The above quote comes from an this essay I came aross today by The Rev. Dr. Philip Turner entitled, “ECUSA’S GOD A Descriptive Comment on the ‘Working Theology’ of the Episcopal Church U.S.A.”
I think he says some things that we all need to consider. Turner suggests that a primary problem in the Episcopal Church is not so much moral, but theological.
http://www.anglicancommunioninstitute.org/articles/ECUSA_God.htm
Okay, here is another piece by Father Harding from his weblog. I have to say, he has a way with words and identifying issues. I wonder if anything has really changed in ten years? I do think so, except that younger people seem to have a higher view of the priesthood.
The Power and Dignity of the Priesthood
This was published in an edition of the Sewanee Theological Review devoted to ministry. It touches on the discussion on this site about the priesthood. A Talk given at the Annual Meeting of The Society for the Increase of the Ministry at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, November I, 1995, By the Rev. Leander S. Harding, Ph.D.
Copyright ｩ 1994
Much has been written about the perception of a crisis in the priesthood. The Cornerstone Project was developed by the Episcopal Church Foundation in order to help strengthen ordained leadership at a time when clergy are reporting themselves to be discouraged, confused and highly stressed. One of the most recent findings of the Cornerstone Project is that the parish priests in the project had difficulty articulating a theology of priesthood. The staff found that the priests in the project could discuss theological readings with competence but that when they spoke about their parish ministries they did not tend to speak in theological categories. I was one of a group of clergy, theologians and Cornerstone staff who attended a conference at the College of Preachers in June of 1995 to attempt to understand the meaning of this finding and to suggest a course of action. The thoughts that I am going to share with you tonight represent my contribution to that discussion.
There are those in the Episcopal Church who have strong predisposition towards the clergy being only functionaries. It is an extream anti-clericalism that denies, in my humble opinion, what Holy Orders are meant to be within the universal, apostolic, and catholic Church.
The Rev. Dr. Leander S. Harding, rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Stamford, CT, recently commented on this in his weblog.
Here is an excerpt:
“The beauty of the ordination rites is about the only thing we have to save Holy Orders from becoming a mundane job. It might seem to some that the cleric as employee would be a relief from a church in which too much is made of clergy and too little of the ministry of the people. Making ordinations and services of installation more mundane, more matter-of-fact will have the consequence of also making the ministry of laity more mundane and less awesome. The trend of the last 25 years of secularizing our understanding of the clergy role has done little to make the people of God more holy or more empowered in their baptismal ministry and it has done much to reinforce the very clericalism( the priest does the ministry, the people receive and evaluate it) that is so deplored.”
Read it all on his weblog, or click below.
This piece puts into words my very thoughts on this whole subject. Click below to read the entire article, which first appeared in the National Episcopal Clergy Association newletter, by Father Harding.
A Word to the Church
From the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church
Salt Lake City
Thursday, January 13, 2005
[Episcopal News Service]
To the faithful in Christ Jesus, greetings in the season of Epiphany. We rejoice together with you that God has “caused a new light to shine in our hearts” revealing God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord. The sufferings of our brothers and sisters in the aftermath of tsunamis in South Asia and flooding and mud slides in California and here in Utah where we are meeting, make us long all the more for this new light revealed to us in Christ. We are mindful as well of the suffering around the world caused by global poverty, HIV/AIDS, malaria, other diseases, and war. In this suffering world we are called to “serve and signify God’s mission to the world, that mission whereby God brings to men and women, to human societies and to the whole world, real signs and foretastes of that healing love which will one day put all things to rights” (Windsor Report, paragraph 3).
We decided at our September meeting in 2004 to set aside this time so we might together begin to receive the Windsor Report with humility. We have met for a day and a half in Salt Lake City. We welcome with gratitude the work of the Lambeth Commission on Communion. We realize this is a long-term effort which will most likely extend beyond our March meeting. In the meantime, we aim to practice the more intentional consultative processes called for by the Windsor Report. We also anticipate the Executive Council of our church joining in this consultation.
“All truth passes through 3 stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
I believe we are now in the “violently opposed” period of the universal Church’s change in belief of Truth concerning homosexual people and their inclusion in the Church and God’s purview, let alone in the full life of society.
Today is the final day of the brief but very important meeting of the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops in Salt Lake City. The bishops are meeting to deal with the Windsor Report issued last October by the Lambeth Commission on Communion. The Anglican Communion, and elements of the Episcopal Church, are up-in-arms after the 2003 General Convention’s consenting to the ordination of the first openly-gay bishop (Gene Robinson of the Diocese of New Hampshire) and its acknowledgement that the blessing of same-sex unions is taking place within Episcopal Church congregations. For most who oppose the above actions, they also oppose the ordination of gay clergy (deacons, priests, and bishops), period.
There is truth to the conservative Anglicans who say the liberals just don’t get it.
As much as I am critical of the self-righteousness and arogance of many conservatives right now, many liberals are no different (and probably more so).
