Ash Wednesday… to go

Posted on March 3, 2012 by blgriffith

A colleague of mine, Fr. Robert Hendrickson, writes in his blog, The Curate’s Desk, about the recent phenomena of “Ashes-to-Go” that seems to have caught on in our Church. I think he is correct in asserting that this type of quick and temporary experience does not actually allow people to experience the power behind the form, or the act of having ashes placed on one’s forehead. The power comes from the fullness of the RIte, from the intentional, persistent, and slow working within us by the Holy Spirit as we give ourselves to the effort. Without such intention and effort, having ashes placed on one’s forehead can be simply an activity, like putting on blush, although for a presumably understood (but not likely so) different purpose. Here are a few paragraphs from his blog… a full read is well worth it!

“I worry that we are sharing only the mark of our separation from God
rather than our conviction that God dwells ever with us and that this
very dust that we are may be hallowed, sanctified, blessed, and even
assumed. This reconciliation of ourselves to God brings with it the
welcome to live in the fullness of the Christian life. We are given the
hope that “being reconciled with one another,” we may “come to the
banquet of that most heavenly Food” and receive all of the benefits of
Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. Ash Wednesday is not about our sins
alone but about our life in and with the Triune God who calls us into
true life – a life free of the mark of death.

@daylife

“This simply cannot be communicated in a drive-by encounter. The sign
of death is decisively stripped away in the Sacrament – it is that
encounter with the Christ made known in the Body at the Altar and in the
Church that is the point of Lent as we are brought into Communion and
community.

“My worry about Ashes-to-Go is that it reinforces the privatized
spirituality that plagues much of the Church. “I” do not get ashes. “We”
get ashes so that we may know ourselves, as a Body, to be marked for a
moment but saved, together, forever…

“On the plus side, I think it is absolutely vital for the Church to
find ways to engage the changing world. This may be one such way – yet I
cannot quite get comfortable with it. I am increasingly leery of the
Church’s desire to find ways to make the work of the Christian life
easier or faster – especially as it pertains to this most sombre and
needful of seasons.

“My hope though is that Ashes-to-Go really can become an entry point
and that those who receive these ashes will be drawn to the Church in a
fuller and deeper way. Perhaps this brief encounter can catalyze some
movement of the Spirit that calls the recipients to newness of life. I
look forward to talking with my friends about their experience of the
day and pray that their efforts have shared something of the fullness of
the Christian life.”

When does it all end?

Posted on February 17, 2012 by blgriffith

When God sets about renewing his Church (whether a part of the One, Holy and Apostolic Church or a Protestant denomination – or all of it as the Body of Christ), it is more often than not a very messy, nasty undertaking. Entrenched interests, “conservative” or “liberal”, fight mightily to stop it (look how the religious leaders of Jesus’ day tried to stop him and the Apostles). There comes a point through the name calling, the casting of dispersions, the casting into outer darkness, and the utter unChrist-like actions, when those most entrenched in the fighting become irreverent to the new thing that God is doing. This happens because, I think, those most enamored with their own positions become blind to what is really going on around them, under them, above them – anywhere but with them. Renewal may mean the death of everything – the end of it all. No more money! Then, perhaps, the reshaping – starting in the very hearts of very real folk – can begin in earnest.

This little rant of mine comes out of this news report of a parish that was once an Episcopal parish that decided to pull-out of the Episcopal Church, tried to keep the property that did not belong to them (according to the very Canons that they agreed to and lived under for for nearly 30-years, particularly considering the vow taken by the then Episcopal priest in charge). They lost the court battle, were told to vacate the original Episcopal congregations building, but couldn’t leave it at that.

Now, I think that much of the way all this has been handled by the national Episcopal Church, dioceses, bishop, priests, and the laity in many of these conflicts has been terrible, but this kind of thing takes the cake, so to speak.

Here is an article describing what happened in: Diocese says Elm Grove’s church’s alter vandalized by evicted group ( ElmGroveNow)
Here is the photo on Facebook of the proud perpetrator of the action: the apse and alter – (Kelsie J. Wendelberger)

Continue reading →

App Store – Dayspring Church

Posted on January 10, 2012 by blgriffith

It isn’t a matter of just employing technology, but understanding how emerging generations are integrating with changing technology. Current technology, in and of itself, is always passe among emerging generations.

