Or: "The Church for These Times?"

A prominent church in midtown has just put up slick banners featuring worried traders and other financial industry workers beneath the headline, "The Church for These Times."

Leaving aside the presumption that this particular church is "The" church while others apparently not for these times, and also leaving aside the possibility that the parish is capitalizing on Wall Street's lack of capital, we may ask: what times was the Church not for? Surely if Christ is God's revelation to the world, then there is no time when he will not speak to the material and spiritual needs of human beings?

As it happens, of course, Jesus said quite a lot about money and the soul. So the banner is not only valid advertising; it can be left up until Judgment Day. --J. Douglas Ousley

Always Just Behind the Times

During the fervently change-oriented 1960's, an elderly priest one remarked to me that however hard the Church tries to be modern and up-to-date, it is always a generation or so behind the times.
I was reminded of this today when I received the most recent edition of Trinity News, the magazine of Trinity Church on Broadway and Wall Street. The magazine is dedicated to "Radical Abundance" and is filled with ways that the rich can reduce their carbon footprint, etc.
This is not a surprising concern for the richest parish church in Christendom. But it is ironic that Trinity Church's publication should appear while financial markets on Wall Street and around the world are in grave turmoil. The world may not have to worry about abundance for some time to come. --J. Douglas Ousley

Tradition is In

The dwindling few Episcopalians who love the traditional of the original English translations of the Latin Mass--preserved in Rite I of the current Book of Common Prayer--can take heart in the new translation of the Mass that is becoming mandatory for English-speaking Roman Catholics.

The translation replaces newer expressions with older phrases, such as "and also with you" with "and with your spirit." In fact, the entire rite could be adopted almost without blinking in Episcopal churches that use Rite I.

Whether or not this is part of a reaction in the Roman Catholic Church to modern liturgies, this move reminds us Anglicans of our rich heritage--which we would be wise to preserve in some form if we can. --J. Douglas Ousley

Lambeth Post-Mortem

This is a post-mortem in the sense that the Lambeth Conference for 2008 is most certainly over; fortunately, it is not a post-mortem in the sense that the Anglican Communion did not die.

In fact, the most curious thing about the Conference is that it is difficult to determine what was accomplished. No resolutions were passed. A summary statement of various reflections was published that was so amorphous that almost any point of view could find support in it. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Presiding Bishop each published reports about how much listening and dialogue went on. Few nasty remarks were uttered outside the executive sessions of the bishops. Indeed, secrecy was the order of the day: the London Times religion correspondent was barred from a seminar on how always to be open to the press! No firm figures were even available for the cost of the conference for 600 bishops and spouses (and numerous advisers and experts), though it seems to have been well over $12,000,000, and there will have to be fund-raising to pay for unbudgeted expenses.

Of course, the Communion didn't die, and for that we may be grateful. Moreover, by the Grace of God, the bishops won't have to meet again for another ten years. --J. Douglas Ousley

A Common Goal?

Many American bishops have devoted a great deal of time and money to trying to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to end various forms of world poverty and oppression. This emphasis seems now to be shared by the Anglican bishops meeting at the Lambeth Conference who marched en masse through London last week in a "walk of witness"
against global poverty.

In a press conference before the Lambeth meetings began, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori indicated that she thought Anglican unity could be found in such "issues of life and death;" sexuality debates in comparison were much less important.

It will be interesting to see if Bishop Jefferts Schori's prediction will be proven true. The MDG's already seem somewhat dated and, in any case, it is hard to believe that we won't always have the poor with us. On the other hand, the Presiding Bishop has a point in considering these issues more central to the Gospel message. --J. Douglas Ousley

What's Happening at Lambeth?

Everyone is asking me what is going on at the Lambeth Conference.

Like most people stateside, I am relying on various Internet sites and blogs for news. The official Episcopal Church site has a lot of special coverage, including videos of many speeches and comments. For the first time there is a team of "Blogging Bishops" (God help us) and they are contributing to the Lambeth Journal. The Episcopal Diocese of New York is also relaying a blog by our own Suffragan Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam.

As for what is happening, my own hope is that there will be some reconciliation or at least an uneasy truth. The likelihood of that happening, given the anger on both sides and the love of some activists for media coverage of their own pronouncements, seems small.

Pray, brothers and sisters, for the Church. --J. Douglas Ousley

Really Looking for Communion?

