we may shine forth as lights for the world. We commend the world, which Christ will judge, to your mercy and protection

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your son, our saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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The illustration is ADVENT 3 by: Alan M Barker via seedresources.com.

Some of the prayers are interwoven with phrases from David Adam’s intercessions for Year C, ‘Glimpses of Glory’.

Tags: Intercessions for 3rd Sunday of Advent Year C, Intercessions for December 16th | Category: Intercessions

5th December 2012

Intercessions for Second Sunday of Advent: 9 December 2012

Collect

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us;

Baruch 5.1-9

Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven. For God will give you evermore the name, ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’. Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look towards the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne. For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God’s command. For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Psalm: Luke 1.68-79

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, *who has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour, *born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets God promised of old *to save us from our enemies,from the hands of all that hate us,
To show mercy to our ancestors, *and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham: *to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear, *holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, *for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation *by the forgiveness of all their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God *the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, *and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Philippians 1.3-11

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.

Luke 3.1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:“Prepare the way of the Lord,make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled,and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight,and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”’

Intercessions

In joyful expectation of his coming to our aid we pray to Jesus.

Come to your Church as Lord and judge. We pray for …Help us to live in the light of your coming and give us a longing for your kingdom. Maranatha: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Come to your world as King of the nations. We pray for …Before you rulers will stand in silence. Maranatha: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Come to the suffering as Saviour and comforter. We pray for … Break into our lives, where we struggle with sickness and distress,and set us free to serve you for ever. Maranatha:Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Come to us as shepherd and guardian of our souls. We remember …Give us with all the faithful departed a share in your victory over evil and death. Maranatha:
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Come from heaven, Lord Jesus, with power and great glory. Lift us up to meet you, that with [N and] all your saints and angels we may live and reign with you in your new creation. Maranatha: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Silence is kept.

Come, Lord Jesus, do not delay; give new courage to your people, who trust in your love. By your coming, raise us to share in the joy of your kingdom on earth as in heaven, where you live and reign with the Father and the Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Intercessions as tweaked by me

Lord, with your coming Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low:…the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: help us now as we prepare your way.

Come to your Church as Lord and judge. We pray that this new year may bring us unity, if not unanimity, in the Church of England. Help us to live in the light of your coming and give us a longing for your kingdom.
Lord, help us to prepare your way; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Come to your world as King of the nations. We pray for the Middle East, especially Syria. We pray for Afghanistan and our troops there, that they succeed in training their replacements. And we pray for the European Union, that its rulers may live by the words of their anthem, ‘All men are brothers’.
Lord, help us to prepare your way; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Come to the suffering as Saviour and comforter. We pray for …

Break into our lives, where we struggle with sickness and distress,and set us free to serve you for ever.
Lord, help us to prepare your way; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Come to us as shepherd and guardian of our souls. We remember …

Give us with all the faithful departed a share in your victory over evil and death.
Lord, help us to prepare your way; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Come from heaven, Lord Jesus, with power and great glory. Lift us up to meet you, that with St Peter and all your saints and angels we may live and reign with you in your new creation.
Lord, help us to prepare your way; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Come, Lord Jesus; give new courage to your people, who trust in your love. By your coming, raise us to share in the joy of your kingdom on earth as in heaven, where you live and reign with the Father and the Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

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The illustration is Prepare the way for the Lord by: Andy Lindley “A cross, marked by a stone, in the wilderness of the seashore. A lone cross, marked by a quartz cross in the fractures sometimes in its geological history. Revealed by the shaping of the sea. One stone, among many – standing out as different and significant – like John the Baptist, in the wilderness, who drew people to him, through the Spirit of God upon him.”

Normally we would end the intercessions with “Merciful Father, accept these our prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen” but it is inappropriate to end with a salutation to God the Father, when the intercessions have all been addressed to God the Son.

Tags: Intercessions for 9 December 2012, Intercessions for Advent 2 Year C | Category: Intercessions

14th November 2012

Intercessions for Second Sunday Before Advent Year B 2012: Change

The Lectionary

The Collect:
Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life: grant that we, having this hope, may purify ourselves even as he is pure; that when he shall appear in power and great glory we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom…

Daniel 12.1-3
In the third year of King Cyrus a word was revealed to Daniel. At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.’

Psalm 16
Refrain: The Lord is at my right hand; I shall not fall.
Preserve me, O God, for in you have I taken refuge; *I have said to the Lord, ‘You are my lord,all my good depends on you.’
All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land, *upon those who are noble in heart.
Though the idols are legion that many run after, *their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, neither make mention of their names upon my lips.
The Lord himself is my portion and my cup; *in your hands alone is my fortune.
My share has fallen in a fair land; *indeed, I have a goodly heritage.R
I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel, *and in the night watches he instructs my heart.
I have set the Lord always before me; *he is at my right hand; I shall not fall.
Wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices; *my flesh also shall rest secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Death, *nor suffer your faithful one to see the Pit.
You will show me the path of life; in your presence is the fullness of joy *and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Hebrews 10.11-14(15-18)19-25
Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God’, and since then has been waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds’, he also adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Mark 13.1-8
As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’ When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’ Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.’

……………………………………

Initial Thoughts

The theme this week seems to challenge us – is the glass half-full or half-empty? My first reaction was that the readings were all about being challenged by momentous changes, and seeking God’s help to meet the challenge. This is the half-full view. David Adam, on the other hand, seems to have a half-empty take on the lectionary. With the response ‘In him we will not be afraid’, he prefaces the prayers with ‘God of all power and might, give us grace to trust you in the darkness as well as in the light’. Of course I am influenced, as one is supposed to be, by events in the real world which David Adam was unaware of when he wrote Traces of Glory: the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury and the vote on women bishops this coming Tuesday are momentous – but one hopes not cataclysmic – events.

