That We All May Be One

Today, we commemorate the first official use of the English Book of Common Prayer. It came into use on the Day of Pentecost 1549. And I think our two texts from Scripture today really are illuminating as to the way Anglicans understand the Prayer Book.

In the Gospel, Jesus is in dialogue with a Samaritan woman and the conversation gets around to worship, and to where and how proper worship ought to be conducted. Jesus concludes his observations like this: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Now, he obviously wasn’t talking about the Book of Common Prayer (although there really are some similarities between it and the synagogue worship with which Jesus would have been familiar!)

No, he was talking about the need for piety, for devotion, for what we sometimes loosely call today “spirituality” in worship. But also the need for “truth” at the heart of worship. “Sincerity” or even “passion” in worship is not enough if you turn out to be worshipping the wrong thing! Our worship is of the true and living God, not just any old god! And yet worship which is absolutely, theologically-correct but has no fervency or passion can be just as absolutely deadly!

You and I have probably experienced both of those modes of worship, perhaps even in services using the Book of Common Prayer (!). But, at its best, the Prayer Book is intended to balance those things. Even though the 1549, or even 1662, Prayer Book would look to us pretty dry and very priest-centered (with much less congregational participation than we will experience today), in its time the Book of Common Prayer was pretty radical in putting the same book into the hands of the people as in the hands of the priest! And, in a language “understanded” of the people as they would have said in those days!

It was, and is, participatory in style and the written prayers beautifully crafted to lift our hearts to God. But it is also truth-full. It’s a theological document as well as a worship guide, and Anglicans have always looked to the Prayer Book almost as much as to Scripture to inform their theology. In fact, much of the Prayer Book is Scripture – verses and passages of Scripture, set forth as prayer.

Our First Lesson today, from Acts, concludes with this familiar line about worship: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers.” We know that line from our Baptismal Covenant, but it originally described the activities of the earliest Christians. It is also a fair summary of Prayer Book Christianity! We appropriate apostolic teaching in this church as much by immersing ourselves in worship, listening to the Bible read and expounded upon, singing the hymns and chants, and joining in common prayer as we do in reading theological tomes or memorizing confessional statements.

We engage in fellowship…in communion…in koinonia by coming together Sunday by Sunday and day by day in corporate worship – not only by praying alone in our prayer closets or appreciating God in the beauty of nature.

We participate in the Breaking of Bread, using this Prayer Book. The Holy Eucharist is “the principle act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day” and Prayer Books have always emphasized that, in one way or another, even when weekly celebrations were less frequent than they are today.

And, of course, the Prayer Book helps us pray! Written prayers are not intended to substitute for, or get in the way of, our personal, extemporaneous prayers. I think Episcopalians are actually a lot more comfortable with that kind of praying today than in the past. But beautiful, time-honored, theologically solid prayers like one finds in the Prayer Book can instruct us about prayer. And make even our personal prayers – if not as beautiful – just as well-grounded.   

So, as we continue to bask in the glow of Pentecost this week, let us give thanks on this day for our Prayer Book heritage. One of the ways we try to observe our Lord’s instruction to “worship in spirit and in truth!”      

Jesus came from farming country in the northern part of Palestine. The land is fertile and crops grow well there. I remember sitting on a hillside once looking down on some farmland up in the Galilee, and thinking how much it looked like some parts of the Midwest! And, while we think Jesus grew up in a town, perhaps not far from the “big city” of Sepphoris, he would have been surrounded by farmers and farm land.

That undoubtedly accounts for the frequency of agricultural images he uses – such as those in today’s Gospel – about scattering seed (“broadcasting” as it is known) and about the mystery of life and growth which all good farmers understand. Farming is not all about technique and expertise. A lot of it depends on geography and on the cycles of weather – God’s grace…or
Providence…or good luck (depending on your theology!)

