On New Year’s Eve I wrote the following:

“The end of 2007 on the ecclesiastical front sees a fascinating correspondence between a conservative theologian Peter Toon and Archbishop Akinola, apparently penned in large part and as usual by Martyn Minns.”

I was following reports that Martyn tells me were speculation and in error. He further suggests that the implication that Archbishop Akinola cannot think for himself is racist. I am quite prepared to believe Martyn and have never been in doubt that the Archbishop can think for himself. I suspect that the following suggestion by Greg Griffith and written in response to the original Church Times article showing that a statement from the Archbishop had been written on Martyn Minns’ computer is closer to the reality:

“Archbishop Akinola was in Virginia last week, when the statement was released. He and Minns spent much time together. It is entirely possible that +Akinola was using Minns' computer to compose his statement. It is more likely that +Akinola was dictating the statement to Minns. It is far more likely that +Akinola was giving shape and form to the statement, while relying on Minns for the exact wording... in other words, exactly what a trusted confidant and Assistant Secretary of the Global South Steering Committee is for.”

I accept that the thinking of two or more people, along with phrasing, drafting and so on, can be a collaborative effort fully owned by the person who signs the statement.

Martyn further indicates that this correspondence alleged to be from Archbishop Akinola was not from him, that there has been some correspondence with another Primate and that they are still doing their best to keep private correspondence private.

Even accepting all of the above, I still find the whole business heartbreaking and am proud of our House of Bishops for defining themselves, being clear about our constitution and canons (which apparently used to be fine for those who committed themselves to the ‘doctrine, discipline and worship of this church’ but are no longer), and seeing through the consequences of the trust that they hold as Bishops in the church. I count everyone who feels that they have to leave The Episcopal Church as a loss at the same time that I am proud of the way the gospel is made incarnate in the witness of the branch of Christ’s Church to which I belong.

January 5, 2008

A twenty year old young man was killed in a car crash on Christmas Eve and buried from All Saints’ the following Saturday. I have two friends dealing with the reality that in all likelihood, the illness that each of them have will bring their life to an end long before they would have chosen for themselves. At the same time, when I think about people we have buried over the past year, many of them lived long and fruitful and happy lives and sadness in the face of their deaths was more about our loss than some sense of injustice.

As I have been thinking about death and our responses to it in a theological or philosophical sense, I have found that many people writing about death cannot but address the pastoral or existential reality along the way, Richard Harries, the now retired Bishop of Oxford published a collection of his writings in 1995 including a reflection on “Attitudes to Death in the Twentieth Century” (Questioning Belief, SPCK). He looks at death as judgment and the decision of heaven or hell for eternity and how that is not really a motivating reality for many people today. He saw that view giving way to the idea that death is really a doorway to a kinder world than the one we inhabit, exemplified by the writing of Henry Scott Holland that is still sometimes read at funerals: “Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room…I am but waiting for you for an interval somewhere very near just around the corner. All is well.” Harries goes on to look at a twentieth century move from a preoccupation with the next world to a concern focused more on this one. He explores the movement away from the notion of an ‘eternal soul’ to a more Hebraic sense of the whole person and Christian Hope based in an understanding of resurrection. (Giles Fraser is going to spend January seeing if he can separate Platonism from Christianity in the Church Times. See his column.) Harries looks at C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot and John A. T. Robinson among others and ends by affirming his own trust in God’s gracious love.

In contrast, Karl Rahner in”Ideas for a Theology of Death” (in Theological Investigations Vol. XIII New York: Crossroad, 1975) takes a dense theological and philosophical approach looking at the exercise of freedom in death and ‘freedom as the event of definitive finality’. (I’m looking forward to doing some chewing on that one). John Bowker, former Dean of Trinity, Cambridge has addressed The Meanings of Death (Cambridge university Press, 1991). I’m particularly intrigued by his comments on the Sadducees. He acknowledges that it is impossible to reconstruct their belief system, but points out that they seemed to consider taking anything other than life as it is presented to us as almost blasphemous. They saw death as a part of the created order and therefore ‘good’ in God’s eyes. This is quite a different reading of Genesis 3, which has often been the foundation for understanding death as a consequence of the fall and generally a bad thing.
As I continue to look at the theology of creation with my pastor-theologian (now known as the ‘cowbell theologians’ after the iconic SNL sketch with Will Ferrell –long story--) I believe I will be reading about death for awhile and would welcome hearing about additional theological or philosophical resources that address the subject.