We have already had intercessions on change in the sense of metamorphosis, for the first Sunday after Trinity. But the wind of change that is under consideration today is something altogether harder to resist.

……………………………………

The Prayers

[ Malachi 3.6; Psalm 46.2:]

The Lord does not change, Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.

¶The Church of Christ

As the new Archbishop of Canterbury prepares for his enthronement, and as the Church votes again on whether to accept women as bishops, O God of unchangeable power and eternal light, we ask you to look favourably on your whole Church. May the world feel and see that things which were cast down are being raised up and things which had grown old are being made new and that all things are returning to perfection through him from whom they took their origin, Jesus Christ.

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

Lord of lords, and king of kings, we pray for statesmen, leaders and rulers. May they be quiet in spirit, clear in judgement, and able to understand the issues that face them. Grant them patience, grant them courage, grant them foresight, and grant them great faith. In their anxieties, Lord, be their security. In their opportunities, be their inspiration. And by their plans and their actions, may your kingdom come, your will be done.

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The local community

Lord, we pray for the places where we work, and we give thanks for our homes and those whom we love. Make us mindful that all our lives depend on the work of others, and we pray that we may live thankfully and in unity as members of one human family. And as fellow members of the Body of Christ, help us to share in the joys and sorrows of our neighbours as if they were our own.

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶ Those who suffer

Give strength, Lord, to all caught up in disasters, all who are suffering from famine or flood, storms or earthquakes. Give courage, Lord, to all who are ill, and all who are afraid for their future. Knowing that you are our strength and salvation, we commend to your loving care all those who suffer in body, mind or spirit. In your goodness and mercy, grant them health of body, soundness of mind and peace of heart.

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶ The communion of saints

Lord, we pray to you for those whom we love, but see no longer. Grant them your peace; let light perpetual shine upon them; and in your loving wisdom and almighty power, work in them the holy purpose of your perfect will.

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

………………………………….
(1)Collect from The Gelasian Sacramentary “Transfiguration is in our grasp by the grace and power of God. At a very liminal time for Christianity when it was not clear what would follow Late Antiquity, an altar book was assembled which drew on a range of sources. It became known as the Gelasian Sacramentary and one of its collects expresses our hope”

The other prayers are taken from (sometimes adapted from) The Lion Prayer Collection. The prayer for those in authority is by Lilian Cox (p.224).

Tags: Intercessions for Second Sunday before Advent Year B, Intercessions: Change | Category: Intercessions

19th August 2012

Wisdom: Thought for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

1 Kings 2.10-12, 3.3-14, Ephesians 5.15-20,  John 6.51-58, Psalm 111

Part of the first reading in today’s lectionary is the following:

1 Kings 3.3-14

Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt-offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your life; no other king shall compare with you. If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.’

The price of wisdom is, as we know, above rubies ^{Job 28:18} and even Bob Marley sang:

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

But what is it, and how are we to get it? I use the word ‘get’ because the book of Proverbs does, and because it makes the process of acquiring wisdom sound like a lifelong search for buried treasure, which perhaps it is.

As I suspect the recommendation of early to bed, early to rise will not in itself make you wise, let us begin by agreeing with Clifford Stoll what wisdom is not.

Data is not information,
Information is not knowledge,
Knowledge is not understanding,
Understanding is not wisdom.

Data on its own is certainly not the answer, although the teacher Thomas Gradgrind in Charles Dickens’ ‘Hard Times’ would disagree with me:

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. And then there was his colleague Mr. M’Choakumchild: Orthography, etymology, biography, astronomy, geography, and general cosmography, the sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land-surveying and levelling… were all at the ends of his ten chilled fingers… If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more!

Rachel Carson said:

If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow, and it was three wise men, not three know-alls, whom God sent to visit Jesus in the manger.

King Solomon knew the importance of wisdom, as well as knowledge of the law, in attempting to rule his people, and the difference between knowledge and wisdom is of more than academic interest, as Professor Sir Roy Calne pointed out in his ‘Creator’s Testament to Modern Man’:

God speaks: I have given you DNA programmed by evolution through millions of years…many of the secrets of nature are now revealed to you by your probing curiosity and rational analysis. This knowledge can be used for good or evil. The legend of the serpent who gave Eve the fruit of knowledge is a terrible warning…you will have many hard decisions to make but I have given you the ability to choose…I hope you become Homo Sapiens; the alternative is Homo Extinctus.

There is a very real danger that our thirst for knowledge may lead us after years of hard work to a wise conclusion already reached by God, and freely available to any onlooker who cares to observe: (‘Green Blackboards’ by Michel Quoist)

The school is up to date. Proudly the principal tells of all the improvements. The finest discovery, Lord, is the green blackboard. The scientists have studied long, they have made experiments. We now know that green is the ideal colour, that it doesn’t tire the eyes, that it is quieting and relaxing. It has occurred to me, Lord, that you didn’t wait so long to paint the trees and meadows green. ..thank you, Lord, for being the good Father who gives his children the joy of discovering by themselves the treasures of his intelligence and love. But keep us from believing that – by ourselves- we have invented anything at all.

Wisdom, in fact, has little to do with IQ. As Groucho Marx said:

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.

