I’ve been thinking for a while now, dreaming actually, of a way to go forward in the midst of The Episcopal Church’s continued decline. I can either continue to bemoan all the controversy, the bad management, the weird developing theologies, etc., and all that comes with the “diminishment.”
More broadly, we face the decline of Christianity in the U.S. and must consider how to live effectively in an increasingly post-Christian culture. Honestly, I don’t care that we are in an era that is increasingly post-Christian. It is much easier to identify those who truly desire relationship with God, reconciliation, and new life. Most of the rational behind the Culture Wars is about certain groups trying to rescue Christendom, and it will not happen without autocratic force.
In the face of diminishment, however, comes opportunity for thinking of different ways of doing all this stuff. So, perhaps I need to refocus on what’s next… After all, it is the ethos of Anglicanism that is important to me, and if the structures cannot hold together then there isn’t much I can do other than keep the ethos. I’m not yet vested in the Pension Fund, so what the heck.
For example, at present, approximately 45% of all Episcopal Churches cannot afford a full-time priest or lay employee. If things continue on as they probably will, that percentage will only increase. Add to that percentage another 15% of all congregations and we have a second group of parishes that can only barely keep a full-time priest. What can be done about this? All kinds of things, actually, but…
As I’ve said over and over again, Anglicanism is strategically situated to the condition of and characteristics of the younger generations, if only leveraged well. (We aren’t doing very well, however.)
Ancient-Future, Simple Church, simple living.
The “Simple Church” movement, also known by the name House Church movement, part of the Emergent Conversation, and on and on – is a way of being the Body of Christ in ways that resonate with an increasing number of people and is possible where money is in short supply. In the context of liturgical and sacramental Anglicanism, this can be very interesting way of doing the ministry. I can imagine that those of the Oxford Movement, if present today, would be all over it. New Monasticism, too.
For those clergy and lay people who desire “intentional community,” we can live together and go out into the world for ministry – lay people into the working-world where clergy rarely go, for clergy into all those parishes and missions that cannot afford a priest. Simple living, intentional living, meeting with the faithful and those seeking. Being there. Nothing new, really, but a very old model in a very new time.
This is want we want to do in Red Hook, except the authorities-that-be say our parish cannot hire a second priest (me) – politics. And, I’m warn-out and tired of being bi-vocational. My best energy and time is taken up doing things I don’t want to do, yet the job enables me to be at St. Paul’s, possibly in Red Hook, in this City.
Imagine The General Theological Seminary in this kind of context. Benedictine spirituality, living in intentional community on the Close. Going out into all of The City being the representatives, the hands, the mouths of God in all levels of society. A place of excellence in learning, in worship, in encouragement and challenge. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) From this City, the influence will reach all over the world. No one can convince me that this kind of vision (not my own, but becoming my own realized through the lives and experiences of many others), no one can convince me that this kind of formation for priests and laity alike will not appeal to and enliven 150 people from around the world that want to participate in such a place. No one can convince me that there isn’t money and people will be parted from their money to see such a thing happen. It takes people with strong vision and determined conviction to give up their own lives and allow God to be present in and through them. It takes leadership.
Why not? Why not? It is hard for people living in the fog of diminishment to see clearly opportunities. It is easier to fight over what’s left, even as it all slips through their fingers.
More later…