I made a Facebook post a while ago about the passe nature of the World Wide Web among younger people with respect to APPS on smartphones and tablets and how they are usurping the Web. I believing that in the coming decade everything will change, again. As today’s emerging generation moves into their 20’s and 30’s, they will access information and engage their social networks not from the World Wide Web, but they will interact with the world and get their information through APPS rather than the WWW.

Anyway, way back when I started our new campus ministry at Bowling Green State Univ., (Dunamis Outreach, part of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries) we were a part of a new church in Bowling Green, “Dayspring Church” (we had four hundred attending on Sundays in just four years). Well, I came across Dayspring’s APP on iTunes.

So, were are we with respect to emerging culture?

Check out their APP on iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dayspring-church/id476240885?mt=8

New Order?

Posted on December 14, 2011 by blgriffith

Henry Kissinger speaking with Chairman Mao.

The following quote by Henry Kissinger in his recent book, “On China,” relates to the reasons for the profound one year change from near-war animosity between China & the U.S. to both governments preparing for Nixon’s historic first visit to Mao’s China. This is the “It” that begins the quote. What lessons can we learn for our dealings with the prevalent proclivities we find in our antagonistic and animosity filled culture and the Church’s engagement with it?

“It did so by sidestepping the rhetoric of two decades & staying focused on the fundamental strategic objective of a geopolitical dialogue leading to a recasting of the Cold War international order.” (On China, Kissinger; p. 234).

Is such a reordering possible in our two-decades old U.S. Culture War that has perverted our governmental processes and the Christian Faith in the U.S.?

What should we sidestep? How do we do it? What remains of the enduring “strategic objective” of the Church – for those who claim Christ who desire to find a way beyond the hubris, the anger, the bitterness, the spitefulness, the willful ignorance, the vengeful attitudes and actions that subsume so much of what is the Body of Christ, today?

The New “Anglicans”?

Posted on December 7, 2011 by blgriffith

When I was in seminary (2002-2005), Gene Robinson was consecrated the new Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. I don’t believe this was any kind of “political move” or a decision by the diocese for reasons of political-correctness, but the people of the diocese voting for a priest they knew, had faith in, and considered to be faithful to the Gospel. The fact that he was gay and had a partner didn’t keep them from voting for him. There are, of course, lots of opinions about him, the diocese, and act of consecrating him a bishop in The Episcopal Church. A whole lot has happened since then.

One aspect of the outcome has been the leaving of many Episcopalians to other Christian bodies and the creation of the Anglican Church of North America – a place where disaffected Episcopalians could flee and where some of the other “Continuing Anglican” bodies could affiliate. The hope was/is that this new church would replace the Episcopal Church as the official Anglican Provencal institution. This hasn’t happened. IMHO, many of the actions taken by the four dioceses, the parishes, clergy, and people who left the Episcopal Church and their motivation proves to be very American, but not very Anglican.

One such new institution is the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA). This group actually left the Episcopal Church earlier, over women’s ordination, I think. They ended up being under the authority of the Anglican Church in Rwanda. The Rwandan Church consecrated new bishops to oversee this new church institution. The Rev. Church Murphy, former Episcopalian, was one of these new bishops. He now leads/led this group of churches.

So, now, some things have happened between the House of Bishops of the Rwandan Church and now-bishop Murphy that raises the ire of Murphy and some others in the AMiA. The Primate of Rwanda went about disciplining Murphy, which, of course, Murphy didn’t like. An ultimative was give to Murphy and the consequences for non-compliance were spelled out. A couple days ago, Murphy and the other AMiA American bishops affiliated with the Rwandan Church have announced that they are splitting with the Rwandan Church. Who knows what will finally play out, but it seems that Murphy and company may end up creating yet another Protestant denomination in the U.S. – another sect.