In any event, harvests are often unpredictable and a yield of abundant crops is always an occasion for gratitude and for celebration.  Farmers know something about such things. Which, I suppose, is why the Church sets aside the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day and calls them “Rogation Days.” Days on which we “ask” – ask for fruitful seasons, ask for a blessing on commerce and industry, and commit ourselves to be good stewards of creation.

It was a lot easier for me to get “into” the Rogations Days when I was the Bishop of Iowa! Every week I drove hundreds of miles through fields of corn and soybeans and watched the natural cycles of plowing and seedtime and harvest, and of letting some fields lie fallow for re-creation. Most of us in big cities are far removed from such considerations – and it is no joke than many of our children think that fruit and vegetables spring forth, full grown, from the grocery shelves at Gristedes!

But we can be involved in agriculture. Even here in the city. And we can make a difference. Our church is trying to make a difference. According to a recent ENS press release: “As Congress begins the work of reauthorizing the US farm bill, more than a dozen Churches and faith based organizations, including the Episcopal Church, have come together…to urge major changes in US agricultural policy aimed at reducing hunger and poverty, and promoting the livelihood of farmers and rural communities in the US and around the world.”

“The ‘Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill’ which includes Christian denominations, major faith based organizations and the National Council of Churches…has developed a statement of legislative principles for farm bill reform.” According to those principles, the 2007 farm bill should:

*Increase investments that combat rural poverty and strengthen rural communities

*Strengthen and expand programs that reduce hunger and improve nutrition in the US

*Strengthen and increase investment in policies that promote conservation and good stewardship of the land

*Provide transitions for farmers to alternative forms of support that are more equitable and do not distort trade in ways that fuel hunger and poverty

*Protect the health and safety of farmworkers

*Expand research related to alternative, clean and renewable forms of energy

*Improve and expand international food aid in ways that encourage local food security.”     (April 24, 2007)

It’s too soon to know how fully the new farm bill will incorporate these principles but, as the former bishop of a rural diocese, I’m grateful to our church for such efforts.

I invite your prayerful support of such principles. Maybe we can do that by offering once again the prayer for this Rogation Monday:

“Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord…”

Some of us are working on initial responses to the Draft Covenant for the Anglican Communion.  This “covenant” is one of the ways forward proposed by the Primates of the Anglican Communion to hold our fragile worldwide family together. I am basically supportive of such a process — not because I want the Episcopal Church, or the Anglican Communion, to become a “confessional church” bound together by narrow statements of belief (other than the Creeds!) — but because I have seen how effective ecumenical “covenants,” concordats, and agreements can be in establishing full communion relationships.

I would cite, for example, the Bonn Agreement with the Old Catholics, the Concordat between the Episcopal Church and the Philippine Independent Church, or “Called To Common Mission” with the Evangelical Church in America. They are relatively brief; define common doctrine in broad, basic strokes; and open up the possibility for common mission in the name of Christ.

I do have some concerns. The name “covenant” seems a bit lofty for this effort. A covenant is something God initiates, not Primates. However, that train is already rolling down the track so the term “covenant” may just have to stand.

I think the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral should be named in its entirety in any such Covenant and — with its emphasis on  Scripture, the Creeds, the dominical Sacraments, and the historic episcopate — should be sufficient as doctrinal statements. If those things are adequate to establish full communion relationships with other Christian bodies, they should be sufficient for us to hold in communion.

Secondly, one of the geniuses of Anglicanism is that we are “episcopally led, but synodically governed.” That means, in this instance, that if any of the four so-called “instruments of unity”  (The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ Meeting), it should be the ACC. That is because only the ACC, of all these bodies, is made up of lay persons, bishops, priests, and perhaps even a deacon or two.

