GOD/DIOS/DIEU/GOTT/ALLAH/WAH’KON-TAH/MY DAD’S ‘58 OLDSMOBILE*

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

The Rev.Terri C. Pilarski has figured out what’s wrong:

“For slightly less than half my life I was an intentionally de-churched person. Although the faith of mychildhood had been a source of great comfort to me, I also found that church to hold a very narrow view of God. My own prayer life suggested to me that God was much more expansive than the church was teaching me.”

Self-reference much? On second thought, that’s what’s wrong. There’s no I in God or Jesus, Terri. When I worship or pray or crack open a Bible, I do it to learn more about who God actually is, not who “my own prayer life” suggests that he is.

Know why, Terri? Because I know me. Once I start listening to the suggestions of “my own prayer life” about who God is, I’m eventually going to end up “worshipping” the Vague, Ambiguous, Infinitely Malleable, Endlessly Teachable Deity Concept that the Episcopalians worship now, for reasons known only to them.

And I prefer to worship gods who can actually, you know…do stuff. But let’s push on.

So began my own story at last week’s ecumenical “Words Matter” gathering on expansive and inclusive language in the church, hosted by the National Council of Churches’ Justice for Women Working Group at Cenacle Catholic Retreat Center in Chicago.

You can probably write the rest of this yourself.

Through the power of stories, the 25 people — ordained, lay, gay, straight, women, men, Native American, African American, Latino, white, Asian — called each other to expand our cultural attentiveness, understanding that language speaks differently in different contexts.

Although this complete waste of time event wasn’t officially Anglican, it was as Anglican as all get-out. Or get-oot for our Canadian readers.

The stories told by the group showed us that in an environment created through respectful intentional listening,

Respectful intentional listening. That is one strange phrase. As opposed to what? Disrespectful intentional listening? Respectful accidental listening? Disrespectful accidental listening? Respectful intentional ignoring. Disrespectful accidental ignoring?

That “intentional” has got no business in that sentence. As far as listening is concerned, you either are or you aren’t. That’s kind of like saying, “After three hours of intentional drinking, I fell asleep in the chair.” Or, “Are you hungry? What say we go out and grab a bite to intentionally eat.”

Sorry. Inheritance from my English teacher mother. Please proceed.

This kind of commitment can lead to real, meaningful analysis of systems of power that oppose the Gospel; extending a life-affirming hospitality within the church and community.

Right. Male pronouns and not working every culture under the sun into the liturgy are what’s holding back the Gospel. Make sense. Churches that have implemented that crap have to beat people away with sticks.

The problem, of course, is that once people get used to the idea of being mentioned corporately, they’re eventually going to want to be mentioned individually. It’s fine that you’ve acknowledged my ethnic group and my gender but how does that benefit me?

How’s that going to work? Are the prayers going to start out, “Oh [INSERT PREFERRED NAME OF DEITY HERE], our heavenly Christopher Johnson?” Or will the hymn be rewritten to start out, ” Oh [INSERT PREFERRED NAME OF DEITY HERE], our Christopher Johnson in ages past, our Christopher Johnson for years to come?”

Terri hasn’t quite figured that out yet so this little group is going to go all Anglican and yammer about it.

The stories told by the group also called for spreading the conversation to as many different places as possible. In beginning to think about how to spread these conversations, the participants acknowledged the need for a variety of methods including listening, dialogue, liturgy and hymnody, humor, story-telling, art and social media.

The Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers, chair of the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, and Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific said this, “While the Episcopal Church has been at work on expansive language texts for over two decades, the extent of their use varies. I’m delighted that a new resource is being created to encourage dialogue about this important topic.”

That is going to be one bone-crushingly DULL parish adult ed, that is going to be. I can tell where all the non-emasculated Episcopal men will be while all this dialogue is going on. At the local McDonald’s, at some nearby breakfast joint crushing Slingers or in the rector’s office raiding his/her liquor cabinet.

*Who are you to judge?