Monthly Archives: July 2009

The Society of Catholic Priests

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An acquaintance of mine, priest-to-be Robert Hendrickson (a very good friend of our former seminarian The Rev’d. John Dryman) is involved in the development of an American branch of the UK’s Society of Catholic Priests.
I think this sounds quite good – I’m interested. Below is a general letter that is being distributed to interested people, so I present it for any who might be interested.

THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS
In the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada

Over several years, the Society of Catholic Priests has come up in conversations and those conversations usually worked their way to “someone should…”. In the last few months, someone has begun conversations with the Society in the UK and plans are underway to establish a group here in the Episcopal Church. At this point, I and Robert Hendrickson, a recent graduate from GTS who is serving as an intern here at Christ Church are beginning the process to convene a branch of the Society.
The last few decades have seen several attempts at similar groups- some with more effect and with a more sustained presence than others. This one seems to me to offer to advantages- first, it is aimed at priests and at supporting the spiritual life and the theological reflection that undergirds our work as priests. Focus and singular mission can be energizing for a group like this. Second, it begins at time when there is a range of communication media and when no one expects an group like this to gather and spend great amounts of money. Journals, impressive conferences, and the like aren’t likely and may not be essential at any rate.
If it is successful, the Society will allow catholic minded priests (and seminarians and deacons) to deepen their spiritual life, reflect more deeply on the faith and on our work, and will create bonds of affection, accountability and respect among us. In September, we hope to offer a regional gathering in New York. In November, we expect to welcome the Rev’d Canon Andrew Nunn, rector general of the SCP in the UK, as we inaugurate the Society in North America at our first annual provincial (national) meeting in New Haven, Connecticut.
If you are interested in being part of this, we want to hear from you- and even better, we would be grateful if you would consider inviting others or serving as a convener for your region or diocese. At this point, and based on the UK model, the Society would aim at quarterly gatherings- with perhaps a paper on some topic of interest or a quiet day reflection- worship and a meal together. A web-based aspect of the Society is being developed to allow for a different sort of conversation and to share resources. The Society’s center will have to be in local groups- and so the beginning and the continuance of this depends on wider interest and shared commitment to this work.
God’s blessings on your ministry and on whatever quiet and rest the summer offers you- and many thanks for considering and responding to this invitation.
(The Revd) David Cobb, rector
Christ Church, New Haven

For more information, these are the Society of Catholic Priests links to the UK and American (still in development) websites:
United Kingdom
North American
Contact Robert Hendrickson at rhendrickson@thescp.org for more information.

What is our foundation? Some imperfect thoughts on BO33 & DO25 and General Convention

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This is going to be a rambling journey through a variety of stuff, I think. That, I suppose, isn’t so unusual, but as I’m trying to make connections and put things in some sort of rational order so to make an argument (or statement) that makes some kind of sense, this is just what I have to do. I process “out loud.”
I attended the first week of the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. I had a great experience seeing people, witnessing a process that can be tedious, but always precise. Our polity is different and regrettably hard for some around the world to understand.
I watched this video on YouTube for Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtGD6t75HS8 (not available to embed)
So much of our current culture drives us down a path that belittles and denigrates in one way or another our humanity and common good for the purposes of power, privilege, and greed. I can’t but head the words and the images of Jackson’s song and this video and say that this world desperately needs a different way of ordering itself. I think the Gospel of Jesus Christ presents us a way, but it is a voluntary way, a very difficult way, a costly way, a humbling and self-denying way, a way that will not be accepted by entrenched interests that thrive on maintaining the status-quo even if it means the death of the common good.
This different way in a Christian understanding is a way that is not possible by our own means or determination, but first by the transforming of our souls (the Cure of Souls) by God. It isn’t just institutional evil that causes and perpetuates our human ills, but firstly the evil that resides within all of our hearts – our rebellion against God’s good way, as the 1979 Pray Book Catechism stresses. We see from history that even religious institutions can often be humanity’s worst enemy!
Atheists and non-Christians do great charitable things, and we see many providing a far better example of the “caring for the least of these” than do many Christians, yet the way of which I speak comes only from God’s restorative work within our own souls. From that beginning point, institutions are changed by the people within them, our processes are improved, and our world is made better.
Some in this Church of ours (and the greater Body of Christ), have allowed themselves to be co-opted by some Systems of this World. This is true of liberals as well as conservatives, just in different ways! For example, I think that many people within The Episcopal Church have taken to an idea that the foundation of our work is a sort of psycho-therapeutic model that strives to make people feel good about themselves, a sort of institutional purpose that promotes self-esteem or being well-adjusted. If we make people “feel” welcomed, esteemed, and good about themselves then we have succeeded in fulfilling our Gospel mission. It is as if God is the great therapist in the sky (or the new-age kind of daddy-guru figure), rather than the great redeemer and restorer of souls.
For many, this way of thinking has replaced, for whatever reasons, the idea that the Church is to be about the “Cure of Souls” (predicated on the understanding that humanity has been impossibly burdened and bound by ways of thinking and being that separate us from God – sin – and irrevocably destroy true relationship with one another absent the restorative work of the Holy Spirit). I believe giving ourselves to this way of thinking and being has caused the Church to give over its vital purpose for a lesser one, to lose its reason for being (which might be shown by fewer and fewer people wanting to be a part of us). For people seeking a faith community of restoration, I think they recognize that in many ways our Church doesn’t look much different from the World – from those systems that perpetuate division, hatred, uncompromising attitudes, and the impoverishment of soul and the common good (even as we do some good works).
I have to ask what kind of foundation the current structures of this Church are being built. Are the structures able to withstand the test of time or the trials that inevitably come as the Systems of this World work their best to overcome and destroy the Way of God? I consider our current troubles and watch the actions and resolutions of General Convention, and I have to ask upon what foundation are we making our decisions. Do we consider the well being of the whole community as vitally important – in the U.S. and around the world – or do we continue to simply concentrate on our own limited and myopic goals and special interests? (It isn’t that I am not supportive of the desired outcomes of most of what is being proposed by General Convention as an example, but I question whether the reasons for the proposals are based on Christian precepts – understood through time and trial – or trendy precepts that have their origins in systems that in the end only perpetuate our continued boundedness by sin.)
Why do we do what we do? The injustice that infects this world, the bigotry and exclusion that overwhelms our societies, the selfishness that enables starvation, the myopic vision that encourages war and deprivation – all of these need to be called out and confronted, even unto death. Yet, why and how do we as the Church pursue the remedy of these things? For the Church, I don’t think the “why” or “how” rests on trying to make people feel good about themselves, to be self-actualized, or to be esteemed. That kind of psycho-social work is important and we should encourage and support it, but it isn’t the work of the Church. Our progressive sense of wellbeing, from a Christian perspective, comes from the results of a transformation of the soul. What good is it for a man or woman to inherit the world, but lose his or her soul? For the Church, we are to be about the Cure of Souls – salvation, forgiveness, restoration of relationship between God and man and between one another. It is profoundly difficult to give up one’s life in order to gain life. It is a long and hard row to hoe for the Church to stand in prophetic opposition to the Systems of the World, predicated on the salvific and restorative work of Jesus Christ.
What was (is) our motivation for BO33 or DO25? What is our foundation?

