GIVE UP ON THE CHURCH? - NOT YET

From Theo Hobson in the Guardian:

As regular readers will know, I’ve spent quite a lot of time on this site, and elsewhere, arguing for a rather extreme sort of liberal Christianity. I started off fulminating against the establishment of the Church of England, and went on to argue that all major forms of church were full of illiberal assumptions. Really liberal Christians must try to develop a new, anarchic, post-ecclesial Christian culture, I said.

I have changed my mind in an important respect. I now feel that organized religion might not be such a bad idea. Its various authoritarian forms might be avoidable. It might be redeemable.

Two things have led me to this re-think. First, I have admitted that, after a few years of looking, I have failed to find any significant manifestations of a new, post-institutional Christian culture. Second, I have encountered a form of church that does not offend me.
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It was a catch-22. Organised religion was intolerably illiberal, but only organised religion seemed able to organise Christian ritual – without which Christianity is just a bunch of vague ideas. My desire was for ritual to be liberated from the institutions but, frankly, I didn't know how this could happen. After a few years staring at this question, I was no nearer to answering it.

Then last year, I moved to New York. I wanted to see if there was a stronger post-institutional Christian culture here, a more substantial ‘emerging church’ movement. There is, but I’m not sure what I make of it yet. I was also curious to see what I would make of the Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism. It is proudly disestablished, and has broken with the homophobic legalism of the rest of the Communion, so would I find it a model of liberalism, or still complicit in the various ills of organized religion? I was assuming the latter. But, to my surprise, a taste of Episcopalian worship got me asking: what’s not to like?

Looking back at the crisis in the Anglican Communion, I find that I am impressed by the boldness of the Americans. Instead of backing down over Gene Robinson’s consecration, they insisted that a basic Christian principle was at stake: the need to oppose moral legalism, and open the good news to everyone. This was Paul’s project – which is why it is so ironic that Paul also supplies the conservatives with their main ammunition. You could say that the crisis is an argument within the mind of Paul.
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The air is fresher here. The American branch of Anglicanism has emerged over the last decade as the global pioneer of liberal Christianity. It has persuaded me not to give up on church just yet."

Hobson expresses similar frustrations to mine with the institutional church. But he comes to the same conclusions: there is, for the most part, no true Christian culture outside the institutional church; the only meaningful Christian rituals are those which exist within the institutional church.

And although the Episcopal Church is far from perfect, it warms my heart to read Hobson's words about fresh air, because I, too, believe that, in our imperfect way, the Episcopal Church is prophetic for our times. The wind of the Spirit blows where it wills, and the wind of the Spirit brings fresh air.

At times, I find myself longing for a more anarchic church, but, in my heart of hearts, I know that an anarchic church is not the answer. We have wide leeway in the Episcopal Church to experiment with different expressions of being church, different forms of worship, different ways of living out the Gospel. We're a small congregation amongst congregations, and we are even smaller in relation to the society at large here in the US, but that should not be our major concern. Our call is to be disciples of Jesus through our worship and our mission and thereby show Jesus to the world and see Jesus in every one of God's beloved creatures.

Hobson's words below resonate strongly:

The awkward fact, it seemed, was that only institutionally rooted Christians understood the primacy of ritual. Only they were committed to the ritual worship of a certain ancient Palestinian chap. And, away from such a commitment, there is surely no Christianity worth speaking of.

Indeed.

Please read Hobson's words in their entirety to get the full flavor of his message.

Thanks to Cathy for the link.