It reminds me of the controversies between John Henry Newman and his cohorts (Mozley, say) and Tyndall and his (Powel, say).
The strains of difference between these theological and philosophical beliefs are still being played out today. There are those who believe that the Enlightenment, rationalism, and science, etcetera, are the basis for claims of truth and that our understanding of truths of God must be in line with science and rational thought, which ultimately are all of God. Then, there are those who believe that we begin with the truth claims of God as revealed in Scripture and Tradition, and our understanding of the world and humankind must first begin with God’s Truth. Or, something like that.
It is my experience that many more liberal people, and many progressives, do not understand the subjective experience people have with God – an honest relationship. It is also my experience that many conservatives are too willing to just make a belief claim without substantial and honest justifications/apologetics for those positions – many of their beliefs are very thin and sometimes just irrational and inconsistent.
I don’t know. I don’t want to be in an organization that is only one or the other. I’m afraid the Episcopal Church will end up being only one, like the denomination I left for Anglicanism.
Go to all the different Anglican sites to see responses to the Windsor Report. Titusonenine (as in Titus 1:9), Kendall Harmon’s weblog, is a good place to keep up.
This link, however, will not be found by most. It is a cartoon about the Windsor Report:
http://www.wibsite.com/features/windsorreport/
Oh what those in the world (especially Western Europe and North America) must think! I hope and pray that we will, in fact, and as the report mentions, be a witness to a polarized world to how disagreeable groups can handle their differences.
From the Windsor Report, pp. 50-51 – this is what we did wrong:
The Commission regrets that without attaching sufficient importance to the
interests of the wider Communion:
– the Episcopal Church (USA) proceeded with the consecration of Gene
Robinson
– the 74th General Convention of the Episcopal Church (USA) declared that
æ–—ocal faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life
as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex
unions�
– the Diocese of New Westminster approved the use of public Rites for the
Blessing of same sex unions
– the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada issued a statement
affirming the integrity and sanctity of committed same sex relationships
80 General Convention 2003, Resolution C051 (see Appendix Three/9).
– a number of primates and other bishops have taken it upon themselves to
intervene in the affairs of other provinces of the Communion.
Our unanimous recommendations in relation to these matters are set out below.
I am surprised that they included the Anglican Church of Canada’s statement affirming same sex relationships!
From the Windsor Report – this is what we did wrong:
50
The Commission regrets that without attaching sufficient importance to the
interests of the wider Communion:
– the Episcopal Church (USA) proceeded with the consecration of Gene
Robinson
– the 74th General Convention of the Episcopal Church (USA) declared that
æ–—ocal faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life
as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex
unions�80
– the Diocese of New Westminster approved the use of public Rites for the
Blessing of same sex unions
– the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada issued a statement
affirming the integrity and sanctity of committed same sex relationships
80 General Convention 2003, Resolution C051 (see Appendix Three/9).
– a number of primates and other bishops have taken it upon themselves to
intervene in the affairs of other provinces of the Communion.
Our unanimous recommendations in relation to these matters are set out below.
I am surprised that they included the Anglican Church of Canada’s statement affirming same sex relationships!
From William Countryman in Witness Magazine:
“Any proposal to create separate, overlapping jurisdictions based on differences of belief and practice will effectively dismantle the Anglican Communion, whatever good face may be put on it. There is no possible purpose for such jurisdictions other than the exclusion of those with whom one disagrees. And this is precisely what Anglican tradition has been so averse to doing.
“Some appear to desire an Anglicanism that is as dogmatically uniform as Roman Catholicism or the more conservative varieties of Presbyterianism. One can only ask why any one would think such a phenomenon could be called ‘Anglican.’ I do not mean to say that there are no limits to Anglican belief and practice. Of course there are! But we cannot rule out the possibility of new perspectives creating new questions in new or changed cultural contexts. This first happened, for us in the United States, when the American Revolution replaced the monarch with an array of elected governments and abolished all religious establishments. It happened again to us because our nation abolished slavery in the nineteenth century and again because our culture insisted that the equality of women be recognized in active and practical ways.
“It is happening again now because our culture no longer categorizes lesbians and gay men as evil monstrosities or even as psychological problem-cases. The Christian Right has responded by arguing that such categories should be reinstituted and enforced. Their failure to persuade the Senate to enact a constitutional amendment against gay marriage suggests that the country is rejecting that argument. The Episcopal Church, on the other hand, has begun to ask rather how gay men and lesbians whom God has called to faith can live lives that accord with it. We believe this is the faithful course in our context.
“If this is of God, the entire Anglican Communion will benefit by our pioneering efforts. If it is not, then we shall benefit by continuing to be part of the same Communion with those who disagree sharply with our decisions and urge us to reconsider them.”
The Rev. Dr. L. William Countryman is the Sherman E. Johnson Professor in Biblical Studies at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif.