Spirit MEETING YOUR MDGS • A BISHOP’S WIFE • AVATAR THEOLOGY
Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri
LENDING A HAND IN BOTSWANA Summer 2010 Volume 1, No. 4
Spirit PUBLISHER: The Rt. Rev. Barry R. Howe EDITOR: Hugh Welsh Spirit is published quarterly by the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri 420 W. 14th St. P.O. Box 413227 Kansas City, MO 64141
5 Bishop Talk To Bishop Barry Howe and the other members of the Companion Diocese Committee, Botswana isn’t foreign. It’s a place with real people and real needs: a worthy subject of a capital campaign. By the Rt. Rev. Barry R. Howe
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: The Ven. John McCann, Archdeacon Hugh Welsh, Spirit The Rev. John Spicer, St. Andrew’s, Kansas City Angela Crawford, Administrative Assistant to the Archdeacon, Diocese of West Missouri SUBMISSIONS/LETTERS: Spirit welcomes submissions of news articles, photographs and letters to the editor on topics of interest to the diocese. Submissions should include the writer’s name, e-mail, mailing address and phone number and are subject to editing. PHONE: (816) 471-6161, Ext. 15 or (800) 471-6160 FAX: (816) 471-0379 E-MAIL: westmo_spirit@swbell.net WEB SITE: www.episcopalwestmo.org
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6 F.A.Q. When will the Standing Committee publicize the names of bishop candidates, and what is the petition process? Also, what are walkabouts, and when are they planned? Answers. 7 The Middle Ground How should the Church approach inter-faith relations, a subject of great division and intolerance in Christian history? The founder of the House that Abraham Built offers his viewpoint. By the Rev. Stan Runnels 8 Get Connected Missionpalooza 2010, scheduled for mid-July, isn’t intended just for fun. It is a time for hard work and fellowship. By Deante Finnie
FEATURES SUMMER, 2010
12 9 Mary Howe As the wife of a priest, Mary Howe always enjoyed parish life. When her husband was elected bishop, parish intimacy was lost. Mary Howe instead found community in a diocese, one she perceives as an extended family. By Hugh Welsh 12 Millennium Development Goals Before the United Nations coined eight pathways to bolster global well-being, the Anglican Communion was urging dioceses to yield at least 0.7 percent of their budgets to fund international development programs. Today, 64 dioceses participate in the MDGs. West Missouri is one of them. By Hugh Welsh 16 Orphan Outreach Two years ago, when members of the Companion Diocese Committee encountered a camp in Palapye, Botswana full of orphans without access to running water or adequate shelter, they never forgot it. By Hugh Welsh
18 More than a Daycare A capital campaign is underway that is raising money for the construction of a 100-child-capacity daycare in Palapye, Botswana. Initially, it will mimic St. Peter’s Daycare Centre in Gaberone, Botswana. Later phases include the addition of an activity room, a botanical garden and a classroom. The eventual goal is self-sufficiency. By Hugh Welsh 20 Avatar Theology Avatar represented a new frontier for special effects. One diocesan priest enjoyed the film for a different reason: its lessons for Christians. By the Rev. John Spicer 22 A History of Christianity Diarmaid MacCulloch, a controversial professor of the Church at the University of Oxford, recently authored a book and a television series about Christianity’s storied history. His version is without precedent. By Hugh Welsh and Rowan Williams SPIRIT, SUMMER, 2010
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Editor’s Letter by Hugh Welsh
Letters to the Editor
I REMEMBER MEETING MARY HOWE. Technological Heresy It wasn’t when Bishop Barry Howe introduced us at While I was strongly impressed by the bishop’s column last year’s diocesan convention. That was just a about the importance of relationships in the handshake and a “nice to see you.” I was overcome by technological age, I was slightly offended by this whole stress: unsure of how the first issue of Spirit would be notion of “cyberfaith,” in which technology takes received, unsure of my agenda, unsure of a lot of things. precedence over spirituality. I felt as dazed as a Mike Tyson victim Everybody using their iPhones all the time? The body when I was approached by Mary. of Christ reduced to two-minute You Tube clips? Talk Her eyes, as kind as any I have seen, about heresy. locked my own. She told me she had GLENN CASEY read the magazine and was impressed JOPLIN, MO. by it. “It’s brilliant, Hugh,” she said, Thanks for the note, Glenn. To quote Bishop Barry Howe’s “the writing, the design, the column from the last issue: “What we learn and discover professionalism.” through the vast reaches of technology must be converted into I asked her if she had any advice relationships that carry out our calling as faithful servants of the for improvement. She said, “I think Lord.” H.W. you’re a better judge of that than me.” Her follow-up comment: “I want you to know you’re a welcome E-Spirit Exaltation addition to the diocese. We’re all grateful for your I’m not sure who is behind the new-look E-Spirit, but ministry.” And, with those words, I was empowered — I must say it’s a huge improvement. It’s so attractive I empowered to approach my job as more a Christian print it out every other week and post it to my calling than merely a means of earning money. Mary refrigerator. And I love its forward thinking. Keep up may not be a priest (she’ll remind you of that herself), the great work! but she is a pastor. As a retired hospice nurse, she has a PATTI HOWARD knack for healing wounds of the body and soul. SPRINGFIELD, MO. But perhaps Mary’s greatest characteristic is her Hey Patti, I must give credit to Angela Crawford, who designs ability to encourage people to scale greater heights, to E-Spirit and the diocesan Web site. Without her, E-Spirit propel themselves beyond the comfortable, the everyday. would be pretty ordinary, I assure you! H.W.
