Posted on 10/14/2005 5:53:23 PM PDT by sionnsar
Bishop Steven Charleston, dean of the Episcopal Divinity HAW HAW HAW I Can Never Say That Word Without Cracking Up School(celebrated home of this thing), has an interesting take on a favorite Episcopal buzz word:
The Gospel is, at its essence, a message and promise of reconciliation, Bishop Steven Charleston told a gathering October 4 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chatham, New Jersey.
Reconciliation, Charleston warned, is not the same as resolution. The Gospel "accepts the reality of change, conflict and challenge as being ongoing in the life of any faith community," he wrote in the introduction to the workbook.
Reconciliation "requires us to hold some things in tension when we’d be more comfortable not doing that," Charleston told those gathered in Chatham.
Frank Griswold proposed this same idea a while back. Frank and Steve apparently think that if your husband enjoys regular nooners with his hot secretary, he doesn't have to give them up to save the marriage. You just have to learn how "to hold some things in tension" even though you'd "be more comfortable not doing that." Steve offers this cartoonish analysis of the current state of the church.
He spoke of the divisions within Christianity that go beyond denominational differences. He drew a contrast between at least two interpretations of the Gospel’s call. On the one hand, there are people who would take the Gospel to those who have not heard it and would use the Gospel as the basis for working for social justice. These people envision the Gospel as being interpreted and lived out differently in different contexts, he said.
Translation: the people who think secular leftist and socialist causes can be sold to the public if they utter the words God and Jesus now and then.
Others would use the Gospel as a litmus test of personal salvation and as the basis of creating a monolithic society in which everyone must believe the same thing in the same way.
Translation: the people who take the Christian religion seriously and won't compromise it just because the culture tells them to. How to do we bring the two sides together? Steve suggests a way with one of the most...uh...creative interpretations of the Eucharist that I've ever read.
Charleston said the Eucharist was Jesus’ way of showing us how to live in community with each other. Jesus brought together Roman centurions, Jews, Samaritans, tax collectors and women. He made them eat together. Jesus kept teaching them that "you cannot escape the circle of love . ... you cannot judge others out the door," he said.
"The way reconciliation occurs is when we stop demonizing each other," he said. "And it’s hard to demonize each other on a full stomach, especially if you are sitting next to them."
Is that what it was for? That's certainly news to me although it makes this kind of thing a whole lot more understandable. But I guess this makes sense if you're an über-Anglican like Steve Charleston; EDS's head transgendered sock puppet likes being an Episcopalian WAY too much.
Charleston argued that Anglicanism’s historic claim of the via media, the middle way, uniquely positions the Anglican Communion to help society move beyond religious divisions at what he called "the turning point of history for this century."
Calm down, Steve.
While we profess to believe in a God who acts in history, Charleston said, we tend to think all of God’s actions happened in the past. He said he disagrees. The Anglican Communion was not the result of King Henry the Eighth’s desires or of nation building or colonialism. God created the notion of the Anglican Communion just for this moment, he said.
"We were nurtured and shepherded to this time and this place in history for a reason," he said.
Easy, Steve!
Anglicanism can longer be known as simply a "polite religion with decent worship and a sense of style."
Even though it is.
"It is time for us to take center stage because we have a message that is absolutely essential for the world," he said.
Steve! Focus! Deep breaths, buddy! Stay with me!
Part of the message ought to be that we are not ashamed of the struggles in the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. Charleston called these struggles "our God-given right."
"That is our glory," he said.
"This is not the moment to hang out heads. This is our moment to shine. This is why we were created," he said.
To do what? To drive a once-Christian church into Unitarian irrelevance?
Anglicans has always believed in the ambiguity of life and in our call to think creatively with God, Charleston said. "And now we are in jeopardy of throwing it all away and for what?"
The return of Christian orthodoxy to the Anglican tradition. Next question.
Many in the Communion want to impose a conformity which Charleston argues Anglicans have seen from other denominations serves only to demoralize believers.
They want people to either believe the Christian religion or have the intellectual integrity to sleep in Sunday mornings.
If Anglicans can reconcile over our differences and live with radical inclusiveness and diversity,
By not seriously believing much of anything at all.
we can give the world "the hope that is it possible to live in a way that is fear-free," he said.
I already do that now, Steve. It's one of the fringe benefits of knowing that Jesus died for your SINS on the Cross.
Anglicans can create a "fear-free zone in a broken world" and should be proud to proclaim by word and example Jesus’ promise of "Fear not, for low I am with you even to the end of the age," Charleston said.
"If we in the Anglican Communion cannot achieve that in this century, who will?" he asked.
The Christian Church. Next question.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. It is longsince past time for christian people to take stock of where they are connected in the local church. The warning signs of fatal corruption are all round. May those who have eyes use them to behold the truth. The church is a rotting corpse - full of evil and destined for purification by fire. Those who con't want to burn still have time to remove themselves. Cancer surgery is painful, but necessary. Let all those who desire to live godly and sober lives flee now.
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