New Year's Day

Two wonderful Christmas books teach me about the land on which I live. I still remember a sermon by Walter Smith (who will this spring mark fifty years as a priest) in which he talked about the importance of connecting with the land. I like knowing where I live and what has happened there. Peachtree Creek by David R. Kaufman, and Atlanta is Ours: The Plot to Capture Sherman by Richard H. Sams help me do jus that. The first is a tale of a man who canoed the creek in modern times with copious photographs and historical comment. The second is an historical novel by a great grandson of Washington J. Houston of Houston Mill. Together these books have helped me find out where the actual mill was (now the parking area for Hahn Woods Park of Emory) and what troop movements there were across this land. I was particularly struck by learning something of the Sage family whose home fell to urban sprawl in the 1960s and became Sage Hill where I go to the grocery store. Kaufman’s book includes a photograph of Margaret Sage. I imagine a resemblance to Margaret Sage Hoare (nee Smith). Given the realities of the South there simply must be a connection.

Sams’ novel does well with the complexities of the civil war and the feelings that ran to the preservation of a way of life that can not be reduced to a simple defense of slavery. And the feelings that led to a belief in the importance of the Union that could not be reduced to a hatred of slavery. I could not but help think of the complexities that are leading conservatives to try and secede from the ‘union’ of the Episcopal Church and my own sense of the importance of defending and upholding the reality of our ‘union’. Homosexuality is the defining issue for us, just as the institution of slavery was the defining issue of that old war. Our conflict is not something that can be fully understood by reducing it to a single issue however, and I believe that what is going on is that people who are used to defining reality are finding that they no longer have a monopoly on ‘the norm’ and really hate that change.

Happy New Year to one and all.

New Year's Eve

The end of 2007 on the ecclesiastical front sees a fascinating correspondence between a conservative theologian Peter Toon and Archbishop Akinola, apparently penned in large part and as usual by Martyn Minns. Dr. Toon has asked some questions about the process by which the GAFCON ‘pilgrimage’ is being called and announced. You can read it here. It makes clear the rogue nature of the conservative leadership as they seek to ‘realign’ (read ‘takeover’, ‘split’, or ‘render conservative’) the communion without using traditional orthodox conciliar processes. It is ironic, of course, that it was a flawed process perhaps, but an conciliar process nonetheless that approved the consecration of the bishop of New Hampshire. The position of the Windsor Report is that our conciliar consultation and process was not nearly wide ranging enough. It has subsequently been acknowledged that the Episcopal Church has acted fully within the bounds of our own constitution and canons, and therefore with full attention to conciliar process. That process as has often been pointed out has been going on publicly for at least thirty years.

Who knows what 2008 will bring? More of the same, I suppose. I applaud the clarity of our House of Bishops who, in spite of disagreements among them on matters of human sexuality, are able to be clear about the Church to which we all belong and are willing to respond to the separatists with clarity. Such response does not preclude charity toward those who dislike being a minority in the councils of the Episcopal Church, but it does preclude our bishops from abdicating their own ordination vows and the trust that was placed in them at their election. (That is why it was important that the Church be assured that the new bishop of South Carolina be clear that he will not seek to lead that diocese in a separatist direction before he received the necessary consents for consecration.) I hope for more clarity with charity in the year to come and the grace of God to continue to be free to worship around the table of the Lord and enjoy the blessings of the work we have been given to do in the name of Jesus.

December 29, 2007

The Anglican blogosphere makes for grim reading with the antics of the former bishop of San Joachin changing the locks on a church in that diocese that wishes to remain Episcopal.

It all rather pales into insignificance with the death of Benazir Bhutto, something that will really make a difference in the politics of an unstable nuclear power in which the U.S. –once again— has found itself in the position of shoring up a dictatorship for our strategic purposes. A friend of mine from England described this event as carrying a kind of ‘morbid inevitability’. I hope the President will use whatever influence he has in that country to suggest a delay for the opposition to reorganize itself and offer some kind of campaign. It is my understanding that Pakistan has not known a truly fair election in the past, but the hope of something like one now would be a good thing.

