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Our Desire To Please You Does In Fact Please You

September 28, 2007

Religious communities in our tradition usually have “Bishop Visitors.” These are bishops who agree to be advisors, encouragers, and friends of the Community. I serve in this capacity for the Community of Transfiguration in Cincinnati and am here to chair the Board of Trustees and Society meeting which occur annually.

It’s hardly a retreat since I am in meetings morning, noon and night and there are often major decisions to be made affecting the life and future of the Community. Yet, the regular round of Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night Prayers and the Daily Eucharist provide a framework which is in itself spiritually refreshing.

St. Benedict writes of days balanced between prayer, work and study and — while that is not easy to achieve even in a monastery — even the attempt to do so beats the hectic pace which consumes most of our daily lives. We closed our Chapter meeting tonight with this great prayer adapted from Thomas Merton:

Our Lord God, we have no idea where we are going.

We do not see the road ahead of us.

We cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do we really know ourselves, and the fact that we think we are following your will does not mean that we are actually doing so.

But we believe that our desire to please you does in fact please you.

And we hope that we have that desire in all that we are doing.

We hope that we will never do anything apart from that desire.

And we know that if we do this, you will lead us by the right road though we may know nothing about it.

Therefore will we trust in you always, though we may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

We will not fear, for you are ever with us,

and you will never leave us to face our perils alone.

(A great prayer for us as individuals…for our communities…and indeed for the Church at large!)

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House of Bishops – Wednesday Morning

September 26, 2007

In my last post I said something like “Now, over to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates and the ACC.” And it’s a good thing we can take a deep breath and let other prayerful and thoughtful people in our Communion consider what we have done.

For those who will do their theology by press release (rather than by prayerful thought) this will be a confusing exercise. A sample of today’s headlines:

NY Times: “Episcopal Bishops Reject Anglican Church’s Orders

LA Times: “Episcopal Bishops Provide Restraint”

Washington Post: “Episcopal Leaders Try to Avoid Schism”

Boston Globe: “Episcopal Leaders Act to Avert A Schism”

The “world” has never understood Anglicanism “comprehensiveness for the sake of truth.” It is my hope and prayer that the “better angels” of Anglicanism’s nature will prevail, that we will all stay at the table for the sake of mission, and that — together — we will continue to be witnesses for Christ in a confusing and broken world.

(By the way, nearly lost in all this, are the statements we made — in support of the people of Louisiana and Mississippi — critical of the government’s response in the wake of Katrina and our continuing work to speak out against the kind of racism and classicism the storm’s fury revealed. Those statements can also be found on our web site

http://www.episcopalchurch.org

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House of Bishops – Day One

September 21, 2007

Quite a roller coaster of a day yesterday. Our first time, as Episcopal bishops, to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury to talk face-to-face about our ongoing issues in the Anglican Communion.

We began with a festive Eucharist in the hotel with a great sermon by our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori and the lusty singing of hymns from “Holy, holy, holy” through “There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place” (and, perhaps surprisingly, there is!) to “O Praise Ye the Lord!”

Then, we entered into table discussions and open plenaries sharing our Hopes and Concerns for this meeting. My hope was that we could find a way to assure the Communion that we will do what General Convention has asked us to do by exercising restraint in consenting to the election of bishops whose manner of life will produce additional strains on the Communion. My concern is, that nothing we do will be enough for some — in our own House and in the Communion.

The afternoon continued with a brief address by Archbishop Rowan Williams and two questions to wrestle with: how far can we go in accommodating the request of the Primates’ Communique and what kind of “shared episcopal leadership” (within our own House) would we find possible and helpful. Lots of pain and anguish from all sides in the open discussion which followed. But it was good for Rowan and the other Primates and visitors from across the Communion to see the kind of respectful and thoughtful conversation we can have together.

I learned nothing really new. No conversations we have not had before. But it was good for our overseas colleagues to engage with us. It would have been helpful for the Archbishop to have done this three years ago.

Last night he preached a brilliant sermon at an ecumenical service at a Convention Center focusing on the plight of New Orleans and the role of Christians in bringing healing, reconciliation, and rebuilding to this city and to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Each diocesan bishop filed up with an offering (some as large as $10,000) collected by the Bishops of Louisiana and Mississippi to assist. Tomorrow we will get our hands dirty in some work projects in both dioceses.

It was moving to see the Bishop of Los Angeles and the Bishop of Quincy coming back down the aisle after each making their offering. Mission does indeed unite.

