Bishops' Blog

So What's Episcopal?

The most stark and basic questions are the best. This one came to me during the evangelism conference here, since what we are sharing is simply the Gospel, but we are bound to do so in an Episcopal mode.  How do we keep those distinct but in the right order?

It helps to start with some practical candor. Sometimes we are Episcopal out of habit or inertia, though these don't remove the value of having a reason as well. Sometimes people have become Episcopal as the mid-point between Presbyterian and Roman, which has some rough- and- ready sense.  These days, denominations are brands, and people sometimes come as they shop for a good sermon, Sunday school, or choir, though we realize they may leave for the same reason. Finally the question is made harder by the range to be found just within our own congregations.

So where does that leave us? In this at least somewhat ecumenical day, the reasons don't need to be unique to us so long as they do accurately describe us. First we are an apostolic tradition, by which I mean one that emphasizes that the Christian faith is “deep and wide,” going back to the beginning, on to our Lord's return, and global. This means that, though features may vary from one locale to another, they should be recognizable. This is the point of those living symbols called “bishops.” Secondly we are Prayer Book.  A shared way of praying that seeks to conserve all it can of our heritage has historically bound us together. This principle will continue to be tested from various angles. Third and finally, as I know Dean Kevin Martin likes to stress, ours is a tradition which has sought a lively encounter with local culture within the contours of Biblical faithfulness.

Will these prove enough to hold Anglicans together over the long haul? God himself knows. Are they contestable?  Of course.  That is one reason we continue to need serious theological education in the church. We also need to think hard about how we present ourselves to newcomers in a way consonant with these.  We are first Resurrection- people, but also ones who have a “goodly heritage.”  

Peace,

+GRS

Reversion to Type

As yet another sign of grace, I have just received an honorary doctorate for doing nothing from my alma mater, Berkeley at Yale. In the service, I heard an excellent sermon by their Dean, Andrew McGowan, on which I want to reflect here.  

McGowan began with the patron of the seminary's chapel, St. Luke, and thought about what kind of medicine He offers. To describe the wrong answer, he offered the famous quotation by the great Yale theologian, Richard Niebuhr, about liberal Protestantism:  “a God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”  McGowan then equated this implicit indictment with a more recent summation of liberal Protestant sentiment. Smith and Denton, in their study of the beliefs of contemporary teens, came up with “moralistic therapeutic deism.”  Each word underscores our own autonomy, God serving as a resource around the edges. These phrases certainly adhere to much of the discourse of our own Episcopal Church and indeed to a recess in each of our hearts.

The history of my seminary is one with stretches of just this kind of cultural accommodation in the optimistic American mode, interspersed with episodes of awakening to the more radical kind of healing offered. Maybe something similar is always true if the Church. We might think of the liturgy as a kind of wake up call embedded in the Church's ordinary life.

Peace,

+GRS