From Akasie:
General Convention is also notable for its sheer ostentation and carnival atmosphere. For seven straight nights, lavish cocktail parties spilled into pricey steakhouses, where bishops could use their diocesan funds to order bottles of the finest wines.I was in Anaheim for GC2009, and I was obviously not on the A-list for an invitation to the parties. Akasie says he is Episcopalian, and I'd like to know which Episcopal church he attends.
Others have said that Ross Douthat's column in the NYT was thoughtful and reasonable, but I can't agree. True, he was not as nasty as Akasie, but still... Not that TEC is above criticism - I've been critical - but neither columnist paints a fair or accurate picture of the church. I didn't have the heart to take on either of the columnists, but others did, many others. Scroll though the posts at The Lead to find the responses.
I'd like to point to posts by a pair of friends of mine, not because the two are my friends, but because I like what Doug Blanchard and Elizabeth Kaeton say about The Episcopal Church, my church. My friends paint a much more realistic picture of the church I love than either of the writers in major media outlets.
September of this year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of my confirmation into the Episcopal Church. I've joined or participated in congregations in Missouri, Texas, Michigan, Italy, Kentucky, New Jersey, and New York. In those three decades, I've been pleased to be part of congregations that were never large, but were full of people happy to be there, people from many different generations and classes. Religious life was always a serious matter of education and prayer with Sunday school, adult education, Bible classes, pastoral training for laity, hospital partnerships, prison ministries, food pantries, hot meal programs, programs for homeless kids, Benedictine spiritual groups, prayer groups, house congregations, etc. These congregations were always busy and full of life. Most striking about all of them is that the majority of their members, including the clergy, were converts.'Tis true; 'tis true. Many of the members of my congregation also chose to be members of the Episcopal Church. Read it all.
The main thesis of the recent attacks have to do with holding up the recent actions of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church - authorizing liturgical blessings for the covenants made between people of the same sex, changing our canons to disallow discrimination based on gender identity and expression, etc. - as an example of why Christianity is in decline.Elizabeth paints a picture of the church of the future, which I believe is spot on.
I don't think the church of the future is going to look anything like it does now.Of course, you should read the entire post.
I suspect it's going to look smaller, less bound to buildings and structures, more directed to caring for others than maintaining ourselves, more committed to following an unknown path to the future than cherishing dusty old maps that lead us over and over again to the past.
UPDATE: And if you want even more on Ross Douthat, Paul (A.) says...
Our friend Slacktivist has posts on Douthat responses here, here, and here. The second of these posts posits an interesting proposition: Automobile-shaped development has produced an automobile-shaped ecclesiology. All are worth perusing.
Our friend Slacktivist has posts on Douthat responses here, here, and here. The second of these posts posits an interesting proposition: Automobile-shaped development has produced an automobile-shaped ecclesiology. All are worth perusing.
ReplyDeleteThe conversation in the comments section of my post is even more interesting.
ReplyDelete--Doug Blanchard
Paul (A.), thanks. The links are good.
ReplyDeleteDoug, thanks. Your comments are worth a read.
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ReplyDelete(cutting pointless ramble down to size)
ReplyDeleteWell I've read all the links you posted except for those from Slacktivist, and I don't know what to say. Seems all of the "mainline" churches are bleeding away members, and the Catholic Church too, while Mormons and megachurches just keep growing and growing.
To focus on one aspect of all this, I think Douthat has a point when he says, "the leaders of the Episcopal Church and similar bodies often don’t seem to be offering anything you can’t already get from a purely secular liberalism." Ouch! That piercing observation does deserve a rigorously honest answer.
As to membership declines, I would ask, What is the Episcopal Church offering that people really, really want? Or truly need?
Russ, one of the privileges of blog ownership is that I get to read the deleted comments. ;-)
DeleteI must say that the church offers something to me in the incarnational gathering of believers to worship God and to minister to each other. Of course, I'm old school, and regular church has been a part of my Sundays during my entire life. I wonder if I had little knowledge the faith or no habit of churchgoing, what would get me to church today, and I have no simple answers.
All I can do is point to mmyself, and what I do know is that my relationship with God has changed me for the better...not that I'm better than anyone else, because I'm not, but the practice of my faith has made me a better person than I would be without my relationship with God. If you think I'm bad now...
You see, I need salvation...not for the glory of a future heaven or to be spared the suffering of a future hell, but right here and right now, every single day of my life. I rarely think about what happens after we die, because I need God's comfort and the sure knowledge of God's love every day. My relationship with God is strengthened by my church community, by the worship service, by the Eucharist, the incarnational sharing of the body and blood of Christ. Though I may appear radical in my ideas and words in certain areas, my faith in the essentials of Christianity is quite orthodox, and the traditional style of worship suits me well. Obviously, it does not work for everyone. My husband finds it rather boring, and he attends church with me only 3 or 4 times in a year.