Donations for Oil Spill Victims Episcopal Relief & Development is cooperating with agencies along the Gulf Coast to help people affected by the oil spill and assist with cleanup efforts. Oil contamination has resulted in the closing of many fishing grounds and oyster beds, leaving many people without a means of income. To make a donation to Episcopal Relief & Development, please visit www.er-d.org or call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.
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Correction A story about House of Grace, a retreat and spirituality center in southern Kansas City, misquoted Cori Pursell as saying she wished to install a swimming pool to honor the retreat’s name, translated from the Hebrew “Bethesda,” the pool where Jesus heals a man long bedridden so he may continue to pursue healing on his own. Initially, Pursell wished to install a reflecting pool. Editor Hugh Welsh regrets the error.
Bishop Talk about botswana By the Rt. Rev. Barry R. Howe
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e eight people from the Companion Diocese Committee were traveling in a van around the herself, had a house nearby, and it was there they could Diocese of Botswana. It was November, 2008. obtain some water and carry out other basic and necessary Our driver, a priest of the Diocese of Botswana, knew all functions. In the midst of this incredible situation, the of the churches we were visiting and the stories about the children were well mannered, clean and outfitted with used congregations. When we arrived at a church, parishioners clothes. were there to greet us and to spend time with us, sharing Since that special day — meeting these children — two about their congregation and the work of mission and members of the Companion Diocese Committee from ministry in each place. At most stops, the exceptional hospitality included a meal that had been prepared either in West Missouri have been back to Botswana, and they someone’s home or in the outside fireplaces that were used have focused upon what our relationship with the church there might mean in ministering to these children. Dennis by many in a village setting. Some days we had as many as Robinson and Melissa Bolden did extensive work with five meals of local and traditional foods! members of the diocese, with local tribal leaders in the Late one afternoon, we drove into a clearing of hardened area and with a grant-funding foundation there. The seeds clay to encounter a little church, St. Mary Magdalene. Among those waiting to greet us there were 19 children who were planted at that time for the development of what has become our Botswana Palapye Project — bringing running were all sitting in the back of a pickup truck owned and water to the site where the children live and building and driven by a retired funding a day care priest. One lady was We are blessed with the opportunity to use the center. also present with Since the visit in them as they waited Lord’s empowering grace to transform young November 2008, under the only tree lives and to help them grow. there are more in the near vicinity. children at this When we arrived and site. And within a few miles, there are many more children got out of the van, the children jumped down from their who would benefit from a center that would provide perch and immediately came over to us, greeting us and education and formation, nutritional feeding and spiritual warmly sharing themselves with us. Within a brief time, they formed together to sing some songs to us in their native nurture. We are partnering with the local people to share the Lord’s love with them! While the vulnerable children language of Setswana. These children melted our hearts! are the hopeful recipients of this ministry, we are blessed We learned they were orphans — mostly children of with the opportunity to use the Lord’s empowering grace to parents who had succumbed to AIDS. The one woman transform young lives and to help them grow as healthy and with them was their mother/guardian, and the small well-formed citizens. congregation of St. Mary Magdalene did what they could It is my hope that every one of our congregations can for these children. We were taken to another site where they all lived in one tent — with no water facilities, no toilet support this project in prayer, in needed resources and in personal exchanges. What an opportunity to engage in facilities, no eating facilities and only mattresses placed cross-cultural ministry as sisters and brother in Christ! on the ground throughout the tent. Joana, an orphan SPIRIT, SUMMER, 2010
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F.A.Q.
