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