You don’t even have to be human, as the following piece on dog wisdom by Anon. points out (cat lovers are free to substitute their own version):

If your dog were your teacher, you would learn stuff like…
Be loyal. When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
Take naps and stretch before rising. Delight in the simple joys of a long walk.
When it’s in your best interest – practice obedience.
Tolerate cats – humans love that. Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it, wherever that leads you.
In fact:
If you can start the day without caffeine;
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains;
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles;
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it;
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment;
If you can face the world without lies and deceit;
If you can relax without alcohol and sleep without drugs;
If you can honestly say you have no prejudice against anyone based on their creed, colour, or politics…
then, my friends, you are ALMOST as wise as your dog.

It was Cicero who pointed out the moral dimension: the function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

And for Saint-Exupéry’s ‘Little Prince’ the secret was very simple:

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Seeing, even if through a glass darkly, to the essence of things, is an important part of wisdom, as we learn in C S Lewis’s ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader‘.

In our world, said Eustace, a star is a huge ball of flaming gas. Even in your world, my son [said Aslan], that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of.

So how are we, then, to get wisdom? According to Proverbs again, it is easy enough to give the appearance of wisdom:

even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise:^17:28and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

But if only the real thing will do, Confucius, of course, had the answer:

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

It may be bitter, but as Proust said:

we don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

And Herman Hesse added, in Siddhartha:

knowledge can be communicated, but wisdom cannot. A man can find it, he can live it, he can be filled and sustained by it, but he cannot utter or teach it.

Nevertheless, the hope of learning wisdom from others, whether a hermit in a cave in Tibet or, more likely, the man next door, is universal. Did you see the 1979 film, ‘Being There’, in which Peter Sellers played the part of Chance, the gardener or, as he was understood to say, Chauncey Gardiner? His simplistic responses (usually related to his gardening experience) to the most difficult questions are interpreted as pearls of wisdom. On the vagaries of the stock market:
first comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
On economics: In a garden, growth has its season…as long as the roots are not severed, all is well, and all will be well in the garden.
By reflecting the forgotten truths of nature, Chance is hailed as a hero and introduced to the president who, impressed by his political analysis, quotes Chance as his guru and turns him into a national prophet.

Let’s leave the last word to Piet Hein, ‘Grooks’:

The road to wisdom? –
Well, it’s plain,
And simple to express:
Err and err and err again,
but less and less and less.

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Both illustrations are taken from murals in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. They are by Robert Lewis Reid. The top one is of Understanding, captioned ‘Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding‘ (Proverbs 4.7). The bottom on is Wisdom, annotated ‘Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers’.

Tags: Antoine de Saint Exupery, Aslan, Bob Marley, C S Lewis, Charles Dickens, Chauncey Gardiner, Cicero, Clifford Stoll, Confucius, Groucho Marx, Hermann Hesse, Marcel Proust, Michel Quoist, Piet Hein, Rachel Carson, Sir Roy Calne | Category: Life's lessons

5th August 2012

Do Anglican Churches Really Want to Survive?: Wendy Dackson

Lay Anglicana is delighted to welcome the distinguished Dr Wendy Dackson as a regular contributor to this blog. She says:

I’m an ethnically Jewish American Episcopalian lay woman who was first baptised and confirmed in the Reformed Church of America, and holds a doctorate in theology from the very Jesuit Marquette University. I’ve written on a variety of topics in Anglican theology and presented at conferences in the US, UK and Belgium. I’ve taught theology, religious studies, and writing in various institutions of higher education in the US and UK, and am actively seeking my next post.

For a fuller version of her background, please see the end of this post.

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A few years ago (2009, to be precise), I contributed an essay to a book on the enduring value of the work of Reinhold Niebuhr My essay is chapter 6, on Niebuhr’s ‘outsider ecclesiology’. Others have argued that Niebuhr’s vision of the Church is the weakest point In his theology. My essay argues that the importance is that the surprising thing is that a person with Niebuhr’s privilege and influence within an institutional church is his effort to critique the church from the viewpoint of those who have little use for it.

Niebuhr held, as did 98^th Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (also an arguably privileged churchman) that people who declined to profess faith in Christ and his Church did not usually do so out of ignorance, stubbornness, or hardness of heart. It was the fault of the Church if, in Temple’s great quip, the Church professed to be a foretaste of heaven, and people said, ‘well, then, I don’t care to go to heaven.’ It was because the Church was presenting the Christian message in ways that were unacceptable to non-Christians (Niebuhr even acknowledged that there might be historic reasons that it would never be acceptable to some groups), or perhaps non-Christians were not terribly impressed with the clash between professed belief and manner of living.

Taken together, the writing careers of Temple and Niebuhr covered roughly the first three-quarters of the 20^th century, a time of unprecedented change. But in the decades since Niebuhr’s death in 1971, categories of ‘church-rejectors’ (to coin a phrase) emerged that neither of these theologians could have imagined: the ‘spiritual but not religious’, as Diana Butler Bass describes in her new book Christianity after Religion. Citing both the famous departure of author Anne Rice from the Roman Catholic Church in 2010, and listening to the story of a woman she calls ‘Ellen’ (p. 22 et seq), it is clear that something important is happening. These are not the stories of people who would rather sleep late on Sunday, or whose children’s sport activities conflict with church attendance. Rather, these are thoughtful, serious women who have tried to carry out a meaningful spiritual quest within the framework of institutional religion, and for various reasons, their churches have failed them. With regret, they have decided to leave, and proceed as best they can on their own.

I am sure these women are not alone—I have, on more than one occasion, found myself wondering why I stay in an institution that rarely meets my needs and routinely discourages me in a variety of ways. All I can say by way of explanation is that I believe that institutional religions can meet many deep human needs, and that I hope I can help at least one to do that.