Today, we continue with Bible study led by the Archbishop. And more conversation. May the Word speak in and through the many words…

Posted in Church Life, Ecumenical, Emergent Church, Religion, Scripture, The Episcopal Church, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Unless You Come As A Child

September 17, 2007

In Chicago for (yet another) meeting, I slipped out of the hotel on Sunday morning and took the L train into the city to get to the Eucharist. The church is a famously “anglo catholic” parish known for its good music and full liturgy and I was not disappointed. The simple offertory anthem by Felix Mendelson sung by a solo tenor voice was almost worth the trip!

But, aside from a decent sermon and receiving the sacrament, I was most moved by an unselfconscious gesture by the rector while distributing communion. There was a sizable group of young people, from toddlers to teenagers, who were ushed down the aisle by their Sunday School teachers to receive communion first. Baptized children are allowed to receive communion in our church, but some parents still prefer that they wait until confirmation, or at least until first communion classes, so the children receive a blessing at the altar rail rather than the sacrament.

This is done by a simply laying on of a hand and/or marking their foreheads with the sign of the cross while pronouncing a prayer of blessing. What I liked in this case was that the priest lowered himself to one knee in front of each small child he was blessing to that they could see his face and be greeted “on their level.” A simple thing, but it spoke volumes to me about honoring everyone.

It was almost as though, in addition to the logistics of height and access, the priest was genuflecting before “the least of these” which the church values highly. “Suffer the little children to come unto me…”

“Unless you come as a child…”

Posted in Church Life, Ecumenical, Emergent Church, Religion, The Episcopal Church, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Interfaith Dialogue and Culture

September 13, 2007

Conversations with a visiting bishop from Pakistan yesterday highlighted for me once again the great difficulty of interfaith dialogue. While we in the United States, and so many in the West, seek to put the best face on Islam, consider it one of the three great “Abrahamic faiths,” and seek mutual understanding, tolerance, and even cooperation where possible, there are Christians in other parts of the world with a very different perspective.

It reminds me of a moment at the Lambeth Conference in 1998 when there was a session on “interfaith dialogue.” A bishop from one part of the world spoke of the richness of interfaith dialogue and the deepening of relationships and mutual understanding, an African bishop from the same podium exclaimed, “If they would just stop killing us, we would be glad to initiate a dialogue!”

This is not so much due to the fact that there are different “Islams” — there is a certain unity in Islam (even with the Sunni, Shiah, Sufi divisions) that Christianity, and perhaps even Judaism, lacks. It seems to me more a factor of culture and context. Muslims — like the rest of us — are products of their nationalities and upbringing and cultural contexts.

Political frustrations — and the resultant violence too often — are brought about by marginalization, arrested economic development, poverty, demographics and the environment among many other factors. If we are to engage productively in interfaith dialogue, we must first of all understand the essence of the religions themselves. But we must also take very seriously the cultural context in which each of our religions is lived out.

This can be very tricky indeed. But it is absolutely essential in our day. For, as Hans Kung has said,

“No peace among the nations without peace among the religions.

No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions.

No dialogue among the religions without investigation of the foundations of the religions.”

And those foundations include the cultural as well as the theological ones.

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Nine Eleven

September 9, 2007

The preacher today shared some memories of September 11, 2001 and suggested we might want to do the same, during this week, not to cling to them but to acknowledge and remember the past, live fully into the present, and embrace the future. Not a bad idea. You might want to do the same thing. I remember…

*Watching the whole event unfold, with my staff, frozen to the TV in our midtown Manhattan office…

*Worrying about my fiancee who was at a meeting closer to Ground Zero than I was…

*The sound of silence in the city streets, even with so many streaming past our building…

*Volunteering to take some shifts as a chaplain, whatever that might mean…

*Days later, putting my fiancee on a train in Grand Central, crowds like a train station in a WW II movie…

*Serving food at the Seamens’ Institute, talking with construction workers in St. Paul’s Chapel…

*Presiding and preaching at a requiem for a clergy couples’ son in our Chapel of Christ the Lord…

*Wondering, as I still do, why this nation chose misguided vengeance rather than reconciliation and healing…

We left church this morning with these words, sung to the tune of “Melita,” the great Navy hymn, still ringing in our ears:

“So brief, the joy since each was born/ So long the years in which to mourn/ Give us compassion to sustain/ Each other in this time of pain.

Guard us from bitterness and hate/ And share with us grief’s crushing weight/ Help us to live from day to day/ Until, once more, we find our way.”

Indeed. Help us, O God, as a individuals…and as a nation…”find our way.”

