The Baton
It is Olympic time, fraught with the usual pre-games angst. In honor of the competition, I want to think about relays, and in particular the act of handing on. It is a second fraught in its own way, for it can undo the team.
I have recently reread the joint statement of Anglicans and Roman Catholics on the Church, called "the gift of authority.' It undoes a number of assumptions we usually make: that church is an accumulation of individuals with faith, that authority is power to allow or stop what we want, and that passing on is an occasional interruption.
'Gift...' understands the Gospel as God's 'Yes' to us in Jesus Christ and our own 'Amen' in response (II Cor. 1). The dialogue begins with God, involves the people as a whole, and expresses itself in the Eucharist. Most pertinently, it puts handing on, literally 'tradition', at the heart of the Church's life. The people across time need to recognize and hear the 'Yes' and respond, until Christ returns. What we call 'evangelism,' 'catechism,' and 'liturgy' are seamlessly merged in this process across generations.
We have spent a good deal of time this spring thinking about 'strategic planning' but this always needs a theological underpinning. For us it is the act of 'traditioning,' call and response like fire signals across time. Creating teaching materials - planting - forming priests: ministering to the young: what are these but the Church being itself in the 'traditioning': 'what I received I hand over to you, the night he was betrayed Jesus took bread...' (I Cor.8)
Peace
+GRS