Bass’s focus, however, I think, unduly negative concerning religious institutions, drawing sharp lines between ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’, and often arguing that ‘religion’ and its institutions are unhelpful in supporting either the individual’s journey towards a fuller life in God, and the formation of vibrant communities of faith. As an ecclesiologist, I have reservations concerning this stance. Institutions are the bearers of traditions of the ‘practices’ which Bass praises for their ability to assist spiritual formation and transformation. Furthermore, properly functioning institutions have structures of accountability which help prevent ‘personality cults’ from developing around charismatic, but questionable, ‘leaders’, providing some measure of protection to people trying to deepen their relationship with their fellow human beings, the natural world, and the divine. Finally, institutions can acquire and deploy resources on a scale usually unavailable to individuals and small groups, thereby assisting in philanthropic aims that are often the fruit of spiritual growth. In terms of growth in spirituality, the institutional church still has much to offer.

For almost 20 years, I have been a relatively serious student of my chosen Christian tradition, the worldwide Anglican Communion. I have recently completed an article in Anglican social theology (it will appear in the Autumn 2012 issue of Anglican Theological Review), and I have reason to believe that the ‘big questions’ I’ve outlined in it are things thoughtfully spiritual people seek to answer. But they are not individually focused questions; rather they involve institutions and their place in society. I explore the historic development of questions of ‘what is the nature and purpose of society in light of God’s intention for human beings?’; ‘what is the place of the Christian Church in an increasingly plural society?’; ‘what benefits does a distinctively Christian presence contribute to a society that acknowledges many spiritual and religious traditions?’ I dig up the pre-Reformation foundations of the tradition, examining how our notions of justice and good government are formed by Christian belief and history.

I am sure I am not the only lay person who wants to explore how belief has formed so many cherished ideas, so that we can revisit and question their appropriateness for the lives we live today, and the lives that will be lived by those who come after us. However, the institutional Churches have not served particularly well for this. They have too long been embroiled in discussing side issues, such as who can serve as an ordained minister, and nosing into the most private aspects of domestic arrangements.

There is, however, cause for hope. Both the Episcopal Church in the USA, and the Church in Wales, have chosen to look carefully at their structures, to see if they can become more effective in deploying resources—financial, material, and human—in the interest of becoming more effective environments for people to explore ways to live lives of justice, wisdom, integrity and compassion in a contemporary world which too often lacks these qualities. The Church in Wales, notably, has said that they cannot continue on as they have been doing. There has been too much decline, too many people not attending services, and they have come up with excellent recommendations as to how to address some of this. I have not seen the same clarity in the Episcopal Church, but there is a similar direction that has come out of the recent triennial General Convention.

My hope, however, is guarded. An entirely new mode of pastoral provision is described in the Church in Wales Review—but those who train new ministers will be doing so from the viewpoint of people with ‘many long years’ experience in ministry.’ Which means, for the most part, people (still primarily men) who have been ordained for decades, and have learned to blame those who do not come to church for the church’s failure to provide spiritual sustenance. It will mean that new clergy will be trained by people who are ‘successful’ at keeping the laity quiet and submissive—no matter how much lip-service is paid to ‘ministry of all the baptized’.

What other institution does this? When a retailer or manufacturer does not reach its intended market, does it say, ‘We’ve got a tremendous product, how silly are they to reject it? We’ll just keep it on the shelf, gathering dust, not bringing anyone through our doors, because we know how good it is.’ Of course not. A smart, entrepreneurial business venture asks questions, and adapts. It brings in new people on staff, it welcomes new points of view—even uncomfortable ones. Hearing hard truths about why something is not working, and acting on what one hears, is the fastest way to get things working again. And yet, this is exactly what the churches refuse to do.

I am not saying that there should not be experienced ordained people training people for ministry in the churches. I am saying that alongside those experienced ordained people, future ministers need to hear—on a regular, frequent basis—from those who have not always been served well by the church. I am one of the people who lives at the edge of the church, often with one foot out the door. I am that rare creature: a dissatisfied spiritual seeker, a lover of God, with a wide knowledge of theology. I could help articulate the needs of many, and help the Church find ways back to being a vibrant community for spiritual growth and community service. The Church doesn’t want that.

I am saddened that the Church has not seen fit to listen to my voice, because that indicates to me a basic institutional dishonesty. The Church says it wants to grow and thrive. It says it is concerned that the attendance numbers are significantly down in the last few decades. It claims to be concerned that people are leaving—but blames it on the plethora of the other choices that our ‘consumerist’ society offers as alternatives to Sunday worship.

That last is patently false. If the Church was meeting the deepest needs and yearnings of spiritual people, it would be a priority in their lives. But it is not, and it chooses to ignore everything except the obvious. Evelyn Underhill, the great Anglican mystic of the early 20^th century, said that the ‘only really interesting thing about religion is God.’ People aren’t staying away from the Church to play football or shop—they’re staying away because they aren’t finding God.

The Church in Wales Review says that things have to change, that things cannot be done the same way as they have been. The Review team spoke to a large number of people, and are happy to report that there are still a lot of people who feel deep affection and high regard for the Church, the local vicars, and the bishops. Of course, they also report an overly deferential attitude toward the bishop and local clergy, so it would be very surprising if they heard from very many people who felt they could speak freely about their dissatisfactions and disappointment with the Church. If the Review’s recommendations are to be implemented effectively, that needs to change.

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EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Theology December, 2000

Marquette University,Milwaukee,Wisconsin

Dissertation: The Church, For and Against the Nations, in the Thought of William Temple. Develops a political ecclesiology from the writings of William Temple (1881-1944). Director: D. Thomas Hughson, S.J. Defended 25 August 2000.