The movie Charlie Wilson’s War is instructive (as well as being fun). We provided a billion dollars or so to help oust the Russians from Afghanistan and then could not muster the will to provide a million dollars to begin rebuilding schools in that country. I tried reading the journal Foreign Affairs for a few years but still find our foreign policy to be largely inscrutable in most instances.

A few days off not only offered a rare visit to the cinema, but allowed me to finish reading New England White by Stephen Carter (a sometime visitor to All Saints’). Unlike his first foray into writing a novel (The Emperor of Ocean Park) this one was hard work, a convoluted mystery with some good commentary on class and race, but in need of an editor.

December 28, 2007

An alternative Lambeth Conference (although not called that) has been called for June in the Holy Land. All the usual suspects are involved and are talking about ‘moving forward’. Two bishops from the Church of England are among the organizers and it is assumed that many of those attending who are otherwise invited to Lambeth will use their Lambeth funds to attend this gathering of the religiously pure and so will, presumably, not attend the later meeting where thy might have to talk to people who are in fact ‘moving forward’ by recognizing the full humanity of women and are at least open to talking to others who suspect that gay and lesbian people might be creatures of God as such.

These are many of the same bishops who have reported no significant ‘listening’ at all when asked to do so by the same non-binding Lambeth resolution that they proclaim as the current basis for orthodox Anglican views on homosexuality. Any claims to their being ‘Anglican’ in any meaningful sense are bankrupt, but presumably necessary in North America at least for the purposes of buttressing legal claims, not that a group of congregations and their clergy have chosen to leave the church but that a ‘division’ has occurred. (Legal documents can be found in various places. This link shows one of the disputed properties on the webpage.)

What will all this mean?

Who knows?

I think the most interesting thing to watch other than the various legal wrangles in the US is what will happen in and to the Church of England. Certainly the views of the conservatives have little or no traction among the general populace in England, but probably have quite a bit of representation in the C of E. Will the bishops of that province who appear to be supporting the GAFCON and so contributing to the weakening of Lambeth be challenged or disciplined? I doubt it. The Archbishop of Canterbury appears to be trying to keep inviting and not coercing conversation and covenant (thus being thoroughly consistent with the model and pattern of Jesus) so is unlikely to exercise any canonical privilege he may have in this regard.

In the meantime it is up to those of us in happy, healthy parishes to keep on doing the work we have been given to do in both proclaiming and responding to the gospel, bearing witness to the good news as we have received and enjoyed it.

Christmas Day, 2007

While this has been a year in which "The Dry Salvages" has been particularly compelling for me, it is "Little Gidding" that has been, and remains, my favorite of the Quartets. I think that has something to do with the Pentecostal imagery (“the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living”) and the setting in a holy place, once drenched in the daily round of prayer. Nicholas Ferrar had founded a community at Little Gidding in 1625. John Booty tells us that the place was revered by George Herbert and visited by Charles I. Eliot seems to say that it is only the elemental that will endure, with particular emphasis on fire. I imagine that was unavoidable in the midst of the blitz.

A friend has suggested to me that the title of these poems, Four Quartets, is less about abstract matters, or even the elements. Instead, he says, the title brings up the image of a quartet playing music, --musical imagery also being found throughout the poems. I like that and would add it to my answer that the intention of the title is ‘all of the above’.

Music was the heart of our Christmas Eve worship at All Saints’, with our incomparable choir offering the Rutter Gloria as a prelude to worship in the later services and our wonderful youth and children’s choirs leading worship in the late afternoon. They too are really accomplished, singing music from the renaissance to modern compositions with great clarity and discipline. We are truly and greatly blessed by the talented musicians we have in our midst. It is more true for me at Christmas than at any other season that music trumps theology as the means of conveying gospel truth. A simple carol, with all of its associations for me over the years, can assure me of God’s love more than all of the writings of the church fathers on the incarnation put together. Of course this does not mean that theology is irrelevant or unhelpful. Quite the contrary. It is simply to say that music is more like poetry than reasoned argument, and so is more helpful at making a raid on the inarticulate.

A very happy Christmas to one and to all.