Letters
from 4 to 10 July 2005
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Travelling
with not enough baggage
There
have been so many changes to liturgy, vestments,
music, architecture, and assumptions. The old
versions, often kept alive for a generation or
two, can either be brought along as baggage,
or can become chapters in history books...With
each passing century, we develop a hundred more
years of tradition, and after a while it's just
not possible to bring it all along.
Why
not? Do these traditions take up space or
cost money? Why isn't it possible to bring
them all along, and just keep adding more
and more and more? Why have less if you can
have more? Religions generally go for more--adding
ceremonies, myths and other accretions as
they develop. Greek paganism added more:
more gods, heros and demons, more cults from
folk practice and oriental sources, cults
of Isis, Serapis, Attis, Mithras, Cybele
and the lot, more mystery religions, more
ceremonies, more stuff. For over a millennium
the Church added more and more and more:
more myths and legends, more saints, more
ceremonies, more shrines and places of pilgrimage,
more holy days, more cults, more literature,
more music, more art, and more pious customs
that people enjoyed. It was only the Reformation
and Counterreformation that seriously undertook
to prune, purify, and regiment religious
practice, to destroy folk-religion and kill
people's fun.
No
one suggests "pickling" the
Church's tradition or rejecting innovations
that are added.
What we resist is gratuitous deprivation.
It isn't a matter of trying to "keep old
versions alive for a generation or two." These
practices weren't dying out of their own
accord: it was the institutional church that
took them away from us and priests that manipulated
and bullied us into doing religion their
way. Why give up without a fight when high-handed
clergy take away stuff we enjoy?
H.
E. Baber
Chula Vista, California, USA
baber@sandiego.edu
4 July 2005
Travelling
with too much baggage
I
appreciate your opening essays and often find something
rich and valuable. The essay of July 4 is
no exception.
It
is hard to shed baggage. I often wonder about my predecessors
-- bishops, archdeacons, clergy with far-flung points
in their charge -- who traveled this area on horseback.
What did they find essential and what unnecessary
as they traveled from community to community? Clearly
they had to travel light. Today I travel by car,
making much shorter work of the distances -- but
I carry a small suitcase, a larger vestment bag,
a box with pastoral staff, a briefcase with prayer
book, Bible. and sermon. Sometimes more -- and it
would not easily fit into saddlebags!
I
suspect my wife, Barbara, who is priest of the parish
of St. Timothy, 100 Mile House, caught something
of the spirit of our ancestors when one day she brought
her knapsack to church, and proceeded to take from
it a few essentials for a pilgrim church: a Bible,
a paten and chalice, a bottle of water, a bowl and
towel. As she revealed each item, she spoke of word,
sacrament and servanthood. And then ended by saying
something like, 'There, this is what we need to be
church. And we can carry it all on our back. Other
things might be useful and lovely and good to have,
but this is what we truly need.' I
confess to having used her 'show and tell' as sermon
fodder many times over. And every Sunday that I load
my car with various tools of the trade, I try to
remember her knapsack tells me what really matters.
One
point in your essay with which I take some small
issue was this line: 'The
nomads of Old Testament times had little to shed:
they never owned anything that they couldn't carry
easily on the back of a camel.' I'm
sure that is generally true, but Abram set out from
Haran with 'his wife Sarai and his brother?s son
Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered,
and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran.'
Not an insubstantial caravan! It sounds like he didn't leave
much behind. I think of the large motorhomes that
travel up and down our highways.
Still,
it is true that we need to learn from our ancestors
-- both in the faith and in our personal and community
histories. As you say, we owe them 'a debt of honour'.
Today, loaded down with too much baggage, too many
arguments -- perhaps even a few too many networks
-- we are bearing a weight that seems quite unlike
the light burden and easy yoke Jesus invited us to
take on. A life lived out of a knapsack might help
us all walk a little more vulnerable to God and help
us become a little more compassionate towards one
another and the world. Isn't that what pilgrims,
disciples, are meant to be about?
Thanks
so much for your ministry -- I greatly appreciate
it.
+Gordon
Light
Bishop,
Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior (formerly
Cariboo Diocese)
108
Mile Ranch, British Columbia, CANADA
7 July 2005
Travelling
light
Children
of clergy families rarely grow up in one parish.
Our remaining at St. Peter's, Seattle for 25 years,
our two daughters and two sons, born within a span
of 8 years, were able to go to schools in one area.
My
wife and I moved to Japan for missionary service.
Our children moved too, but they went into another
house in Seattle. We, the parents, left 'home', and
our children stayed in a familiar environment!
Beginning
parish life and married life in a rural area meant
that I collected a significant number of theological
volumes, not readily available in small town libraries.
So my treasures and functional references were my
books.
Going
to Okinawa, I sent boxes and boxes of books. When
we arrived, we discovered very few such theological
materials in English in that 'mission field'. For
6 ' years these books were my theological companions.
We
returned to Seattle, thinking that we had completed
a 'tour of duty', only to be asked to consider filling
a parish vacancy by another Bishop in another part
of Japan. We moved from All Souls', Okinawa (a bi-lingual
ministry) to St. Andrew's, Aomori in northeast Japan
(an exclusively Japanese language work).
I
didn't move my books back to Seattle. I left them
in Okinawa, thinking they might be of more use for
subsequent Priests who would also probably come from
overseas.
For
our second period of service in Japan, I took no
books! Instead, carrying a laptop, I took a couple
of CDs containing biblical references and theological
classics. On the internet I discovered various sermon
helps, references, and an online discussion group
to share homiletic reflections with fellow preachers
across the world! These resources were portable,
available, stimulating, thoughtful and devotional!
Thanks be to God! Amen.
The
Reverend Timothy Makoto Nakayama
St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle
Seattle, Washington, USA
frtim@yahoo.com
10 July 2005
About
the Bishop of Harare
In
regard to the letter to the editor concerning
the Bishop
of Harare. I am the author of the article
in question and am not sure to which fund
for witnesses your correspondent refers.
The ecclesiastical trial of Bishop Kunonga
should take place in the next week or so.
Whether it will come off remains to be seen.
I
am not aware of any funds for witnesses and would
counsel caution in sending or offering money
to people inside Zimbabwe in light of the current
political turmoil.
George
Conger
The Living Church
Ft Pierce, Florida, USA
george.conger@aya.yale.edu
5 July 2005
Assistance,
please
I
am wondering if
you have any idea where one might find sewing
patterns for cassocks and surplices.
Fr.
Malcolm French
St. Paul's Cathedral
Regina, Saskatchewan, CANADA
iona@accesscomm.ca
6 July 2005
Please write the Reverend Malcolm French <iona@accesscomm.ca> directly
if you can assist.
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