The mind of Christ is to be discerned in the Body of Christ and the Body of Christ is made up of all the ministers of the Church not only bishops!
Finally, while a process of “mutual affirmation and admonition”  (terms found in certain ecumenical agreements) probably need to be part of this Covenant, steps for exclusion or marginalization need not be. We certainly need a clear process for vetting major decisions which will effect the whole Communion by the whole Communion and we need processes for feedback and dialogue. We do not, in my opinion, need “excommunication” as a tool for closing off debate.

Again, the genius of Anglicanism has been our ability to remain together in Word and Prayer and Sacrament…and in common mission…while allowing wide space for theological diversity, cultural adaptation, and freedom for the local church (read, “diocese”…and then “province”).

I believe that Anglican experiment is worth working for. We already have one branch of Western Catholicism with a top-down, infallible head. We know that it “works” (after a fashion!). Orthodoxy and Anglicanism have always offered another way.

Let’s not give up on it because it is messy!

Tomorrow, I board a Swiss Air liner for Geneva and a meeting of ecumenical officers of the World Council of Churches. This historic Council, formed after World War II out of the same spirit as the United Nations in the belief that global cooperation was indeed possible, has had its ups and downs in recent years. However, there is no broader body of Orthodox and Protestant Christians in the world. And it is important for us to meet, learn from each other, and share what each of us is doing in our own nations and communions. 

The following recent statement from the General Secratary of the WCC should prove instructive:

Churches rediscovering the biblical call to unity and caring for life together is the World Council of Churches’ vision for re-invigorating ecumenism in the 21st century, according to Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, the general secretary of the WCC.

Speaking to leaders of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) in Birmingham on 2 May, Kobia outlined his understanding of what faces the global ecumenical movement in the 21st century, and how the World Council of Churches intends to respond.

In the contemporary ecumenical landscape, it seems that the original “vigour, energy and commitment to ecumenism got lost,” Kobia observed. “The search for visible unity of the church is no longer a priority for churches and Christian World Communions who centre on their particular identities,” he said. Nevertheless, he argued, “We cannot compromise or hide our conviction that Christ himself wants the churches to be one so that the world may believe.”

Given this biblical call behind the churches’ search for unity, the WCC needs to assure those who have lost confidence and trust in ‘conciliar’ ecumenism in general and the World Council in particular that “we respect their needs and want to facilitate the best possible ways for them to discover and to develop the ecumenical dimension of Christian faith within their own communities and in fellowship with other churches”.

New programmes, activities

With that in mind, the WCC reshaped its work after its Ninth Assembly in 2006. Kobia noted that the WCC’s programmes now have three main foci:

Living out Christian unity more fully. WCC member churches are called to seek unity and to work and witness together. The Council’s activities for the years ahead are focused on working together for visible unity, new forms of mission, and providing space for deepening relationships and broader participation.

Being neighbours to all. This phrase in the Ninth Assembly’s message conveys the idea that, in the WCC, churches advocate for the good of all and, with their neighbours, address threats to the human ‘household’. Efforts will focus on working together to overcome threats that divide the human community, and on the pursuit of peace and the common good through living out shared values of justice and equality.

Taking greater care of creation. Churches in the WCC are committed to protecting the earth as well as its peoples. In this area, churches will work together to promote the culture and the practices of sustaining life.

These three foci are not the World Council’s organizational structure, Kobia said, but “a way of understanding all its programmes and projects.” He also stressed that “it is the participation of the churches and other partners that gives legitimacy” to the Council’s work and “makes it effective and powerful”.

In this regard, Kobia acknowledged “with thanks to God what has been already achieved” by the churches of the UK and Ireland. These churches “have made important contributions to the global ecumenical movement,” while their ecumenical instruments have “enriched the life of the churches and enabled them to engage with society more effectively,” he said.

Kobia encouraged CTBI member churches to participate in the preparation of an Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace, to be issued in May 2011 at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation which will mark the culmination of the Decade to Overcome Violence.

The WCC general secretary is nearing the end of a 24 April – 4 May visit to the UK and Ireland.

More information on Kobia’s visit to England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, including a detailed schedule

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