Not Much ‘Blogging

Sorry, readers, for not posting more.  Things have been pretty good around our house, if a bit hectic and busier than normal.  I’ve been more tired than usual, and as a consequence I don’t get up as early as usual, not allowing me an early morning crack at the computer to get a little ‘blogging done.

I’m sure this will change, but I’m not sure when.  I’m planning on putting together a Book Review Wednesday for tomorrow on a book I just finished.  A very good book.

Yesterday I had a pleasant talk with Tripp, during which I first articulated the sense of call that I have right now.  Discernment, as it turns out, takes time!  The fact that I split time and service with MyChurch and All Saints’ may not be the burden that it might seem at first.  In fact, my having a foot in both the Lutheran and Episcopal waters might be a very part of my vocation.

And that would not be a problem for me, as long as I can have support and interaction with the Episcopal/Anglican currents which feel very important to me, those elements of Christian life which are less present within Lutheran churches.

Anyway, apologies for the mini-hiatus and promises that I’ll write more soon!

Big Meeting Update One

Well, the meeting with the Pastor of MyChurch is done.  He was quite supportive of my decision and recognized that the Lutheran Church might not be for me.

I wonder, should I drop the ‘blogging Lutherans webring membership already?

The Last Sunday Before Lent

I have now experienced three ways of celebrating the Last Sunday before Lent.

Initially, I knew the Last Sunday Before Lent as a Catholic, meaning it was in Ordinary Time, and had no readings or propers to make it distinct, other than a lot of Alleluias.  Western liturgical church tradition states that we “fast” from “Alleluias” during Lent; most churches that observe this custom will O.D. on Alleluias on the last Sunday before Lent.

Last year, I celebrated the Last Sunday Before Lent as the Transfiguration, which is the way this Sunday is observed in the ELCA.  I liked that a lot.  I love the idea that right before we go into “purple,” penitential Lent, we go “white” (the traditional festal color for feasts of Our Lord) for one Sunday, a feast anticipating the transformative nature of Easter and the Resurrection.

This year is my first chance ot see how the Episcopal Church does it, and it seems it’s a middle ground.  While it is not a feast day, it is certainly not the same as the rest of the Sundays in Ordinary Time.  Lots of Alleluias, the readings and collect of the Transfiguration,  but the other propers are of Ordinary Time after Epiphany along with whatever other settings and usages that particular congregation is using between Christmas and Lent.  It being the Episcopal Church, this practice is almost certainly not universal, but I like it.

The Church Year affords many opportunities for experience or commemorating the transcendent among the ordinary.  Ash Wednesday, Ascension Thursday, and many other feasts either always fall or often fall on weekdays; sometimes God’s miraculous action doesn’t happen on Sundays.  Sometimes God’s abundance breaks through on Tuesday.  The middle ground of the Episcopal observance of the Last Sunday Before Lent sugggests that kind of divine-amidst-the-ordinary which I really love about Christianity.

Update on the Trial of Pastor Bradley Schmelling

I posted earlier about how Bradley Schmelling, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran in Atlanta, the fastest growing church in his synod, had been put on trial by the bishop of his synod due to his violation of the ban on ELCA pastors engaging in same-sex relationships.   Information can be found here and here.
I suggest you read the first document —the summary of the decision— instead of the second —the complete decision— because the summary is a little more straightforward.

The committee found that Pastor Bradley is in violation of the standards the ELCA has for ordained ministery and should therefore be removed from rostered ministry.  The committee also found, however, that standards regarding gay and lesbian clergy are at the very least bad policy, and likely in conflict with the constituion and by-laws of the church.

The committee decided to make its decision effective after the 2007 Churchwide Assembly, which will take place in Chicago this August, so that the Assembly can take action on the bad policy and possibly prevent Pastor Schmelling and others like him from being removed.

A measured, cautious, very Lutheran response.  Probably the best decision that could be reached in terms of Church unity.  I think it is not decisive enough, but it really isn’t the place of a 12-member disciplinary committee to make or change church policy.

The Wingèd Man’s Faith Journey, Part IV

I’m not sure when this part of the faith journey began.

Did it begin with starting graduate school? Perhaps; I started drinking a little less and was significantly happier than I was in the past.

Did it begin with meeting the woman who eventually became my wife? Perhaps; after this, I drank even less and was even happier.

In any event, this part was most definitely underway right before our son was conceived. I know this because I checked my old breviary out of my alma mater’s library. I say “my” because I had checked and re-checked it out as an undergraduate, holding on to it for most of my four years there. At the time I last checked it out, I was an adjunct faculty member which gave me unlimited borrowing priveleges. I still have the breviary and the library has not asked for it back; they know where to find me. Considering that, from the stamps in it, I seem to be the only person who ever borrowed it, I don’t think anyone’s missed it. If I ever find a 1964 Benziger Brothers English-language breviary, or if anyone ever wants to give me one, I’ll return it.

Some time in early 2004, I began praying the Hours. I prayed using a BCP sometimes, but I preferred my old breviary. During this time we also visited a few churches: a Unitarian church, a Catholic church, even an Episcopal church, and were unsatisfied.