The Lambeth Conference of (most) Anglican Bishops begins in a few days and as usual, there will be calls from all factions for unity and dialog.
My own suspicion is that most progressives and traditionalists are wholly unwilling to compromise and therefore conversation will be pointless and unity elusive. Progressives will call for everyone to speak at the same table--but with the implied agenda that if conservatives will only listen, they will change their minds and agree with the liberals. Traditionalists will fear this gambit and in addition will fear that giving up on any of their issues will lead to the collapse of the church.
This divisiveness is hardly new but it seems to me to be more rigid than ever. May God have mercy upon us. --J. Douglas Ousley

Lights, Cameras, Action

I wonder if part of the enormous interest in Barack Obama's local church came from the unfamiliarity of the media-centered nature of modern worship. It must have been a shock to many viewers, religious and secular. The hand-held microphones, the rock music, the hand-clapping, the theatrics--this is not my grandmother's Congregational Church!

Yet spectacle is part of many mega-churches these days, including those on the conservative side as well as the liberal. Even at St. Patrick's Cathedral, cameras are everywhere and applause interrupts the Cardinal's sermons.

As one who likes church to look like church, not a media event, I am feeling well behind the times. On the other hand: among the fastest growing denominations in America are Orthodox Congregations with the most traditional liturgies and few concessions to secular performances.

May God's holy name be praised. --J. Douglas Ousley

Our Batty Mother Church?

As a break from the serious sacred and secular news of the day, here are two items about the Church of England.

First, a senior clergyman from Nottingham, Canon Andrew Deuchar, recently resigned after admitting "inappropriate conduct toward a woman." No details were given and the departure of Canon Deuchar, a chaplain to the Queen, will likely pass relatively unnoticed. However, I cannot help remarking that this priest was formerly the Archbishop's Secretary for Anglican Communion Affairs.

Second, a recent government study reported that one in ten English churches in inhabited by bats. Because all the species of British bats are protected, users of the churches are not allowed even to plug the holes by which the bats enter, much less try to get them out of the buildings. The study suggests covering the furniture to protect from droppings. --J. Douglas Ousley

Brand Erosion?

Since its founding at the English Reformation in the 16th Century, the Anglican tradition has been known for its "comprehensiveness." In particular, the Church of England and its branches in other countries have been able to include Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals, conservatives and liberals, traditionalists and progressives.

Now, no one seems to point with pride to the inclusiveness under which we were founded. Many traditionalists are trying to pull their property out of one province of the Anglican Communion into another, while progressive leaders are spending vast amounts of money to retain that property.

At the same time, the reality is that we still share many of the original traits of comprehensiveness: apostolic liturgy and leadership and Protestant freedom of conscience and theology. 

I have realized only recently how much I cherished the "comprehensiveness" of the Episcopal Church. Not the least of my dissatisfaction with our church today is my recognition of how unclear it is what we stand for, and how little we really care to include fellow Anglicans with whom we differ. --J. Douglas Ousley

The PB in Jerusalem

"This morning we were spat on by a young Jewish man. Howsimilar must have been Jesus' journeys the last week of his life."

The Holy Saturday press release from the Episcopal News Service offered this quote from an address in Jerusalem by the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. The full article from which the release is excerpted contains similar veiled criticisms of the free state of Israel, just as past bulletins from the Palestinian territories frequently mentioned the “occupying” Israeli forces. No mention was made of Palestinian leadership or their terrorist allies.

Perhaps it’s not completely surprising that the Jewish man spat at American Christians who he could have suspected of mouthing anti-Israeli platitudes--and who might not have acknowledged that Israeli Christians and Muslims are free to practice their religion and even serve in the Israeli Parliament while, across the borders, Christian Palestinians are being forced to leave the Palestinian territories and Jews are slain. If the Israelis have put up barriers and checkpoints, it is to try to keep their children from being blown to bits.

I hesitate to speculate how “Jesus would have felt;” perhaps he might have been sympathetic to the disturbed “young Jewish man,” who like many Jews in the Holy Land, rarely have a peaceful night’s rest. --J. Douglas Ousley

 

Bishop Moore

The poet Honor Moore has written a memoir of her father, Bishop Paul Moore; an excerpt has just appeared in The New Yorker. 