When will the Standing Committee publicize the names of bishop candidates, and what is the petition process? Also, what are walkabouts, and when are they planned?
FOUR TO SIX NOMINEES WILL BE ANNOUNCED on August 3. Petitions will be accepted August 9 to 27 and will be available on the bishop search Web site, www. westmobishopsearch.org. • Petition nominations offered by a minimum of three communicants in good standing (the nominated person aside) from three different churches in the diocese will be accepted. Standing Committee members are neither eligible for nomination nor are they permitted to nominate anyone. • Nominations will not be accepted from the floor at the 121st Annual Diocesan Convention. The reason nominations will not be heard on the convention floor is due to insufficient time for background checks. “Everybody must have a background check,” says the Rev. Russ Johnson, rector at St. Peter’s in Kansas City and Standing Committee president. • Only clergy and duly-elected lay delegates who are canonically resident in the diocese are eligible to vote. A WALKABOUT IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR bishop candidates to acquaint themselves with the diocese and for congregants to gain a better understanding of the nominees through question-and-answer sessions. The schedule for the candidates, according to Transition Committee Chairperson the Very Rev. Dr. Doug Johnson, will unfold as follows: • Candidates will gather in Kansas City early on Friday, Oct. 15, and tour St. Luke’s Hospital, Bishop Spencer Place and the Kansas City Community Kitchen at Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral. Afterwards, candidates will meet with 6
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The bishop’s chair at Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City. Photo by Hugh Welsh.
Bishop Barry Howe. Later on Friday, candidates will travel to the southern part of the diocese, visiting St. Luke’s Nursing Center in Carthage before arriving in the Springfield area. • On Saturday, Oct. 16, time will be reserved for clergy, delegates and others to ask questions of the candidates. • On Sunday, Oct. 17, candidates will attend worship services at several churches in the Springfield area before returning to Kansas City. On Sunday afternoon, clergy, delegates and others will be able to ask questions of the candidates. • The times and locations of candidate forums are yet to be determined. Forums will be open to everyone. Candidates will move among different rooms set up specifically for lay delegates, priests and deacons and answer questions. “It’s pretty wide open to anything anyone wants to ask,” Johnson says.
As a Church, we should embrace those with an understanding of God different from our own.
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The Middle Ground By the Rev. Stan Runnels
ISSUE: INTER-FAITH
enzin Gyatso, writing recently in The New York Times, recalled thinking as a young boy growing up in Tibet that his religion was the best religion. Likewise, he reasoned, all other religions must be inferior to his. Now, as the Dalai Lama, he reflects, “I see how naïve I was and how dangerous the extremes of religious intolerance can be today.” It is upon this razor’s edge of passion for one religious tradition and intolerance of another we must all walk in a world of many religions. As Christians, we must consider opportunities for inter-faith tolerance and dialogue as well as the risks of intolerance and isolation. Our faith asserts as fundamental the source of all creation to be God. Consequently, all of creation and all of humanity has the capacity to reveal aspects of the purposes of God. Interfaith dialogue offers opportunities for us to learn more of God’s purpose in creation. Methods of inter-faith dialogue may be illustrated by the work of Nicholas of Cusa, an early 15th century German Cardinal. Cusa was intrigued with the possible benefits of inter-faith dialogue. While an ardent supporter of orthodox notions of Christian faith and salvation, Nicholas argued against the Church’s prevailing desire for crusades against Islam. Nicholas was concerned with the way Christian faith was used to justify war. If religion is to inspire the best of humanity, he wondered, why does it so often inspire our most violent passions instead? Desiring peace, Cusa advocated dialogue with the Muslims, but one that was critical, honest, and willing to consider the insights Islam might offer the Church. He believed the one creator God must inspire all religions. While humanity may have gotten in the way of the perfection of unique religious expressions (including Christianity), each faith tradition may offer valuable
John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