When I moved out of American-Evangelicalism and into Anglicanism (via TEC)
in the mid-1990’s, I recognized that there was a great deal in common
between American-Evangelicalism and Anglican-Evangelicalism. One issue
that wasn’t really dealt with in my parish was the difference between
the two. I’ve come to learn the difference. There was a real failure
among priests to teach “Anglicanism” – whether Evangelical,
Anglo-Catholic, or Broad Church – and how it is distinct and different
(yet similiar) to the other traditions. I think this is an underlying
issue among a lot of folks who left, who stayed, who broke-off, etc. It
is my opinion that this is a primary reason underlying the actions of
Murphy and others.

Anglican-Evangelicals are Catholic! American-Evangelicals (within
which I was raised) are not. As a matter of fact, they are often
anti-Catholic (both in polity and with respect to the Roman Catholic
Church). I think many American-Evangelicals who came into Anglicanism
through the Episcopal Church, like myself, never learned the difference
between Anglican- and American-Evangelicalism. When the going got tough
within the Episcopal Church, many of us reacted just like
American-Evangelicals, which means there was no issue or problem
believing we could simply break-off and start our own thing, since to
divide is the time-honored American-Evangelical way of “solving” or
avoiding problems. They, we, I, didn’t act like Anglican-Evangelicals,
who because we are Catholic, simply don’t separate, break-off, or form a
whole new church. There are times when conservatives are in the
ascendency and times when liberals are, but it seems to me that a
fundamental difference within Anglicanism is that we suffer through if
we have to because the Church is the Church Catholic, period, and cannot
be divided.

Chuck Murphy and those of the AMiA
who now spurn Rwanda are simply following the path they set out on and
doing the very American-Evangelical thing. It is expected. That is how
American-Evangelicals react to so many of the interpersonal and
authoritarian problems. I say this not out of anger or bitterness toward
my former tradition, because I am very glad of it, but out of a real
desire to be authentically “Anglican.”

What does it mean to – include?

Posted on November 29, 2011 by blgriffith

From the Episcopal News Service, November 28, 2011, reported the conclusion of the disciplinary charges made against the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence:

“The Episcopal Church‘s Disciplinary Board for Bishops Nov. 28 said it cannot certify that Diocese of South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence has abandoned the communion of the church.

“‘Based on the information before it, the board was unable to make the
conclusions essential to a certification that Bishop Lawrence had
abandoned the communion of the church,’ the Rt. Rev. Dorsey F. Henderson
Jr., board president, said in a statement e-mailed to Lawrence and
reporters.”

Link to the article details…

I am thankful for this. After working 20 years in higher education, I can say that I’ve found (pseudo) liberals (in name only) to be particularly exclusive and spiteful despite their demand for the right of radical “inclusion.” Whether I agree with this bishop is not the point – the point is that if we truly, honestly want a Church in the Anglican tradition of allowance of different perspectives, then he and his diocese have the absolute prerogative to be included. Whether I am personally gleeful, hurt, thankful, angry, or whatever emotion I might have related to their perspective is irrelevant. We are not a fundamentalist Church, whether the fundamentalists are liberal or conservative.

Inner Man

Posted on November 28, 2011 by blgriffith

“But even if one is content with a certain high usefulness in his chosen field, there is another phase of the whole matter. The Church has some useful information for that man which his inner being craves.

“The Church believes that the man wishes to know why the great gift of life was given him, how he may see beyond the affairs of the moment, what is expected of one so richly endowed in mind and heart, what shares he has in the improvement of the race, what he must do to enrich his own living, what thoughts he must think to understand his own relation to God and the world, what efforts he must make to gain real and durable satisfaction, what he may do to avoid the devastating sins, to whom he may appeal to quiet his conscience, how he may gain comfort in time of loss, how he must estimate necessary sacrifices, what powers he may appropriate to expand life and purpose, what unfading compensations there are for righteous effort and finally what his destiny is to be.

“The Church is the guardian of all this knowledge. Imperfectly as it may teach such traits, nevertheless that truth is its treasure.”

– George P. Atwater, “The Episcopal Church: It’s Message For Men Of Today;” pp 175-176.