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Emergent and Renewal

September 7, 2007

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with Jim Wallis (of Sojourners), Brian McClaren (Emergent Village), and several young people about a possible “American Green Belt Festival” planned now for the summer of 2009. “Green Belt” has been around in England for decades and is a combination music festival, art show, conference, and revival! It is ecumenical and celebrates renewal in its broadest sense.

The dream here is to find an American expression of that event, bringing together large numbers of young people — musicians, artists, pastors, teachers, seekers — who are involved in the “emergent” church, movement, conversation (whatever) with some of us “mainliners” who are interested in tracking and learning from this movement. The hope is also to cast a wide net by being “catholic friendly,” diverse in race, class, age, and ethnicity.

The emergent conversation often describes itself as being post-evangelical and post-liberal, seeking to find ways to bring the gospel message of the kingdom of God to the “post modern” world by linking faith and social justice. I’d be interested to hear from some of you who check in with this blog from time to time what you know or think about “emergent.”

Is this a new wave of renewal or a “passing fad?”

Posted in Church Life, Ecumenical, Emergent Church, Religion, The Episcopal Church, Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

Labor Day and Immigration

September 3, 2007

Labor Day and immigration. Are there connections? Well, pretty obviously, since a huge portion of our labor force in the United States is made up of recent immigrants — documented and undocumented.

Yesterday, in the parish my wife and I attend, that connection was made pretty clearly. First, by the sermon based largely on this text from the Sunday lectionary:

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers…” (Hebrews 13:2a)

The sermon made appropriate connections between this text, the long biblical history of Israel being commanded to treat the alien well, since they themselves had been aliens in a foreign land, and our responsibilties to “the stranger” in our land today.
And secondly, by an adult forum led by a Roman Catholic priest active in the “new sanctuary movement” whereby congregations and individuals can show solidarity to immigrant families (and in more ways than providing classic “sanctuary” in churches).

This might entail housing them, accompanying them to immigration hearings, deportation proceedings, etc. and assuring that they are provided due process under the law. It may also entail advocacy to try and change some of our immigration laws so that they might actually approach being “just” and heeding biblical ethics on showing “hospitality to strangers.”

It was a good Sunday. And it gave us plenty to reflect on as we enjoy this “last day of summer,” ever conscious of our privilege and of God’s call to love mercy and act kindly, yes — but also to do justice. I cannot get these words out of my head and heart today, reverberating to the great hymn tune “Finlandia” to which we sang them yesterday:

This is my song, O God of all the nations/ a song of peace for lands afar and mine/ This is my home, the country where my heart is/ here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine/ but other hearts in other lands are beating/with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean/ and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine/ but other lands have sunlight too, and clover/ and skies are everywhere as blue as mine/ O hear my song, thou God of all the nations/ a song of peace for their land and for mine.

This is my prayer, O Lord of all earth’s kingdoms/ Thy kingdom come; on earth thy will be done/ Let God be lifted up till all shall serve him/ and hearts united learn to live as one/ O hear my prayer, thou God of all the nations/ myself I give thee; let thy will be done!

“

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Celebration!

August 30, 2007

One of my first responsibilities after vacation was making my annual visitation to the Community of Celebration in Aliquippa, PA. I serve as their “bishop visitor” (meaning counselor, encourager, and friend).

Some may know this community better by the name of their music ministry, The Fisherfolk.

Born out of the renewal movement at the Church of the Redeemer in Houston in the 60s and 70s, the community has traveled all over the world and had major presences in England and Scotland as well as several locations here in the States. Now officially recognized as among the Religious Orders and Christian Communities in the Episcopal Church this mixed, family oriented community takes life vows and their days are marked by Morning, Noonday, and Evening Prayers from the Book of Common Prayer plus a festive, song-filled Eucharist on Saturday afternoons.

Their main ministry is one of presence in a modest to poor neighborhood of Aliquippa, part of the rust belt on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. They provide lower cost housing for a number of families, work to improve the community, partner with the Church Army in ministries such as the “Uncommon Grounds” cafe, and ecumenically with othe Christians to tutor children from neighborhood housing projects, work with a Women’s Project teaching life skills to women from the local prison. A new ministry, Global Outreach in Addiction Leadership (GOAL) seeks to “export” 12 step programs to parts of Africa most effected by HIV/AIDS in an innovative approach to understanding the linkage between these two scourges.

The total commitment of these Christians to the triune God and to each other, their perseverance over many years of ministry, their hospitality to all, and their infectious joy in the Lord humbles me everytime I am with them. Join me in praying for their life and work!

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That We All May Be One