Comprehensive examinations: Church-State Relations; Sacraments and Moral Formation; Authority and Community; Hebrew Prophecy; 19^th Century Theological Liberalism.

M.T.S. in Theology June 1995

Seabury-Western Theological Seminary,Evanston,Illinois

Thesis: Eucharist as a Model of Economic Justice.

Director: Timothy F. Sedgwick.

Master of Business Administration May 1987

Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York

B.F.A. (Honours) in Music June 1984

YorkUniversity,Toronto,Ontario,Canada

PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS

Book:

The Ecclesiology of Archbishop William Temple (1881-1944). 2004, Edwin Mellen Press.

Articles &Essays:

‘Reinhold Niebuhr’s Outsider Ecclesiology’ in Reinhold Niebuhr & Contemporary Politics: God and Power, ed. Richard Harries & Stephen Platten. OUP, 2010.

‘Integrity, Alternative Aggressions, and Impaired Communion’ in Ecumenical Ecclesiology: Unity, Diversity and Otherness in a Fragmented World, ed. Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen, T&T Clark, 2009.

“Archbishop William Temple And Public Theology in a Post-Christian Context.” Journal of Anglican Studies. December 2006.

“A Bridge to the New World: William Temple’s American Ecumenism.” Anglican and Episcopal History, Spring 2005.

“William Stringfellow’s Sacramental Theology”, Journal of Anglican Studies, Winter 2004.

“But Was it Meant to be a Joke Legacy? Ronald Preston as Heir to William Temple,” Studies in Christian Ethics, August 2004.

“Richard Hooker and American Religious Liberty,” Journal of Church and State, Winter 1999.

“William Temple: Champion of the Jews,” Anglican and Episcopal History, April 1997.

Papers:

Our Own Others: Natures, Purposes and Futures of Anglican Dioceses. Receptive Ecumenism and Ecclesial Learning Symposium,UshawCollege,DurhamUK 14 January 2009.

Integrity, Alternative Aggressions, and Impaired Communion. Ecclesiological Investigations Programme Unit, American Academy of Religions. San Diego,California,USA. 17 November, 2007

Toward a Theology of Laity. Leuven Encounters in Systematic Theology,Leuven,Belgium. 9 November 2007.

IntegrityAlternative Aggressions and Impaired Communion. San Diego,AmericanAcademy of Religions Ecclesiological Investigations Program Unit, November 2007.

A Conversation in Implications for Public Theology in the Windsor Report. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Society for the Study of Anglicanism (additional meeting of the American Academy of Religions), November, 2005. Joint presentation with Revd. Dr. Malcolm Brown, East Anglian Ministerial Training Course.

William Temple and the Challenge of the Post-Christian. San Antonio, Texas: Society for the Study of Anglicanism (additional meeting of the American Academy of Religions), November 2004.

A Bridge to the Old World: William Temple’s American Ecumenism. Chicago,Illinois: Anglican-Lutheran Historical Conference,21 June 2004.

But Was it Meant to be a Joke Legacy? Ronald Preston as Heir to William Temple. Short paper presented as part of a Colloquium on “Ronald Preston and the Future of Christian Social Ethics”, the 2003 Samuel Ferguson Lectures in Social and Pastoral Theology, University of Manchester (UK), 14-15 March, 2003.

Tradition Constituted Inquiry: A Proposal for Theological Method. Upper Midwest Regional AAR. 28 April 2000. St. Paul,MN.

Book Reviews:

The Anglican Covenant. Mark Chapman, Editor. Practical Theology, Spring 2009.

Light in a Burning Glass: A Systematic Presentation of Austin Farrer’s Theology. By Robert Boak Slocum. Theological Studies, June 2008.

Through the Eye of a Needle: Theological Conversations over Political Economy Edited by John Atherton and Hannah Skinner. Journal of Church and State, Autumn 2007.

God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law. By Marci A. Hamilton. Journal of Church and State, Spring 2006

Melting the Venusberg: A Feminist Theology of Music. By Heidi Epstein. Anglican Theological Review, Winter 2006

Bonds of Imperfection: Christian Politics, Past and Present. By Oliver O’Donovan and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan. Journal of Anglican Studies, December 2005.

Political Worship: Ethics for Christian Citizens. By Bernd Wannenwetsch. Anglican Theological Review. Fall 2005.

Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. By Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart. Journal of Church and State, Summer 2005.

Is the Market Moral? A Dialogue on Religion, Economics, and Justice. By Rebecca M. Blank and William McGurn. Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2005.

A Passionate Pilgrim: A Biography of Bishop James A.Pike. By David Robertson. Journal of Church and State, Spring 2005.

Creation through Wisdom: Theology and the New Biology. By Celia Deane-Drummond. Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2005.

Themes in Religion and American Culture. Goff, Philip and Paul Harvey, eds. Journal of Church and State, Autumn 2005.

Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon. By John Milbank. Journal of Church and State, Winter 2005.

Secularisation. By Edward Norman. Anglican Theological Review, Autumn 2004.

Living Spirit, Living Practice: Poetics, Politics, Epistemology. By Ruth Frankenberg. Journal of Church and State, Autumn 2004.

New Religious Movements in the 21^st Century: Legal, Political and Social Challenges in Global Perspective. Edited by Philip Charles Lucas and Thomas Robbins. Journal of Church and State, Summer 2004.

Modernity and the Dilemma of North American Anglican Identities, 1880-1950. By William H. Katerberg. Journal of Church and State, Spring 2004.

Marginalization. By John Atherton. Journal of Church and State, Winter 2004.

September 11: Religious Perspectives on the Causes and Consequences. Ian S. Markham and Ibrahim Abu-Rabi, eds. Journal of Church and State, Spring 2003.