The 76th Convention #1

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I arrived at the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church (TEC-USA) yesterday late afternoon. I haven’t made it to the convention hall as of yet, but most certainly this morning. I have booth duties.
I am looking forward to hearing from Archbishop Rowan Williams – I think he is speaking this evening.
I don’t know what I’m feeling about this General Convention. I know that a large block of people who would have pulled the convention to a more middle balance are now gone. I’m concerned that the more fervent forces on the left are flush with expectation that their day has finally come (even though they are fighting/propagandizing as if this is not the case) since all their assumed bigoted and anti-everything opponents have finally left the building. Those pesky conservatives don’t have to be bothered with any longer.
I respect the continued advocacy and fight for full inclusion of all God’s children in all the sacraments of the Church. Of course, some of my support will depend on how certain words are defined. While all people are God’s creation, those God calls His children (at least Scriptural speaking) are those who choose to follow Him. What I do not respect is a winner-takes-all attitude and the hubris that befalls ardent fighters on both sides of the issue. One side is only slightly represented at this convention, and I think we are impoverished all the more by that fact. If we say that we want all voices, all people, at the table, then let’s mean it!
I still believe that for the sake of brothers and sisters in parts of the world that fall under persecution, real violence, and banishment from the Church, we in the U.S. need to refrain at this time, and for only a time, from overturning BO33 (the agreement by TEC-USA during its last convention to abide by a moratorium on consecrating any new openly-gay and partnered bishops and approving official rites for the blessing of same-sex unions).
I say this for a couple reasons:
1.) Regardless of what certain Provinces say or do with regard to TEC-USA, if we are all still part of the same Communion then our voice of advocacy and support will still be a potent force in helping gay-Christians in those countries survive. To rise up and say that WE will go forward and if the rest of the Communion won’t, well then too bad, is a very selfish, inconsiderate, and unjust thing to do. It is an exemplary example of American hubris and arrogance. For the sake of justice for the “haves,” we will sacrifice the “have-nots.” I can’t do that.
2.) For the sake of gay-Christians in countries where their only safe option is silence, or else violence, then I am perfectly willing to wait a while longer. My sense of self and my own sense of dignity are not impinged upon by laying aside what might benefit me for the sake of those who have so much less, so many fewer options, and in many cases just strive to survive. I am not going to succumb to the cult of victimhood. I can wait, for their sake.
3.) While there has been a whole lot of discussion and “study” over the last 30+ years within TEC-USA concerning the gay issue, I still do not find compelling the theological work that must consider all the tangible interconnections of a decision on this one issue to so many other aspects of the Church and society. While justice is very important, justice should not be placed before solid understand of the implications of decisions for justice on the other aspects of life.
Anyway, in my always incomplete and stumbling way, this is what I’m thinking at the moment. We are a Church Catholic, and as such we cannot just do what we want to do any time we want, all the time. While this is a very American thing to do, and while the conservatives that have left TEC-USA and the ardent liberals who while remaining would act in similiar ways if they don’t get their way, we must consider others to be extremely important.