I'm afraid I'm not a good evangelist; I'm not good at explaining why church is or should be good for everyone, or even if church is for everyone. What I do know is that my relationship with God and the members of my church community sustain me in my life. I'd be in a sorry state without them.
All that you described about yourself applies pretty much to me too, or did when I was still attending church - though unlike you, for obvious reasons I never had much fellowship with others. I too might sound "readical" in some ways, yet remain orthodox in the essentials of the faith and love the traditional styles of worship, especially the Anglican variety.
DeleteAlas, lovely as these things are to folks like you and I, in the mad screeching, beeping, tweeting modern world, I fear they lack all power of attraction - being, like English grammar and cursive penmanship, permanent waves and fedoras, mere quaint curiosities to more and more people as time goes by, antique relics of a bygone time.
Some churches do draw great crowds with La-Z-Boy pew chairs, rock bands, video screens and exploding graphics, and God knows what else - which doesn't work for me at all. Nor does the groovy, laid-back, jeans-and-t-shirt folk mass kind of thing. Our Anglican worship is such a lovely, lovely via media to me - preserving so well all the beauty, history, and reverence that church ought to be. Like Goldilocks' bed, it's just right - for me.
But - de gustibus non est disputandum, you know? People vote with their feet, and have been these last fifty years. How to stop or redirect that foot traffic is above my pay grade.
As a sort of cautionary example, the Quakers were once booming in this country, back in colonial times - and some of their writings/teachings are actually quite nice, and they've long been at the forefront of social justice causes, done much good work for humanity. But for some reason, they have dwindled down to nearly nothing. I have no experience of them myself, but you'd think a religion that emphasizes the primacy of individual conscience (inner light), social justice, and has practically no rituals to learn, where just anyone can speak up in meetings and say their mind, would be very attractive to people of the "social liberalism" variety that Douthat speaks of. And yet - apparently not. Go figure.
PS - You can read the deleted stuff?! Oh sh*t, how embarrassing. Grin.
*Radical* not "Readical" - although, come to think of it, I rather like the neologism, having been such a bookworm all my life.
DeleteI have no clue how to pack the churches, but one idea I've thought about is that if folks saw more Christians living the Gospel outside the church buildings, they might be more attracted to worship with us.
DeleteOn the other hand, I admit: it's all my fault. I have destroyed the Episcopal Church. And all the others too.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.christianpost.com/news/why-no-denomination-will-survive-the-homosexuality-crisis-78296/
I guess "sorry" wouldn't cut it for a misdeed this big, huh? Well then - you guys want to stone me now, or should we do lunch first? Up to you.
Russ, your link is from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, and I was dismissive at first. The writer claims that the presenting "problem" is teh gays. During the struggle for civil rights, the presenting "problem" was uppity black people who wanted the same rights as everyone else. In every struggle for equality, those who resist will scapegoat those who strive for justice. Oddly enough, I agree with the writer that denominations may not survive, that there will be further division, but who is to say that is a bad thing? From the earliest days of the church, there has been division for one reason or another.
DeleteSo today's divisions are all your fault? Would you want to go back to the days of gays hidden away in closets? Would you want to return to the days of segregation by skin color? There's no turning back, and God said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." I take those words and hold them in my heart whatever comes next.
N. B. - Just like Wounded Bird, Russ also indulges in irony from time to time. Grin.
DeleteMimi, Thank you for making these responses to Douthat's Op Ed available. I had been expecting to see some response in the Letters section of the Times. As a Catholic, having a vastly and distinctly different understanding of Jesus' meaning and call in the gospels from that of Mr. Douthat, I tend to interpret his writing less as a critique of the Episcopal Church itself than as a "proof" and a warning to Catholics who will not tow the Vatican line. My reading of Mr. Douthat is that Catholics would be forsaking Catholicism should they to pursue the positions taken by the Episcopal Church. Mr. Douthat is fixed on institutional "politics" rather than the essence of Christ's life and teachings which address the needs and hopes of all the People of God.
ReplyDeleteRoberta, thank you. As I read Douthat's column, I thought myself that he might be doing a bit of projecting. I think you're absolutely right that Douthat fears a loosening of the reins by the institution of which he is a member could result in chaos, similar to the chaos he sees in the Episcopal Church. The Roman Catholic Church is as much at the crossroads (or in crisis, if you will) as the Episcopal Church. As I read the Gospels, Jesus was not big on institutions and their rules. He kept it simple: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself, and practice the Golden Rule.
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