I include the link to this article but I hasten to add that I hope people will think twice before they read it. It contains some very hurtful comments on a Bishop of New York who was beloved to me and many people of this diocese. Bishop Moore would have been the first to admit that he was unsure about a lot of things and that he was far from perfect. It is too bad that, despite advice to the contrary from the current Bishop of New York in a recent (and rare) pastoral letter, critics of Bishop Moore's vision of freedom for all people are likely to have a field day with this memoir. 

As one of the my colleagues remarked, the memoir genre is out-of-control. The tendency at funerals to puff up the departed is later countered with extreme criticism, which is all the more potent, given that the dead are unable to give their side of the story. As for Bishop Moore, may he rest in peace.  --J. Douglas Ousley

How Firm a Foundation?

Rummaging through my library recently, I happened upon a book of documents written by the first Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Stephen Bayne. Bayne was quite famous in the early 1960's when the concept of an "Anglican Communion" first began to replace the idea of the "Church of England in other countries."

Obviously, there was the freedom of post-colonialism in the air and there was much talk of each Province being autonomous; in retrospect, Bishop Bayne's concern (in 1962) that the newly -independent Ugandan Church feel free to express its independent views is ironic, given that this Church is now ordaining its own bishops in Bayne's native America!

The other striking feature of the documents is the continual searching for common ground and the frequent attempts to define "Anglicanism." Interestingly, the current suggestion to promote unity, an Anglican Covenant, would have likely been rejected by Bayne and other forward-thinking leaders of his time because it smacked of "confessionalism."

One wonders, then, just how clearly the Anglican Communion understood its identity and mission when it first established formal international links beyond the church of England. 

--J. Douglas Ousley

Men and Women in the Episcopal Church

An article of mine on men and women in the Episcopal Church entitled, "The Battle of the Sexes has Subsided" was recently published in the weekly magazine, The Living Church. This essay began as an address to a group of Manhattan clergy that I belong to; my original intention was simply to survey the field.

By the time I completed the paper, though, I realized that I wanted to stress my personal opinion that ordained women had largely been accepted and assimilated in our church. And I could not resist adding my view that in a generation or two, this would likely be the case with lesbian and gay clergy.

In a way, my views were confirmed simply by the article being accepted by the traditionalist publication, The Living Church. Even though they published my thoughts as a "Viewpoint" piece, it was published. I hope my optimistic predictions turn out to be true.

The article is not available on the limited Living Church website but if you contact me, I will email or mail you a copy. --J. Douglas Ousley ousleyjd@churchoftheincarnation.org 

comment on The Boredom of Atheism

Maki Hoashi has this comment on my earlier post on atheism. (I would note that I have since read Christopher Hitchens' book and will be commenting on it shortly.): 

 i have friends and relatives who are atheists (meaning, they've chosen this brand of disbelief; they aren't merely lazy!), which seems to mean "criticizing religion" or being specifically anti-christian. (this does not include buddhism, which does not have a god in its belief structure, but does codify belief in the afterlife and in life forces.)

i am unfamiliar with any official efforts to standardize the non-belief of god's existance, so my comments are restricted to observations of those loved ones. it seems to me that criticizing belief and those who believe in god does not construct a belief system in itself. it used to make me upset, but these days, i only feel sorry for those who feel they have to make fun of believers, and grow bored with their arguments maintaining their superiority by denigrating others. as i've grown older, it simply saddens me that many i love do this, especially on the holidays. their right to not-believe is not the problem -- only their hounding negativism, which seems to be a black hole into which they pour hope and faith, a sort of "i told you so" whining. what a poor sort of substitute for the potential joys of the season and beyond!

on the other hand, i also have bible-thumping friends and relatives, which can be annoying or offensive, too. i guess any form of obsession is tiresome. the japanese refer to obsessives as "otaku" which defines someone who is obsessed to the point of affecting day-to-day life -- something that goes beyond a hobby (like anime otaku, or car otaku, orfood otaku). the word is also loosely translated as "freak"! (the official name of the group which produces pokemon characters and games is actually a company called gamefreak.)

in the end, i tell myself that as humans, we are blessed because we have the right to choose to believe or not believe. and for all the negativism, i'm still happy to have the friends and relatives i have, and the diversity of peoples and beliefs all around us. happy new year, regardless of your belief or disbelief, or of your otaku! Maki Hoashi