Liberalism and Crime: The British Experience. By Robert R. Sullivan. Journal of Church and State, Winter 2003.

The Social Gospel Today. Christopher H. Evans, ed. Journal of Church and State, Winter, 2002.

The Middle Way: Theology, Politics and Economics in the Later Thought of R.H. Preston. John R. Elford and Ian S. Markham, eds. Journal of Church and State, Winter, 2002.

Politics, Theology, and History. By Raymond Plant. Journal of Church and State, Autumn 2001.

Reflections on the Theology of Richard Hooker: An Elizabethan Addresses Modern Anglicanism. By John Booty. Journal of Church and State, Spring 2001

Public Theology for Changing Times. By John Atherton. Journal of Church and State, Spring 2001.

God, Britain, and Hitler in World War II: The View of the British Clergy, 1939-1945. By A.J. Hoover. Journal of Church and State, Autumn 2000.

Revolutionary Anglicanism: The Colonial Church of England During the American Revolution, by Nancy L. Roden. Journal of Church and State, Spring 2000.

God, Faith and the New Millennium: Christian Belief in an Age of Science, by Keith Ward. Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2002.

Christian Thinking and Social Order: Conviction Politics from the 1930s to the Present Day, edited by Marjorie Reeves. Journal of Church and State, Winter 2000.

American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving, by Christian Smith. Journal of Church and State, Fall 1999.

The Churches and Social Questions in Twentieth-Century Britain, by G.I.T Machin. Journal of Church and State, Summer 1999.

Plurality and Christian Ethics, by Ian Markham. Journal of Church and State, Summer 1999.

Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity, by Gerd Ludemann. Anglican Theological Review, Summer 1998.

The Desire of the Nations: Recovering the Roots of Political Theology, by Oliver O’Donovan. Journal of Church and State, Fall 1997.

EXPERIENCE

Diocese ofCanterbury,Canterbury,United KingdomAugust 2008—December 2010

Director of Studies, Licenced Ministries Training Scheme

Subject tutor: Anglican Theology in Context, Introduction to Christian Theology, Church in Contemporary Culture, parish placements.

Also responsible for the preaching programme (not assessed), annual retreat, instruction on journaling and theological reflection, programmes for training incumbents and local group facilitators.

Design team, Kent Continuing Ministerial Education,Canterbury,United Kingdom, October 2008-July 2009

Project managed design and revalidation of the joint programme for curates inCanterburyand Rochester Dioceses, including design of several modules, leading to BA and MA awards in Ordained Theology throughCanterburyChristChurchUniversity.

RiponCollegeCuddesdon,Oxford, United Kingdom June 2006 – April 2008

Research Fellow, Derby Diocesan ‘Clergy in Ministerial Context Project’

Designed and executed commissioned research in practical theology involving roles and identities of clergy across a single Church of England diocese.

Occasional Lecturer:

Ecclesiology:

Toward a Theology of Laity, November 2006 and 2007

Insiders/Outsiders, November 2006 and 2007

Impaired Communion November 2007

Anglican Theology

Archbishop William Temple, March 2007 and February 2008

Richard Hooker,13 March 2007

Eastern Region Ministry Course,Cambridge,United Kingdom

Guest lecturer, MA programme,3 November 2006

Toward a Theology of Laity

Insiders/Outsiders

Southern Theological Education & Training Scheme,Salisbury

Guest Lecturer, MA Programme June 2007

Congregational Studies

Oxford Ministry Course,Oxford,United Kingdom

Guest speaker, February 2007

Researching Congregations

January and February 2008

Insiders/Outsiders

Toward a Theology of Lay Ministry

Regent’sParkCollege,Oxford University, United Kingdom October 2006 to Present

Fellow,OxfordCentre for Christianity and Contemporary Culture

Research Series in Practical Theology

Lecture: Towards a Theology of Laity,23 February 2007

NiagaraUniversity,Niagara Falls,New York January to May 2004

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Thinking and Writing

CanisiusCollege,Buffalo,New York January to May 2004

Adjunct Professor, Introduction to Religious Studies

RockValleyCollege,Rockford,Illinois Fall 2002

Adjunct Professor, Philosophy and Religion

Introduction to Philosophy, World Religions

Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas 2001-2002

Visiting Assistant Professor, Religious Studies

Fall term: Science and Religion, Responsibilities for the Future (practical ethics), Pastoral Writing (on-line professional studies course)

Spring term: Introduction to Christian Religion, Comparative Religions, History of Christianity in the US andCanada; Renaissance through Enlightenment (on-line professional studies course); Theological Issues: Ecclesiology (on-line professional studies course)

Seabury-Western Theological Seminary,Evanston,Illinois Spring Quarter, 2001

Adjunct Faculty: Anglican Theology Since the Oxford Movement

CarthageCollege,Kenosha,Wisconsin Fall 2000

Adjunct Instructor, Heritage I (an interdisciplinary first-semester freshman course aimed at improving academic skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking)

MarquetteUniversity,Milwaukee,Wisconsin 1999-2000

Teaching Fellow in Theology. Taught one section per semester of the required undergraduate Introduction to Theology.

MarquetteUniversity,Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1997

Instructional Assistant in the College of Professional Studies. Assisted with grading written assignments, and acted as substitute lecturer, for required theological ethics course in the weekend/evening degree program for working adults.

MarquetteUniversity,Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1996

Teaching Assistant, Department of Theology.

Seabury-Western Theological Seminary,Evanston,Illinois 1994-1995

Student Editorial Assistant, Crossroads

Victory Theatre Association,Dayton,OH 1988-89

Marketing and Public Relations Director

BrazosValleySymphony Society,Bryan,TX 1987-88

Executive Director

ADULT EDUCATION SERIES

What Do We Mean When We Say “Church”? St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Wilmette, IL. 25 March, 2001.

