IF THEY CHANGE JUST ONE MORE THING
An Episcopal priest named Robert Hendrickson dropped by General Theological Seminary a while back and his visit got him to thinking about the current state of his church:
I suppose I was feeling more sensitive to issues of time and place because in between wonderful meetings with potential curates for Ascension House I was engaged in an online conversation about Communion without Baptism. The whole conversation left me with the same sense of profound displacement. As I read of Eastern Oregon’s resolution coming to General Convention and heard of a similar resolution being proposed for Connecticut, I could only think that it seems that the Church I took for granted is no longer there – and may never have been.
Perhaps, I am discovering, I fell in love with an “idea” of the Episcopal Church.
I joined a church that valued tradition and yet was engaged with modernity. I joined a church that embraced the timelessness of dignity and beauty. I joined a church that was engaged theologically and reasonably rather than emotionally in issues of doctrine and order. I joined a church that was a true blend of Catholic and Reformed. I joined a church that valued the uniformities of the Prayer Book even as it explored how to plumb its depths in manifold ways. I joined a church that was sacramentally grounded. I joined a church that believed that how we pray says something about what we believe.
Just as when I went to General, finding the Episcopal Church was a joy and it felt exactly like where I was called to be. I felt at home and it was a place that made sense because there was a there there.
I am not sure where the there is now.
As I talk to priests too happy to ignore rubrics and ordination vows to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church because they have decided their sense of “welcome” is more important than the church’s call to common identity, as I attended a Diocesan Convention at which we sang treacly hymns with narcissistic lyrics, as I talk to priests in pitch battles in their dioceses about baptizing in the name of the Trinity, as I attend Eucharists where priests make up the Eucharistic Prayer on the spot (“meal of power” not Body and Blood and “the systems of the world are broken” at the Fraction), and as I watch the Church one more time hurtle into a divisive squabble, I am feeling profoundly out of place.
The Church that is slashing funding for Christian formation and youth ministry while hurtling toward “Open Communion” is not the Church I thought I was joining. The Church that has a diocesan convention at which we sing “Shine, Jesus Shine” and ignore the Prayer Book is not the Church I thought I was joining. The Church that is defining sainthood as anyone who has done something good and worthy rather than someone who has done good and worthy things because of their faith in Christ is not the Church I thought I was joining.
There are boundaries within which one says “that is x.” In the past, we have used the Prayer Book to do just that. We have said, this is what we believe. Yet we are not only redefining “x,” we are deciding “x” is irrelevant. We no longer desire to have any sense of boundary, discipline, or conformity. Those things which mark us as a community and a people of faith are being undone with incredible rapidity. Over and over, I hear the language of the narcissistic world that wants its way right away creeping into the language of the Church.
What heart will be left? As we reconfigure the definition of sainthood, dismantle the Sacramental tradition we have been handed from the first Christian communities, ignore the Prayer Book, second guess canons on a parish by parish and priest by priest basis, and so much more, what heart will be left to the place?
I have mixed feelings about this. As far as the Episcopal Organization is concerned, it’s better to have these feelings than not to have them. And I knew where TEO was headed long before I’d even heard the name “Gene Robinson” so I’m not going to hold a delay in figuring these things out against anyone.
But it’s hard to feel any sympathy for Hendrickson. A commenter at Kendall’s wondered if the guy had been in cryogenic stasis or something. Considering the general trends in the Episcopal Organization since, oh, 1960 or so, an innovation like offering Communion to unbaptized persons is perfectly logical and should have been expected.
Will communion without baptism finally be the issue that breaks the Episcopal Organization apart? If this idea is approved this summer, will men like Robert Hendrickson defiantly declare that they cannot and will not comply even if such defiance costs them their jobs?
What are you, high? For one thing, I seriously doubt that either of these proposed resolutions will pass. There simply isn’t the demand. TEO doesn’t need this fight right now and won’t take it on so even if the Deputies passed it, I’m certain that the Bishops would shoot it down.
And it’s not like rule have ever held Episcopalians back before.
But what if the idea does pass? Well, after all that’s gone on in recent Episcopal history, anyone who suddenly pronounces himself shocked, shocked at the current state of TEO affairs and wonders what happened to his church has inhaled too much incense ever to make a determined stand about anything.