I’m spiritual, but not religious

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Sometimes I wonder… is, “I’m spiritual but not religious,” really a fear of self-examination due to insecurity? Might that kind of response be a fear of falling short?
I know there are a myriad of reasons why someone might say that sort of thing, and the numbers who do are ever growing. A culture that continues to separate itself from any sense of common religious understanding will only grow in religious or “spiritual” insecurity. People will not know where to turn or how to make competent judgments about what may or may not be legitimate thoughts or expressions of “faith” or “religion” or “spirituality.”
I wonder if because of a growing spiritual insecurity among people and a resulting growing fear of being judged as falling short or embarrassed by not even knowing the basics of a particular faith, that rather than throwing themselves into a gulf of unknowing, of perhaps failure, of perhaps a complete overturning of lives that cling only to some kind of shaky security, that people would rather respond with, “I’m spiritual, but not religious?”
To say such a thing recognizes that inner draw to the spiritual life (I would say the wooing of the Holy Spirit to inter into the Life in Christ, but that’s me), the inner hunger to know God (however a person at the time understands that), but relieves the person from having to enter into a peculiar or particular world that s/he is, for the most part, completely unfamiliar with. That is very intimidating! It relieves people from having to put forth the effort to understand – what one is currently experiencing, even if not very good or satisfying or life-giving, is sometimes preferable to the unknown. But, it also leaves them in a place where their spiritual longings are never really satisfied. They roam around in a cloud hoping to find that “thing” that will making everything okay, but often settle at the moment for money, for loveless sex, for fame, for a weak and often illusional propping up of self-esteem.
Enabling people to feel secure enough and comfortable enough to enter into the questioning and the seeking and the learning is such a way that God can do the work necessary to open their hearts and minds to the Life in Christ is essential, but it is done not by dumbing down the essence of the Faith, nullifying the requirements, or lessening the call for high standards – that ends in nothing. It is, to a great degree, simply living in integrity, honesty, and forthrightness in the understanding that we are a peculiar people, but people with the answer in Christ for what ails the world.

Michael Jackson, RIP

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You know, it is the strangest thing. It is going on a week now that Michael Jackson died. I am surprised by how hard his death has affected me. I am really saddened by his death, almost like something inside of me has died, too. This is honestly unexpected.
I’ve been watching, reading, and listening to everything that has been going on since the announcement. There is, of course, the reporting of his phenomenal talent, but the reaction of people world wide… I’ve heard people say that his music was constantly positive and encouraging and inspiring humanity to make a difference in the world for positive change. This is true. Perhaps, because so many entertainers (particularly in certain genres) are so negative and foul and present to the world the most banal stuff, yet there was Michael Jackson. A New York Times report quoted a industry person saying that they will never be another world-wide rock star with so much appeal and influence and talent as Michael Jackson.
Perhaps it is the tragedy of his life. A childhood that never was and his sometimes bizarre attempts to reclaim it. I can’t imagine what is was like or him – adults from the earliest years doing not much more than manipulating him (and his brothers), lying to him, cheating him, using him, and his father was one of the primary culprits. Perhaps, I am just so sad to see a lost soul with so much talent and so much pain. Perhaps, it is that he was always there during my life and became so significant in times of our lives. Perhaps, I did expect him to die while I’m still around. There are those who hated him.
He had problems, big problems, and he didn’t seem to understand why people did’nt understand him – or perhaps believe him. Whether he really did abuse the boys or whether their parents were just another bunch trying to bleed him dry I don’t know. My suspicion is that he was innocent, but he certainly kept putting himself in situations where people could easily make accusations and exploit his vulnerabilities. Then, all the revelations about is three children that are not really his after all. Not his biological children. The man was messed up, but why? I think, because, of us – people, the public, the exploiters.
So, I downloaded several of his videos. I wanted “Man in the Mirror,” but iTunes doesn’t have it, for some reason. “Cry.” “Scream.” I’m just honestly saddened by his tragic death more than I ever thought I would be.
I wonder whether his death simply brings to mind people that I have been very close to and who are now in terrible situations. Perhaps, his death reminds me that those friends for whom I care terribly could come to the same kind of end. I do fear for them, and wish horribly that they would take the steps needed to make healthy decisions for themselves. I pray for a particular friend constantly. I could see his innocent heart, exploited by others, making terrible decisions and now so messed up, I could see him come to such an end.
Life is so precious, but the “systems of our world” work so hard to destroy the simplicity, trust, faith, and innocence that we have when we are children. Jackson seemed to long desperately for those things. What is left when a culture no longer values them? What happens when we are complicit in their demise?
May his soul find the peace and tranquility he so long sought after. Lord, by your grace and mercy. May we learn something… even a little something.