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Generational perspective on Communion Without Baptism

Bob Griffith of the Imago Dei Initiative writes about the generational issues which should be considered in the Communion Without Baptism conversation which will come before the Episcopal Church's General Convention this summer.  

"Millennials are seeking something that is not bound by the chaos of constant change. Those who are truly trying to find God and develop a spiritual understanding of life are seeking examples of real alternatives to the morass of prevailing culture among people who claim this enduring Faith. They are seeking something that is not trite or superficial and something that proves to be profoundly consequential.

Synod Reflections

I served as Chaplain to the 2012 Province IV Synod.  Below are links to my reflections and resources.

Wednedsay Evening Reflections 
Luke 10 from the Common English Bible, People of the Way by Dwight Zscheile, Collect for a Church Convention, Collect for the Church

Thursday Morning & Noon Reflections  
Morning: Christian leadership as powerlessness and humility by Henri Nouwen, Collect for Eighth Sunday after Epiphany
Noon: Isaiah, A General Thanksgiving

Friday Homily
The Church as pregnant, and the Anglican emphasis on the Incarnation

Friday Morning Reflection
The Church as pregnant, and God's commandment to not be afraid

Synod reflections: Friday

A Presbyterian pastor in DC recently issued a video response to those in the PCUSA who had diagnosed their church as "terminally ill." In a subsequent blog post, she writes that yes, parts of the church are dying and that, yes, some parts are already dead. Church as we have known it certainly seems to be passing away before us. 

Many of us in the church are mourning its death: we begin to try to look for meaning, to look for moments of comfort, and to seek glimpses of hope.  As Christians, we know that death is for us always a tool for bringing about new life. 

This is where Pastor Dana makes her response. She declares: "We are not deathly ill. We’re…well…we’re pregnant." 

What if, instead of only talking about the bringing forth of new life as a consequence of dying, we began to talk about it as a consequence of...pregnancy? What if the church were pregnant? What if we are an "expecting" church? An "expectant" church?  The signs are there, she points out.  Fatigue, certainly.  Anxiety: Am I ready? Can I do this? What if I just can't bear the changes it brings about in my life?  There is even, at times, a bit of queasiness.  During pregancy, time is not your own--you must be patient, you must wait.

Synod Homily

Last night in Fr. Merchan'ts sermon, he described being asked if Episcopalians believed in Jesus Christ who died for their sins.  He gave an enthusiastic Yes! and added that he also believed in the Jesus who was born in this world to be like us! Fr. Merchant also described the reality that when people are searching for meaning, for a spiritual community, they are not interested in the institution of our denomination.  And yet, it matters that the Episcopal Church lives and grows.

We've heard a lot about the death of the church this week--and Fr. Merchant is right--the institutional piece of who we are is quickly becoming irrelevant and facing death.  It's easy to confuse the death of the institution with the death of the denomination. And the denomination may be dying, too.  

Pastor MaryAnn McKibben Dana, a PCUSA pastor in the Washington, DC area, recently replied to those same concerns being discussed in the Presbyterian Church. (The PCUSA has recently restructured itself--known as 'New Form of Government,' or NFoG.) In her reflection, she suggests that we might refocus our conversation about the transitions needed in the lives of our churches.  Death to the parts of the Church that need to die, yes, but remembering always that death for Christians is the means to new life.  And new life, she reminds us, means being born.  

 So, Pastor Dana, asks, what if we stopped saying we're dying, and started saying we're....pregnant?  

Synod reflections: Thursday

In his book on Christian leadership, In the Name of Jesus, Henri Nouwen paraphrases from the Gospel of John: "The world says, "When you were young we were dependent and could not go where you wanted, but when you grown old you will be able to make your own decisions, go your own way, and control your own destiny." (81) He then comments on the challenge of letting go and following Jesus:

"But Jesus has a different vision of maturity: It is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go.  Immediately after Peter has been commissioned to be a leader of his sheep, Jesus confronts him with the hard truth that the servant-leader is the leader is the leader who is being led to unknown, undesirable, and painful places. The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross.  This might sound morbid and masochistic, but for those who have heard the voice of the first love and said yes to it, the downward-moving way of Jesus is the way to the joy and the peace of God, a joy and peace that is not of this world. 

Here we touch the most important quality of Christian leadership in the future.  It is not a leadership of power and control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the suffereing servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest." (81-83)

Nouwen continues, saying that true spiritual leadership is leadership in which power is constantly abandoned in favor of love. "Powerlessness and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone else make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them, always trusting that, with him, they will find life and find it abundantly."  (83-84)

Synod reflections: Wednesday

I was honored to be asked to serve as chaplain to the Province IV Synod. Below are Wednesday's reflections. These reflections came before and after presentations by the Presiding Bishop and the Rev. Dr. Dwight Zscheile.

Wednesday night:

Dwight Zscheile, in his new book People of the Way: Renewing Episcopal Identity, suggests that we might do well to use the story of the sending of the seventy disciples as we think about how to be a church of mission in the 21st century. We are called, he explains, to not just offer hospitality, but we must also be able to receive it--we must learn to be guests.  (p. 78)

Luke 10:1-2, from the Common English Bible:

[After telling his disciples to let the dead bury their own dead], the Lord commissioned seventy-two others and sent them on ahead in pairs to every city and place he was about to go. He said to them, “The harvest is bigger than you can imagine, but there are few workers. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers for his harvest. Go! Be warned, though, that I’m sending you out as lambs among wolves. Carry no wallet, no bag, and no sandals. Don’t even greet anyone along the way.  Whenever you enter a house, first say, ‘May peace be on this house.’ If anyone there shares God’s peace, then your peace will rest on that person. If not, your blessing will return to you. Remain in this house, eating and drinking whatever they set before you, for workers deserve their pay. Don’t move from house to house. Whenever you enter a city and its people welcome you, eat what they set before you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘God’s kingdom has come upon you.’ Whenever you enter a city and the people don’t welcome you, go out into the streets and say, ‘As a complaint against you, we brush off the dust of your city that has collected on our feet. But know this: God’s kingdom has come to you.’  I assure you that Sodom will be better off on Judgment Day than that city.

We must be people on the Way, followers of Jesus, learning to be in relationship with our neighbors.