Science and Religion in Contemporary Anglican Theology. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Wilmette, IL. October-November 1999. Four-week series.

St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Wilmette, IL. April 18 and 25, 1999. Two-week series.

William Temple. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Wilmette, IL. May 17, 1998.

Faith and Public Life. St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, River Hills, WI. February 1997.

We Believe: The Nicene Creed. St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, River Hills, WI. October-November 1996. Four-week series. Repeated as a two-week series at St. Augustine’s, April 1997.

Anglican Luminaries: Richard Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, William Temple. St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, River Hills, WI. January-February 1996. Three-week series.

Prayer and Scripture. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Wilmette, IL. April 1995. Four-week series.

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES AND SERVICE

AmericanAcademyof Religions

International Society for the Study of Anglicanism: Advisory Committee

Journal of Anglican Studies: Review Associate forNorth America

Association for Practical Theology (USA)

ACADEMIC AWARDS AND HONORS

MarquetteUniversity,Milwaukee,Wisconsin 1999-2000

Teaching Fellow, Department of Theology

MarquetteUniversity,Milwaukee,Wisconsin 1998-1999

Smith Family Fellow (Travel fellowship for dissertation research)

Charles M. Ross Trust Fellow 1997-1999

Fellowship for Christian Leadership

Episcopal Diocese ofPennsylvania 1996-1999

Church Training and Deaconness House Scholarship

Order of the Daughters of the King 1996-1997

Masters’ Fund Scholarship

MarquetteUniversity,Milwaukee,Wisconsin 1996-1999

Tuition Scholarship

Seabury-Western Theological Seminary 1995

Mercer Scholarship

Tags: Church in Wales Review, The Episcopal Church | Category: Anglican Communion, Church of England

21st April 2012

“Could Lay Celebration Renew The Church of England?”

The Revd John Richardson blogs as ‘The Ugley Vicar’ (a self-deprecating pun in which he takes a very Anglican delight: he is the Vicar of Ugley in Essex). On 12 April he wrote a post under this title which he has kindly allowed me to reproduce below. I think it important because it is the best explanation I have seen of why Anglicans in general, and the Church of England in particular, might come to adopt lay presidency.

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The State of the Church

One of the things that literally causes me sleepless hours is the present state of the Church of England. It is not just the doctrinal and moral issues currently being raked over as we consider, for example, the appointment of the next Archbishop of Canterbury. It is also the lack of evangelistic impact the Church of England has on the country and the lack of effective energy amongst many of its members. Somehow, despite its best efforts — and some of them are considerable — the Church as a whole fails to impress or enthuse.

Lay Presidency

I must have been musing on this the other morning when my thoughts turned yet again to the topic of lay celebration — the practice of allowing ordinary laypeople to preside at that activity we know variously as Holy Communion, the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper. When I say ‘yet again’, I do mean that this is something I have thought about often. Indeed, I first gave it conscious consideration back in the 1970s, soon after I became a Christian. Despite growing up in a strongly Anglo-Catholic tradition, it seemed obvious, subsequent to my conversion, that any Christian group ought to be able to commemorate the Last Supper, regardless of whether an ‘ordained’ or authorized person were present.

‘Only priests can do this’

The same thought persisted throughout my college years at St John’s, Nottingham. When David Sheppard, then the Bishop of Woolwich, took part in the only college debate we had on the subject, I was simply struck by how much his arguments seemed to depend on special pleading, not common sense and Scripture.

The same was true when I read and reviewed Eucharistic Presidency: A Theological Statement by the House of Bishops of the General Synod, published in 1997. On the one hand, the Bishops seemed unwilling to commit to a ‘Romanesque’ theology of priesthood. On the other hand, they wanted to make sure that only priests could celebrate the eucharist.

The result was an appeal to the notion of ‘overall pastoral oversight’ supposedly possessed by the incumbent, but of course not possessed by curates or visiting clergy called in when the incumbent is unavailable. Hence we were back to the (desired) conclusion: ‘Only priests can do this,’ but lacking the old justification, ‘Because they are priests,’ and relying instead on a new, functional, justification which in the end is either too narrow or (potentially) too broad.

It has always seemed to me that the best argument for ‘priests, and priests only’ is the Roman (and Anglo) Catholic one: that priests are different in kind and can do different stuff. Once, however, you accept the notion of the ‘priesthood of all believers’, then rationalizations of the ‘priests only’ rule begin to look just like that.

And this is why it matters. If you truly regard the Christian community generally as a ‘priestly kingdom’, you ought to act accordingly. If you don’t act like it, then you either don’t believe it, or you do believe it but are prepared to act in disobedience to it.

Harnessing the energies of our laity

Arguably this also has some bearing on why it is so difficult to harness the energies of our laity. Whilst they consider themselves ‘disenfranchised’, why should they take responsibility? And if they are capable of taking this responsibility, why do we reserve the sacramental role to the clergy? Certainly the view of at least some of the early Reformers was consistent with this attitude. Martin Luther, in particular, had a ‘theology of the word’ which meant that anyone, including women, could act in a ‘priestly’ manner:

To baptize is incomparably greater than to consecrate bread and wine, for it is the greatest office in the church — the proclamation of the Word of God. So when women baptize, they exercise the function of priesthood legitimately, and do it not as a private act, but as a part of the public ministry of the church which belongs only to the priesthood. (‘Concerning the Ministry’, LW 40:23)

Rather less-widely known is Thomas Cranmer’s view that in the absence of bishops, anyone, including the laity, could authorize some of their number to act as priests.

