Letters from 15 to 21
January 2007
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'All else
is commentary'
Thank
you so much for addressing this
underlying issue regarding simplicity, complexity, mystery
and faith. Perhaps one of the main reasons I entered the Episcopal
Church was because I was offered, not "an" answer, but a variety
of answers to my questions of faith, and urged to go forward
on the journey into the mystery, knowing I am accompanied
by sisters and brothers in the faith. While I did have some
doctrinal questions, raised by saying the Nicene Creed Sunday
after Sunday, they weren't the central questions that mattered
the most to me. "How am I to understand and believe the Resurrection
out of my scientific worldview?" was a central question. "How
can I be forgiven?" was another, and "How can I best live
my everyday life as a follower of Christ?" was another.
I've had
the education and the doctrinal training, and have studied the
history, and will continue to do so. But I have come to understand
that the heart of the faith is a simple mystery: the magnitude
of God's love for us. And the heart of the faithful life is a
simple challenge: how I can live my life in the most loving way
from day to day.
It seems
to me that complexity arises whenever we begin to establish rules—and
that the rules are for the maintenance of the institution that
is the church, not the Mystical Body that is the Church. So much
conflict in the church is based on trying to apply rules to others,
instead of trying to apply love through our own lives. Maybe each
of our wide variety of rules should be tested before being accepted
in any way, tested by asking, "How does this rule fulfill these
commandments, and if it doesn't, how can it be justified in love?" And
the litmus test is simply this: Love God with all your heart,
soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. If the
decision is still not clear, then we have two more reminders: "judge
not, so that you will not be judged," and "feed the hungry, clothe
the naked, visit the sick and those in prison." All else is commentary.
The Reverend
Peggy Blanchard
St. Barnabas Episcopal-Lutheran Fellowship
Harriman, Tennessee, USA
revpeg@hotmail.com
16 January 2007
The centrality
of the Eucharist
I
share the dismay expressed by
Trevor G. Cowell of Tasmania (letters, January 15/07) with
regard to the decentralization of the Eucharist. I am grateful
that my own Diocese opens every Synod with a celebration of
Eucharist, and also that Sunday morning worship in my own
parish is always Eucharist.
Trevor's
letter reminded me of my first experience of church in Canada.
My family came to this country in 1952, and on our first Sunday
morning as strangers in a strange land we duly trotted off to
our parish church. The service was Morning Prayer, after which
everybody got up and left. We were used to having Morning Prayer
as Ante Communion in our parish in England, so we kept our seats
and waited. Nothing happened. Eventually, the Rector approached
us and informed us that the service was over. "But we haven't
received the sacrament," said my dad, puzzled. "Oh, Holy Communion
is on first and third Sundays," beamed the Rector. "Come back
next week." That was our introduction to the Anglican Church
of Canada, which had a curiously Protestant view of Holy Communion
back then. It has changed, thank God, and it's a rare parish—at
least in urban centres—which doesn't celebrate Holy Communion
every Sunday, at the main service.
Anglicans
Online is my favourite web site, Thank you for continuing to do
such a fine job of keeping us in touch with one another. Would
that the hierarchy did as well!
Rene Jamieson
The Cathedral Church of St. John
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA
16 January 2007
'These holy
mysteries'
Is
the weekly letter of January 14, 2007 for
the Second Sunday After the Epiphany bringing an "Epiphany
Moment" into the subject of "these holy mysteries"? Are
we being enlightened and cautioned against making something "complex" that
is "simple"?
I cannot
claim to be an etymologist, but when reading your fascinating
tome this week, I wish I were. You
may have opened a "Pandora's box" in that last paragraph!
I recall
the term "holy mysteries" as having come to us from
Holy Scripture, and the "mystery religions" of Greek
mythology. The use of the term in our Eucharistic liturgy is a
gentle nudge to urge us to maintain a sense of humility as we
worship God made known to us in Jesus.
For the
past 50 years I have been a Priest. My anniversary will be February
25, 2007 which was St. Matthias' Day transferred in 1957. I do
recall that I made reference to "these holy mysteries" in
one of my preachments, attempting to widen the horizons of the
members of five far-flung small congregations scattered over a
10,000 square-mile-area Mission in the wide-open Canadian prairies
of Southern Alberta in the Diocese of Calgary.
Early in
my life I was told, and have not forgotten, that we should be
child-like, and not childish. I pray that this reactive response
is not a rant of arrogant judgmentalism but a testament to Almighty
God who became incarnate among us in the birth of Jesus — "for
us and for our salvation".
The Reverend
Canon Timothy Makoto Nakayama
St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle
Seattle, Washington, USA
frtim@yahoo.com
15 January 2007
Grace Church,
Madison and justice
"Justice
delayed is justice denied." Mr.
Gladstone was right. By his rule there is no justice in the Diocese
of Milwaukee.The
decision to delay even beginning deliberations until March and
rendering a verdict at a future unspecified time—despite
the assurance of a final verdict on January 13—is a clear,
almost predictable expression of the paranoid anger that has driven
the entire
presentment process against Reverend Martha Englert.
I have
no doubt that the court would have had no other course but to
clear her of all charges or to impose a conviction almost certain
of being overturned on appeal.
This cynical
inaction forces her to forego a greater justice to avoid further
immediate injustice. She avoids more damage to Grace Church and
to herself. Though many of us wanted to see her ultimate vindication
(and the confirmation of the vindictiveness of her accusers) this
is an understandable outcome.
So, apparently,
at least in the Diocese of Milwaukee, a new methodology now exists
for the Bishop to rid himself of a "meddlesome priest": Start
a fishing expedition to find embittered accusers. Demean her by
forbidding her to wear clericals. Starve her out using Diocesan
resources. Appoint a kangaroo court. Delay rendering an obvious
verdict in the pathetic hope a new Vestry would terminate her
contract.
I know
the Rev. Ms. Englert to be an exemplar of Christian charity, humor,
inclusion, responsibility and grace. We need more priests like
her. She brought good order to the finances of Grace Church and
reached out to everyone, rich, poor, black, white, English and
Hispanic speaking, straight and gay: a vision of the church the
reflects the real world. Maybe that alone made her a target.
I know
that her ministry will not end—she will continue to do what
Christ called her to do—she just probably won't do it under
the auspices of Bishop Miller.
Jim Alberty
Cathedral Church of St. Luke
Portland, Maine, USA
21 January 2007
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