That We All May Be One

While it is no secret that I support the full inclusion of faithful gay and lesbian Christians in the life of the Church, let there be no mistake about the costly nature of such decisions in the life of The Episcopal Church and beyond.

I write this post from Cairo, Egypt where I am attending the annual meeting of the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations. This is a body which reports to the Anglican Consultative Council and monitors the activity and progress of the various Provinces of the Anglican Communion in matters ecumenical.

Since our General Convention decisions of 2003, these have been difficult meetings for The Episcopal Church’s representatives as well as our colleagues from the Anglican Church in Canada. Despite warm personal relations with our Church of England, Asian, African, South and West Indian colleagues, we are roundly criticised as Episcopalians for putting major stumbling blocks in the way of Anglican ecumenical relations.

Often cited are the writings of Bishop Spong, the confirmation of the Bishop of New Hamshire by General Convention 2003, and some bishops’ permission for the blessing of same sex unions in their dioceses despite the lack of an official liturgical rite in our church for such an event.

We were received by Pope Shenouda of the Coptic Orthodox Church here in Egypt one morning and subjected to nearly an hour of lecturing by His Holiness on the sins of the Anglican Communion and especially The Episcopal Church. This venerable monk and leader of his ancient church noted all the concerns I have mentioned above. He has actually read at least one of Bishop Spong’s books. And, is not impressed!

It would, of course, have been possible to take exception to much of Pope Shenouda’s hermeneutics, but “state occasions” like this are hardly the place for that. Particularly in a country where Christians are in the huge minority and undergo scrutiny and often severe criticism from their Muslim neighbors. We heard him out, acknowledged the difficulties we face, and asked for his prayers.

What would have been possible, however, had not the official dialogue with the Oriental Orthodox Churches been suspended over our actions, would have been to engage these issues together in a serious dialogue where our perspectives could be given a fair hearing rather than caricatured by the press or by voices from within our own church who wish the world to think that we are teaching some kind of “new faith.”

This is why I believe the Lambeth Conference must happen. No matter who is, or is not, invited and who chooses to come or not to come. Those of us who will be there must sit together, face to face, in the context of prayer, and both share and listen to one another deeply.

Only in this way can the wounds in our particular expression of the Body of Christ begin to be healed and a contribution perhaps made, by Anglicans, for healing the very Body of Christ of which we are a part.         

My wife and I love Advent above all the seasons of the  Church year. There is something about the chill in the air, the smell of greenery in the church, the great Advent hymns and lessons, and of course the approaching Christmas celebration which makes it all  so rich. Those  lessons from Scripture are filled with dire warnings, but also with hope.

Traditional interpretations of those passages would say that they are either literal or symbolic descriptions of “the end times” and warn us to “clean up our act” before impending judgment. Other scholars (even conservative ones like N.T. Wright) would hold that the prophets (and even Jesus) were warning of very real cataclysms which were about to occur — in Jesus’ case the likely destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans — if his people did not change their violent ways and follow him  toward a different kind of Kingdom.
Either way, it is clear that God cares about how individuals and nations conduct their affairs, that the future is even now rushing in upon our present, and that our actions have consequences — eternal ones. So, let us use this season of Advent, not only to prepare for the Christmas celebration, but to examine our lives and the life of our nation, in the light of this great Collect for Advent 1:

“Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.” Amen.

Our Lessons today are perfect for the commemoration of the great 19^th century monarchs  of Hawaii, King Kamehameha and Queen Emma. The First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (17:22-31) shows us the gentle and sensitive evangelism preached by St. Paul to the Athenians where he builds on their primitive faith without undermining it. He acknowledges their altar to “an unknown god” and tells them that this is the God he has come to proclaim!

A similarly gracious approach must have been taken by the English missionaries (unlike some of the earlier ones in Hawaii!) who came at Kamehameha’s invitation and which led to the confirmation of both king and queen on this day in 1862.

They had already proven that they were people of good will and motivated by a Christ-like spirit by building Queen’s Hospital for their people in the wake of a devastating small pox epidemic. It only remained to introduce them to the Good News of the One who was the Source of such generosity!

And the great Gospel text from Matthew (25:31-40) reminds us that, while justification may indeed come by faith, Christ’s final Judgment will include seeing just how that faith has been lived out in our lives. “For I was hungry and you gave food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

I don’t know about you, but I can’t read that list without thinking of another one to which The Episcopal Church has committed itself through General Convention action – The Millenium Development Goals – eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, combating HIV/AIDS and malaria and other diseases and all the rest.

 I know that we have come under some criticism by adopting such “secular” goals and giving them such a high priority rather than, say, The Great Commission to “go into all the world, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” For the life of me, I can’t separate those things! I don’t think Jesus does either! Our Presiding Bishop has described the MDG’s as images…icons…lenses for how we can help build the reign of God in our own day.

“Show me your faith apart from your works,” St. James writes in his Epistle (2:18b), “And I by my works will show you my faith.” Queen Emma of Hawaii did that in spades!

After she lost her son and her husband to death, she devoted the rest of her life to good works and built schools and churches and took many other initiatives on behalf of the poor and the sick.

When was it, Lord, that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or in prison…and came to your help?

When you did it to one of the least of these, dear child, you did to me.

The themes of Advent seem to me to get sounded earlier and earlier each year! Which is OK with me since I love the season of Advent above all others, and four weeks is much too short a time to cover all the richness and variety of the season. Certainly in our Readings today we have “semi Advent” themes. In fact, this is kind of an interesting transitional Sunday between the All Saints’ observance and the approaching Advent season!