So they’ll just go back to their parishes and keep on doing what Anglicans have been doing for almost 500 years now. Rationalizing.
I suppose I was feeling more sensitive to issues of time and place because in between wonderful meetings with potential curates for Ascension House I was engaged in an online conversation about Communion without Baptism. The whole conversation left me with the same sense of profound displacement. As I read of Eastern Oregon’s resolution coming to General Convention and heard of a similar resolution being proposed for Connecticut, I could only think that it seems that the Church I took for granted is no longer there – and may never have been.
Perhaps, I am discovering, I fell in love with an “idea” of the Episcopal Church.
I joined a church that valued tradition and yet was engaged with modernity. I joined a church that embraced the timelessness of dignity and beauty. I joined a church that was engaged theologically and reasonably rather than emotionally in issues of doctrine and order. I joined a church that was a true blend of Catholic and Reformed. I joined a church that valued the uniformities of the Prayer Book even as it explored how to plumb its depths in manifold ways. I joined a church that was sacramentally grounded. I joined a church that believed that how we pray says something about what we believe.
Just as when I went to General, finding the Episcopal Church was a joy and it felt exactly like where I was called to be. I felt at home and it was a place that made sense because there was a there there.
I am not sure where the there is now.
As I talk to priests too happy to ignore rubrics and ordination vows to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church because they have decided their sense of “welcome” is more important than the church’s call to common identity, as I attended a Diocesan Convention at which we sang treacly hymns with narcissistic lyrics, as I talk to priests in pitch battles in their dioceses about baptizing in the name of the Trinity, as I attend Eucharists where priests make up the Eucharistic Prayer on the spot (“meal of power” not Body and Blood and “the systems of the world are broken” at the Fraction), and as I watch the Church one more time hurtle into a divisive squabble, I am feeling profoundly out of place.
The Church that is slashing funding for Christian formation and youth ministry while hurtling toward “Open Communion” is not the Church I thought I was joining. The Church that has a diocesan convention at which we sing “Shine, Jesus Shine” and ignore the Prayer Book is not the Church I thought I was joining. The Church that is defining sainthood as anyone who has done something good and worthy rather than someone who has done good and worthy things because of their faith in Christ is not the Church I thought I was joining.
There are boundaries within which one says “that is x.” In the past, we have used the Prayer Book to do just that. We have said, this is what we believe. Yet we are not only redefining “x,” we are deciding “x” is irrelevant. We no longer desire to have any sense of boundary, discipline, or conformity. Those things which mark us as a community and a people of faith are being undone with incredible rapidity. Over and over, I hear the language of the narcissistic world that wants its way right away creeping into the language of the Church.
What heart will be left? As we reconfigure the definition of sainthood, dismantle the Sacramental tradition we have been handed from the first Christian communities, ignore the Prayer Book, second guess canons on a parish by parish and priest by priest basis, and so much more, what heart will be left to the place?
I have mixed feelings about this. As far as the Episcopal Organization is concerned, it’s better to have these feelings than not to have them. And I knew where TEO was headed long before I’d even heard the name “Gene Robinson” so I’m not going to hold a delay in figuring these things out against anyone.
But it’s hard to feel any sympathy for Hendrickson. A commenter at Kendall’s wondered if the guy had been in cryogenic stasis or something. Considering the general trends in the Episcopal Organization since, oh, 1960 or so, an innovation like offering Communion to unbaptized persons is perfectly logical and should have been expected.
Will communion without baptism finally be the issue that breaks the Episcopal Organization apart? If this idea is approved this summer, will men like Robert Hendrickson defiantly declare that they cannot and will not comply even if such defiance costs them their jobs?
What are you, high? For one thing, I seriously doubt that either of these proposed resolutions will pass. There simply isn’t the demand. TEO doesn’t need this fight right now and won’t take it on so even if the Deputies passed it, I’m certain that the Bishops would shoot it down.
And it’s not like rule have ever held Episcopalians back before.
But what if the idea does pass? Well, after all that’s gone on in recent Episcopal history, anyone who suddenly pronounces himself shocked, shocked at the current state of TEO affairs and wonders what happened to his church has inhaled too much incense ever to make a determined stand about anything.
So they’ll just go back to their parishes and keep on doing what Anglicans have been doing for almost 500 years now. Rationalizing.
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