Purpose

Posted on November 14, 2011 by blgriffith

In the continuing saga that is this book I’m dipping my foot into from time-to-time, the author picks up the ideas of the Church needing men and men needing the Church – the why, how, for what purpose, and all that. Here is a bit from the author concerning what the Episcopal Church in its Anglican Faith has to offer men for today (well, “today,” as the author wrote, was 1917 through the final publishing date of the book, which was into the 1940’s) and why men should be a part of the Church:

Image via Wikipedia

“…And because, if they do not [participate], they will lose sight of the central fact of Christianity and that is the life, work, and death of Jesus Christ, who reveals God to man.

“The Church believes that the man wishes to know why the great gift of life was given him, how he may see beyond the affairs of the moment, what is expected of one so richly endowed in mind and heart, what share he has in the improvement of the race, what he must do to enrich his own living, what thoughts he must think in order to understand his own relation to God and the world, what efforts he must make to gain real and durable satisfaction, what he may do to avoid the devastating sines, to whom he may appeal to quiet his conscience, how he may gain comfort in time of loss, how he must estimate necessary sacrifices, what powers he may appropriate to expand life and purpose, what unfading compensations there are for righteous effort and finally what his destiny is to be.

“The Church is the guardian of all this knowledge. Imperfectly as it may teach such truths, nevertheless that truth is its treasure.

“If this treasure of truth is drawn upon, men will enlarge their vision and fortify their lives.”

Now, I will certainly say that all the above is as appropriate and applicable for women as for men, but this book is addressed to men, specifically.

I will also say – which will be a bit of a counter to so much of what I experienced in my career in higher-education working with those enthralled with and dominated by identity-politics – that if we are to know fully how all this works and to realize it all in our lives truly, we need to admit that there are unique ways of appropriation and experience for men and for women. The sexes do not experience things the same and if we demand that they do then we lesson the full human experience.

Primitive Tradition

Posted on November 2, 2011 by blgriffith

“Therefore the idea of primitive tradition is not only a preservative idea, but a quest for reform. It is a demand for the restoration of, or re-emphasis upon, those beliefs or practices approved or authorized by antiquity but wanting or fragmentary in the present age.

John Keble (* 25. April 1792 in Fairford (Glou...

Image via Wikipedia

“‘Is there not a hope’, asked Keble, ‘that by resolute self-denial and strict and calm fidelity to our ordination vows, we may not only aid in preserving that which remains but also may help to revive in some measure, in this or some other portion of the Christian world, more of the system and spirit of the apostolical age? New truths, in the proper sense of the word, we neither can nor wish to arrive at. But the monuments of antiquity may disclose to our devout perusal much that will be to this age new, because it has been mislaid or forgotten, and we may attain to a light and clearness, which we now dream not of, in our comprehension of the faith and discipline of Christ.”

Writing about John Keble and the Tractarian movememt – Owen Chadwick, “The Spirit of the Oxford Movement: Tractarian Essays;” p.29.

Split Ends…

Posted on October 31, 2011 by blgriffith

“A church split builds self-righteousness into the fabric of every new
splinter group., whose only reason for existence is that they decide
they are more moral and pure than other brethren. This explains my
childhood, and perhaps a lot about America, too.

Cover via Amazon

“The United
States is a country with a national character of a newly formed church
splinter group. This is not surprising. Our country started as a church
splinter group. The Puritans left England because they believed they were
more enlightened than members of the Church of England, and they were
eager to form a perfect earthly community following a pure theology. They also had every intention of some day returning to England, once
they had proved that something close to heaven on earth could work, and
reforming their “heretical” fellow citizens.

“America still sees
itself as essential and as destiny’s instrument. And each splinter group
within our culture – left, right, conservative, liberal, religious,
secular – sees itself as morally, even “theologically,” superior to
it’s rivals. It is not just about politics. It is about being better
than one’s evil opponent. We don’t just disagree, we demonize the
‘other.’ And we don’t compromise.”

Frank Schaeffer, “Crazy for God;” pp
30-31

hypersync

keeping track of life… this is my signature

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