My wife and I conceived our son, and I became more and more interested in religion. I began to have a sense of call. Not to ordained ministry, but simply to relationship with God. I began to read more and more theology and decided I wanted to go to divinity school. Not a seminary, but a non-aligned school of theology.

Then I read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Gilead is a special book. I cannot do it justice. In many ways, it was this book that roused in me a sense of call to ordained ministry.

But how? How could this be? I wasn’t even a member of a church! I wasn’t even sure I was a Christian, and certainly not in any orthodox sense. We decided to have our son baptised in the United Church of Christ, with Robinson assisting with the baptism. For about six months after his baptism, we didn’t really go to church at all, but then again, we had an infant.

Then, after Beth and the Little Guy attended a playgroup there, we went to MyChurch, and something really struck a chord. It was liturgical, fairly liberal, and both my wife and I felt at home. My son loved it. The sermons the (now-)former pastor delivered made a profound impact on me and sealed it: I was converted.

Although, at this point, I had not thought of myself as a Christian since I was in college, now I did. Again. Within a month or two, I visited the monastery and the realization that I was also called to be a Benedictine dawned on me.

While things have happened in the intervening time, this brings us up to speed, more or less, with my faith journey. This last phase is difficult to describe because I have difficulty pin-pointing the beginning, but I also can’t figure out where it ended. Because it hasn’t ended. My conversion is ongoing. I turned back to Christ and the Church at MyChurch that day when the pastor said, “The time of Protestantism is over,” and I realized that some Christians really, truly believed in the kind of ecumenical, progressive, evangelical Christianity that —in some sense— was what I had always believed. The Pastor mentioned that someone once asked him, “What would you say to someone who said, ‘What is a Lutheran?’; the Pastor’s reply was, “I’d say, ‘How can I help you?'”

Profound, difficult, even confusing words. Words of conversion. My conversion.

I hope these posts have been helpful in understanding who this Wingèd Man is. I hope they have been enjoyable. I have learned a lot about myself in the process.

The Death of the Ecumenical Movement?

I am bumping this post up, because I think it was poorly structured and it could be misunderstood due to my poor writing.  I’ve revised it for clarity.

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The Young Fogey linked to Prior Peter regarding his post about the death of the ecumenical movement.

Father Prior indicates an interesting and important distinction between two different kinds of ecumenism. What he calls the “top-down” ecumenism, I think, is in some sense a movement toward symbolic gestures.

The Call to Common Mission, the full communion agreement between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church, is a good thing, as is the ELCA’s commitment to forging ties of full communion with every major Protestant denomination in the US. The problem with these agreements and with top-down ecumenism is that day-to-day and week-to-week, they are meaningless.

Consider the good work of the Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler, with its Evangelical Covenant, American Baptist, and Episcopal pastors and congregation made up largely of Salvationists.  A smattering of other denominations —the ELCA and the Presbyterian Church, and I am sure there are others— are also representations  The three pastoral denominations have no formal ties to each other (that I know of, at least), and yet the pastors are all witnessing and pastoring in truth and integrity to their own tradition and spiritual journey.  Same goes for the members and congregants.  They share fellowship, both in church and outside, and see each others as Christians first, and members of distinct denominations second.

I remember going to attend a 1928 BCP mass at a particularly conservative Episcopal parish nearby, where in the worship booklet it explicitly says all baptized Christians are welcome to receive Communion. I spoke with the rector after mass; when I told him I was a member of an ELCA church, he sucked his teeth and seemed a little uncomfortable having given me communion ten or fifteen minutes earlier.

I also remember a Tuesday morning at MyChurch —and this was before the beginnings of My Current Denominational Situation, when I was fairly happy as an ELCA Lutheran— when the local pastors meet to discuss the upcoming lectionary readings. When the past of MyChurch said, “And there’s even an Episcopal priest who meets with us.” “Nothing wrong about the Episcopalians,” I replied, which was met with a funny, I’m-not-so-sure-about-that look. It struck me that although the Call to Common Mission is the party line and a fine document when a church can’t find a pastor and all they can find is an Episcopal priest or when planning joint services, I get the sense that for most ELCA Lutherans there is something definitely wrong with the Episcopal Church.  If you compare Reconciler with my experiences at that 1928 BCP mass and at MyChurch, you see that the local level is where ecumenism lives, but also where it dies.

Something like the Call to Common Mission is meaningless in situations where people still look at each other askance from the doors of their respective churches.  It is also meaningless if the terms of the agreement are believed only as much as needed for the agreement to stick.  The ELCA agreed to recognize the role of the historic episcopate within the church; do ELCA Lutherans, by and large, really believe in a special role for bishops?  No, I don’t think so.  We can stand together as Christians, but unless we’re inclined to do that all the time, at moments not charged with meaning and significance, then what good is full communion at all?

Prior Peter gets it right when he points to his monastery’s work in the world as a prime example of real-world ecumenism. So is the Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler, and it’s one where it’s not just Protestants getting together and watering down their theology.