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understandings and practices available to the Church to further refine the understandings of its faith. In De Pace Fidei (On the Peace of Faith), Nicholas argued for dialogue and engagement in contrast to violence and war. By actually trying to understand other faiths, he wrote, could we not find ways to work together, overcoming diversity through charity, avoiding war through peace? Cusa desired dialogue willing to confront real differences and disputes. He did not suggest patronizing condescension of the other. Instead, Nicholas desired critical engagement of both similarities and differences. Partners in inter-faith dialogue must be willing to offer and to hear criticisms. Cusa noted such dialogue requires us to understand what is essential to our faith, what is peripheral, and what really does not belong. Indeed, Cusa realized inter-faith dialogue required Christians to be more reflectively and critically faithful, knowing more deeply and passionately their faith. While we may not relinquish what is essential to our faith in inter-faith dialogue, we must be willing to give up what is unimportant or unnecessary. Ultimately Nicholas imagined a respectful coexistence of competing religious rites (i.e. Muslim, Christian, Jewish, etc.), within the Church “ …allowing the people of those different rites to develop their own ways of praise and worship, as friendly rivals, each trying to outdo each other in their devotion to God (from De Pace Fidei).” The work of Nicholas of Cusa is not without fault. However, his writings from nearly 600 years ago provide an instructive methodology in inter-faith dialogue: Be true to the essentials of the faith, be willing to learn from other faiths and, in all things, seek the peace of faith. The Rev. Stan Runnels – founder of the House that Abraham Built, a ministry in which Christians, Jews and Muslims work together to build low-income housing – is rector of St. Paul’s, Kansas City. SPIRIT, SUMMER, 2010
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Get Connec ed West Missouri Youth
Missionpalooza 2010
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By Deante Finnie • Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City (Senior at Shawnee Mission South High School)
issionpalooza is not a week-long retreat. It is not a time for charity. It is a week of bettering yourself and the community. It is a time when you walk into the kennel laughing with friends and that one old dog looks you in the face and all but cries at your arrival. It is a time for you to yell through an empty house for that new acquaintance you nearly spilled paint on to bring you the last nail to hold a board in place. I’m not sure what you have heard of Missionpalooza, but it is a lot of hard work. Of course, there are upsides that sometimes include the work itself. At Missionpalooza, you forget that you’re working on a house that someone needs or scratching an abandoned cat behind the ears. All you know is that in that basement you put a little part of your heart, sweat, blood and soul into a place for a friend you never met. There’s also the day of rest. Make the decision to go to Worlds of Fun or maybe Oceans of Fun. Perhaps a good movie is a way for you to relax. Any of the three are good choices. Missionpalooza is not a retreat. A retreat is a time for no work and just play. It is not a time for charity. Charity is one stranger dropping a few coins into a tin cup for another stranger. It’s a family — one enormous family going to support other members who can’t help themselves. Enjoy yourself. 8
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MISSIONPALOOZA2010
This year’s Missionpalooza, themed “Mystery RevealedProclaimed-Lived,” will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 13, and conclude following the 10:30 a.m. service Sunday, July 18, at St. Paul’s Church, 11 E. 40th St. in Kansas City. Intended for grades 8 through 12 (as of fall 2010), Missionpalooza trains teenagers to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world. For five days, youth from Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere come together for mission, fellowship and worship both inside and outside the walls of the Church. Students spend their nights at St. Paul’s and their days in the urban mission field heeding Christ’s call to feed the hungry, visit the sick and comfort those in need. Evenings include fun activities such as games, music, movie night, an outdoor barbecue and a trip to either Worlds of Fun or an alternative Saturday afternoon outing. Cost is $160. To register, please call 417-793-0780.
A Familiar Face
MARY HOWE LIKES TO REFER TO HERSELF SIMPLY AS “BISHOP BARRY’S WIFE.” YET, SHE IS SO MUCH MORE. STORY BY HUGH WELSH
Bishop Barry and Mary Howe in front of the Canterbury Cathedral at the 2008 Lambeth Conference. Submitted photo.