Now of course the Puritans, of whom I am generally a fan, opposed lay baptism, and therefore presumably may have struggled with lay celebration of the Lord’s Supper. But I may be wrong — and in any case I cannot understand their reticence on the baptism issue. I have long been of the opinion that the Reformation generally fell short when it came to reforming the Church’s ministry. In my heart of hearts, I am persuaded that in this regard the Church is indeed still ‘but halfly reformed’.

What holds me back

First, I am concerned for Anglican Catholics. I do not agree with their arguments, but I understand them and recognize their internal consistency and their long history. So whilst I would like to see change, I would want to discuss it and clarify the reasons for this with others who take a different view, just as one ought to in a congregational setting.

Secondly, we have all seen what happens when groups and individuals, overwhelmed with enthusiasm for a spiritual novelty, go off the rails. It is simply not the case that ‘clergy-led, bad; lay-led, good’. On the contrary, lay-led is often subject to abuse and domineering personalities. That there is some control over this in the episcopal system has long seemed to me one of the key arguments in its favour. Purist ‘congregationalism’ is, I think, a bad thing, and before taking steps in the direction I am suggesting, is one of the things that should also be discussed.

The need to empower the whole people of God

Yet it does seem to me that we need to break the spiritual-monopolistic tendency of Anglican clericalism and to empower the whole people of God. I have said before that I believe the current Anglican model of ministry is essentially ‘aristocratic’. We are a community divided into an elite and the rest, and no one can cross from the ‘wrong side’ of the tracks without being admitted by the gatekeepers, who are virtually all themselves members of that elite. But the chief qualification for exercising your ‘elitism’ is simply that you are of the elite — I am a ‘priest’ and you are not, and there’s an end to it. The answer, however, is not democracy! In a religious democracy — at least in the sense I am using the word — every ‘Jack’ or ‘Jill’ is as good as his or her master or mistress. Here there is no submission to leaders, as advocated in Hebrews 13:17. Instead, ‘everyone is entitled to their opinion’, and to disagree with or contradict the erstwhile leadership as much as they feel inclined.

Actually, of course, such disagreement goes on all the time in the Church of England. But thanks to our aristocratic system, the ‘mob’ of the laity can never actually seize the Bastille of sacramental privilege. It is rather like the old Victorian rhyme about the colonial wars:

“Whatever happens, we have got

the Maxim gun — and they have not.’

But there is a third way, which is ‘meritocracy’ — which it seems to me is already exemplified in Judaism, and indeed Islam. In Judaism, the path to the rabbinate is through study. Thus whilst being an intellectual does not make you a rabbi, to be a rabbi requires learning. And one thing is sure: no one could expect to become a rabbi who did not have a substantial grasp of the Hebrew language. Certainly you could not expect to be a rabbi (or an imam, come to that) without being able to read and engage with the sacred texts of your community. Yet how many Anglican clergy have a grasp of the original languages?

Now I am not saying that you have to be able to read Greek or Hebrew in order to be able to celebrate the Lord’s Supper — far from it. But at the moment the privileged few who can do this may have little or no ability in areas that other religions would consider fundamental, whilst those who could, through personal effort, acquire such skills, are potentially excluded by the elitist system from ever exercising the role of ‘leader’ conceived in Hebrews.

The system is surely in need of renewal

Whatever our views, the system is surely in need of renewal. Full-time, full-time trained, clergy are in increasingly short supply. The return of the ‘mass priest’, able to recite the service but skilled in little else, looms — either that or we must accept the practice of sacramental reservation even whilst our formularies deny the principle. We live in radically challenging times. Should we not be considering radically alternative answers?

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The illustration was chosen by me: it depicts the “Fractio Panis” fresco in the Capella Greca of the Roman catacomb of St. Priscilla

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19th April 2013

21st March 2013

The Collect

¶ The Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Isaiah 50.4-9a

Psalm 31.9-16

Second Reading: Philippians 2.5-11

Gospel Reading: Luke 22.14-23.56

Prayers of Intercession

¶The Church of Christ

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶The local community

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶Those who suffer

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶The communion of saints

Lord, give us grace this Holy Week to follow in your Son’s path from death to resurrection, from darkness to light: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The illustration is by Phil Blewett, via Seed Resources

18th February 2013

Is there a stable place to rest at the end of the progressive path?

The short answer to the question.

The slightly longer answer

Differing roles of God and the Church

Does the Holy Spirit offer a stable place to rest?

Do we know where the progressive path will lead us?

The illustration is Heraclitus (c.1630) by Johannes Moreelse (c. 1603–1634) via Wikimedia

1st January 2013

NAMING JESUS

12th December 2012

Collect

Zephaniah 3.14-20

Psalm:Isaiah 12.2-6

Second Reading: Philippians 4.4-7

Luke 3.7-18

Grumbling aside:

Lord, help us both to discern and to do your will. In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, help us both to discern and to do your will. In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, help us both to discern and to do your will. In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, help us both to discern and to do your will. In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your son, our saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

5th December 2012

Collect

Baruch 5.1-9

Psalm: Luke 1.68-79

Philippians 1.3-11

Luke 3.1-6

Intercessions

Intercessions as tweaked by me

14th November 2012

The Lectionary

Initial Thoughts

The Prayers

¶The Church of Christ

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The local community

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶ Those who suffer

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶ The communion of saints

O unchanging Lord, guide us as we undergo great changes: in your mercy, hear our prayer

19th August 2012

5th August 2012

21st April 2012

The State of the Church

Lay Presidency

‘Only priests can do this’