Blessed Bayne
Inauguration 2017 is a good time to think about American exceptionalism, the idea that we are a nation with a unique privilege and calling in the world. It would seem that our new President has a complex relation to this idea, since he does want to emphasize our own national interests, but to do so in a less internationalist way.
In the same vein we could think about Episcopal exceptionalism as well. It is our Achilles’ heel. Either we ignore the world, or want to convince it of our rightness, or, in the case of our Church, imagine that we have the world within our boundaries. One way this cashes itself out is in our relation to the Anglican Communion, which too easily fades outside our purview. I recently heard a prominent bishop compare this to the way our news includes so little of the globe, in comparison, say, to the BBC.
In this regard a moment of historical retrospect is valuable. The day that we commemorate the Rev. Stephen Bayne in the Sanctoral is actually today, January 18th. He was the first chief executive of the recently conceived Anglican Communion Office from 1960-1964, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In his time the worldwise Anglican Congress of 1963 took place, whose watchword was ‘mutual responsibility and interdependence in the Body of Christ.’ This was a visionary statement, one consistent with our creedal affirmation of a Church, which is catholic and apostolic. National churches belong to each other, need each other, are each other’s peers. No colonial hangover here, nor post-colonial resentment. The Church needs to be the Church, just as the members must be the body in Paul.
And remarkable globally catholic vision from a pioneering Episcopalian! May he be an inspiration, and a quiet source of critique on this his commemorative day. Would that we might reclaim his vision and spirit in our time.
+GRS