SPIRIT, SUMMER, 2010
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n Barry Howe’s 12-year tenure as bishop, a Rag Dolls 2 Love, an international program Mary familiar face has often accompanied him. Howe brought to the diocese. Many parishes count Mary Howe’s face is youthful, creased only by the program as a ministry for disadvantaged and smiles. Her eyes are the color of morning sky. traumatized children in their communities and Before her husband was elected bishop, Mary Howe abroad. So far, more than 3,000 dolls from this worked as a hospice nurse, caring for those nearing diocese have been created for the program. “Part of the end of life. Retired, she remains a volunteer and the appeal of them was they were easy to make and donor for St. Luke’s Health System’s Home Care and could go to any child, regardless of gender or race,” Hospice. She also helped initiate St. Luke’s parishMary Howe says. nurse program. “I’ve always had a love for people,” she She also spearheaded a drive collecting diapers, says. diaper pins, blankets and hats for Maison de Mary Howe says that when her husband was a rector, Naissance, a Kansas City-based organization that she reveled in parish life. As the wife of a bishop, operates a birthing center in Haiti. The diaper “parish” has become “diocese.” “The people of this program is a ministry of the Community of Spouses of diocese are like our extended family,” she says. “I’m the Diocese of West Missouri. “When Barry and I first grateful they’ve opened their homes and hearts to us.” came here, there was a small group of spouses who Whatever parish the bishop visits on a given would meet for a retreat and luncheon at the time weekend, Mary Howe visits as well. While it isn’t a of convention,” Mary Howe says. “It was something new tradition (the spouses of each of the two previous I always appreciated coming to and wanted to build bishops also attended visitations), it’s one Mary Howe on.” has adopted fully. “I view my role as pastoral,” she The leadership group consists of eight spouses from says. “It’s a blessing different parts of that Barry includes “I’ve always had a love for people... the diocese who me in his ministry.” gather semi-annually It’s a blessing that Barry includes me Mary Howe’s to plan events and commitment programs. in his ministry.” to being at her — MARY HOWE Mary Howe has husband’s side goes also overseen the beyond visiting the 51 parishes comprising the diocese. expansion of the spouse prayer circle to include clergy It crosses borders, seas, oceans. She serves on the families. “I manage it because I’m someone who Companion Diocese Committee, which just launched always seems to know what’s going on in people’s a project to establish infrastructure at an orphan lives,” she says. camp in Palapye, Botswana. She and the bishop have The Rev. Dayna Jewson, a deacon and herself a visited the country, one adversely affected by poverty, hospice nurse, says Mary Howe’s presence has been drought, malaria and AIDS. Committee members are an empowering one for people in the diocese. Dayna planning a return trip in September. “It’s all about Jewson’s husband is the Rev. Al Jewson, rector of relationship,” she says. “Barry and I don’t travel as do- Christ Church in Warrensburg. “She has been a good gooders but as people looking to grow a relationship; friend to me,” says Dayna Jewson, who is a member of as much as we want them to get to know us, we want the Community of Spouses. “And she’s been a good to get to know them, too.” friend of the diocese.” Among Mary Howe’s favorite photographs is one On the national level, Mary Howe served on the taken last fall at the orphan camp in Palapye. In Spouse Planning Group for the House of Bishops, it are several dozen children, their eyes and smiles a committee comprised of a select group of bishops’ like twinkling stars. Each is grasping a rag doll of spouses. Her outstanding work in pastoral dimensions a different color: What unifies the dolls are the (the application of theological study to contemporary triangular eyes, upturned mouths and pink cutout human society) for the committee resulted in her hearts affixed to their chests. election to the House of Bishops Committee on The dolls were brought to Botswana by way of Pastoral Development. 10
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(Top): Mary Howe interacts with children at St. Peter’s Daycare Centre in Gaberone, Botswana during the Companion Diocese Committee’s November 2008 trip. Photo by Louise Horner. (Bottom): Orphaned children in Palapye, Botswana were each given dolls from Rag Dolls 2 Love when Melissa Bolden and Dennis Robinson visited in the fall of last year. Photo by Melissa Bolden.
