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