"THE YEAR OF THE TYGER"

Mark Harris posted an excellent essay at Preludium titled The Prophetic Spirit and the Year of the Tyger:

"The Episcopal Church has for too long suffered a failure of nerve, one that has been costly to its missionary efforts and its ministry in a suffering world.
....

That ailment, I suggest, is that the Episcopal Church is sick at heart because it longs for an easier, surer and safer time. But no dosage of ancient orthodoxy or modern interpretation of faith will deliver the cure for that longing. Indeed what we long for in that longing is death disguised as life.

If we are to set our hand to the plow, our hands and hearts must take courage in God's presence, always both present and going before us giving us clues of the Way. The only cure for what ails us is to renew our confidence in the plowing, in the belief that with all its struggles, God is working a new thing, and at the same time the oldest thing of all, the making of creation.
....

Anglicanism as a community of poetic sensibility, I believe the way forward concerning the Anglican Covenant, relations with Anglican communities not part of the Anglican Communion (which by the by might at some point include this or that current province of the Anglican Communion), and all other matters of ecclesial and ecumenical dance, is best found in our willingness to find in every one of us a sense of the poetic call to prophetic voice. All our sacraments point to that prophetic spirit, all our best preaching proclaims it, all our poets live into it. They all point towards a unity that is not about conformity or sameness or even coherence. They point to a unity that is first seen in God's compassion towards us in Jesus Christ. We are one not because we all have the same vocation and task, we are one because God has already done for us what we cannot do for ourselves - made us one in God's compassionate gaze.

Do read Mark's entire essay. For me the piece was a tonic for my soul.

You know, perhaps I am too drawn to speak and act precipitately, but I've sensed in the Episcopal Church that once we move forward in a manner which seems good and right, we hesitate to take the next step. Well, we've done that, so let's wait a bit before we move on. Mark's metaphor of plowing a field brings to mind Jesus' use of the same metaphor and his caution against looking back after putting a hand to the plow.