First of all, we had Job’s powerful affirmation of eternal life that even after his “skin has been thus destroyed (by death), then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” (Job 19:26-27). And then we move on to St. Paul’s words to those Thessalonian Christians “beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

And, finally, Jesus’ assurance in the Gospel that — even though the mystery of resurrection and the specifics of eternal life are far too complex for us to comprehend fully — we can rest assured that God “is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him” (Luke 20:38).

I don’t know about you, but those are welcome words of good news for me in a time such as this. Good news for those of us living in apocalyptic times: with the continuing insecurities of domestic and foreign terrorism; of a seemingly never-ending war in Iraq; and worrying tensions about escalation in and toward Iran. We see the ravages of nature quite literally in earthquakes, fires and floods – and the crushing realities of poverty at home and abroad which makes some people so much more vulnerable to those natural disasters. Economic uncertainties of a fairly large magnitude.

On a less cataclysmic scale, but still important in my life – and those of us who care about ecumenism and church unity – we’re in somewhat of a crisis time in the ecumenical movement today. With our own difficulties in the Anglican Communion, our ecumenical partners are a bit suspicious. We have mixed signals at best coming out of the Vatican as all non-Roman Catholics are reminded by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that we are, at best, “ecclesial communities” rather than part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church we confess ourselves to be each Sunday in the Creeds. I wonder what your former Rector, William Reed Huntington — that great ecumenist — would have to say about that!

A bright spot in all this is Cardinal Walter Kasper who is the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome. He has admitted that we are in a time of transition in the ecumenical movement, perhaps even a time of “crisis.” But has pointed out  that the word “crisis” also means a time of opportunity. It’s like balancing on a knife edge, and we can go either way.

Kasper has suggested some attitudes Christians need to have during this crisis or transitional time. We must avoid stereotyping one another or trying to convert one another from one denomination to another. That’s not easy to do with “fellow Christians” like Pat Robertson threatening a Pennsylvania community with the wrath of God for throwing out their school board in a vote against the teaching of so-called “intelligent design,” or the Vatican seeking to purge Roman seminaries of gay students in a misdirected effort to deal with their problems of clergy sexual abuse. But we need to avoid making snide comments or taking cheap shots at one another, even if we do disagree…and have to say we disagree.

Next, Kasper says that we need to find new forms and structures for our national and world councils of churches. Indeed, an encouraging development in our time is something called “Christian Churches Together in the USA,” a new expanded ecumenical table including Roman Catholics, Orthodox, historic Protestant churches, Evangelicals and Pentecostals, and those churches which define themselves largely through their Racial or Ethnic identity. A similar effort is underway internationally with something called The Global Forum which just concluded a very successful meeting in Nairobi.

And even though some of our bilateral ecumenical dialogues seem to have bogged down a bit, Cardinal Kasper has encouraged us all to hang in there with them. “False irenicism gets us no where in these dialogues, “he points out, and we cannot avoid the tough issues today around ordained ministry…the ministry of bishops…even papal primacy in those discussions. As well as honestly sharing our own internal issues as churches.

For there are two forms of ‘ecumenism’ according to Kasper: external ecumenism which is the search for unity between the churches; and internal ecumenism which is the search for unity, renewal and reform within our own churches. For, surely, the more we can renew and reform our own church to conform to the will of Christ – and the more other churches do the same – the closer we will draw to one another!

Finally, Walter Kasper speaks of celebrating what he calls “spiritual ecumenism,” remembering that the ecumenical movement for the unity of the church has always been and will always be an impulse and gift of the Holy Spirit.  If the Church is ever to be one, it will not be something we create, but will be a gift and work of the Holy Spirit. So, ecumenically concerned monasteries, movements like Cursillo and Marriage Encounter, healing groups like the Order of St. Luke all will make enormous contributions toward unity if we give them our attention.

So, times of crisis can also be times of opportunity!  Certainly that was the case in our Readings from Scripture today: Job’s faith was deepened and enriched through all that he suffered. Paul’s frustration with the Thessalonians does not keep him from giving thanks for them, “beloved by the Lord” because God had chosen them from the beginning. And Luke’s Jesus is actually pretty gentle with the Sadducees, even as he tries to correct their faulty view of the resurrection. That is good news, dear friends. Good news even in the midst of troubling times.

I just got back from a National Council of Churches meeting in New Jersey and found good news there as well – with the election of a world renowned ecumenist, Dr. Michael Kinnamon, as our new General Secretary, with the NCC speaking out against genocide from Armenia to Dar Fur, reaffirming our commitment to seeking peace with justice in the Middle East, celebrating the good work of our Special Commission for a Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, working hard to reassure and strengthen our commitment to the Orthodox churches by choosing an Armenian Orthodox Archbishop as President and celebrating his election in St. Vartan’s Armenian Orthodox Cathedral with Evening Prayer that included an ordained woman officiating, an Eastern Orthodox priest delivering the homily, and a Black Methodist pastor leading the prayers.

So, times of crisis can be times of opportunity! And I challenge you, in these days, to witness to your family and friends about the security you find in God, even in times of in-security. To speak of what really matters, what is really important, and what is not – in tight economic times. To speak of the peace which will inevitably come, finally, on the heels of war. To speak of the compassion which has been unleashed in the wake of natural disasters. Yes, even to speak of an ecumenical springtime in what feels to many like an ecumenical winter!

That was certainly the message of the prophets. That was certainly what Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God was all about. That was the Gospel, the Good News, Paul was so passionate about preaching. And, I think that is what the ecumenical movement is all about at its very best.

For, like Job, we know that our Redeemer liveth! Like Paul , we know that God has chosen us from the beginning! And, like our Savior Jesus Christ, we know that our God is not a God of the dead…but of the living!