Asked of her proudest personal achievement, however, Mary Howe’s response may be a bit surprising: her training as a lay chaplain with the Community of Hope. It gives laypersons an opportunity to offer pastoral care in settings such as hospitals and prisons. St. Matthew’s in Raytown offers a 14-week, 42-hour Community of Hope curriculum based on Benedictine spirituality. A chapter is also active at St. Andrew’s, Kansas City. When her husband’s duties as diocesan bishop conclude in early 2011, Mary Howe doesn’t want the next bishop’s spouse to look at her as a precedentsetter, as the new spouse may well have a job or young children at home or a desire to stay outside the limelight. “The best advice I can give is to be loyal to your family,” she says. “Most of all, I am Bishop Barry’s wife.” SPIRIT, SUMMER, 2010
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MDG
Millennium Development Goals
The 10-year mark of the Millennium Declaration approved by the United Nations General Assembly is upon us. What is the Church doing to realize the Millennium Development Goals? According to the Rev. Devon Anderson of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, it could be doing more. STORY BY HUGH WELSH
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he Rev. Devon Anderson likens the Episcopal level to connect to global communities and help with their Church’s attitude toward new projects to a child development.” with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Before she was named EGR director in May 2009, “We’re always eager to move on to the next cool thing,” Anderson was involved in parish ministry for 10 years, says Anderson, formerly the associate rector at St. John the heading an MDG-focused community project. The project Baptist Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. was steered by St. John the Baptist lay leadership teams, Anderson is the director of Episcopalians for Global who were trained from the 0.7 percent MDG line item Reconciliation, a program founded in 2003 to help ($14,000) in the parish budget. They were then tasked with the Church honor its commitment to the Millennium getting 50 percent of the parish’s average attendance to Development Goals, which hail from the Millennium pledge 0.7 percent of their income for MDG ministries. Declaration approved by the United Nations General Just like that, $14,000 became $144,000 for the MDGs. Assembly in 2000. The MDGs outline eight pathways “If you invest in the leadership development of the people leading to the elimination of in the pews, you’ll get big global poverty by 2015. (See results,” Anderson says. KEYFACTS sidebar.) The declaration In her role as director - Half the world – more than 3 billion included the signatures of people – live on less than $2.50 per day. of EGR, Anderson has 189 heads of state pledging elected to plunge headfirst - One billion children (one in every two 0.7 percent of their country’s into action. “When I swim, in the world) live in poverty. GDP to the MDGs. I don’t like to skim my - Nearly a billion people entered the 21st Two years earlier at the toes across the surface,” century unable to read or write. Lambeth Conference, Anderson says. the bishops of the Anglican Communion called on “all Currently, EGR is cultivating the companionship dioceses to fund international development programmes… between the Diocese of Missouri and Sudan, launching at a level of at least 0.7 percent of annual total diocesan a lay leadership project in the Diocese of Massachusetts income.” targeted exclusively at young adults and coordinating a The Church connected the call from the Lambeth pilot project with Province VIII of the Episcopal Church Conference to MDGs at the 2003 General Convention (comprised of dioceses from the western United States) in Minneapolis, when it challenged all dioceses and including eight projects in eight congregations. congregations to embrace 0.7 percent giving. Today, The United Nations General Assembly will meet in late an estimated 64 dioceses, including West Missouri, are September and hold a summit to analyze the successes and devoting at least 0.7 percent of their budgets to ministries failures of its MDG initiative, which is entering its final supporting the MDGs. “It’s important people realize that five years. “In these last five years, we must move beyond MDGs are not fixed and no money goes to the U.N.,” incessant studying,” Anderson says. “It’s time for effective Anderson says. “We’re encouraging people at the local action.” 12
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WHAT ARE THEY?
1 ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER — Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day. — Achieve decent employment for women, men and young people. — Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. 2 ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION — By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling. 3 PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN — Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education at all levels by 2015. 4 REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY RATE — Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, The Rev. Dayna Jewson is in charge of the under-five mortality rate. implementing the MDGs in the diocese. 5 IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH — Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and She takes her role seriously. 2015, the maternal mortality ratio. — Achieve, by 2015, universal access to THE REV. DAYNA JEWSON IS THE OVERSEER reproductive health. of the MDGs in the diocese. 6 COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER “My job is to encourage all churches to participate,” DISEASES says Jewson, deacon at Christ Church in Warrensburg. — Reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. “And to give them a boot in the pants when they lose — Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment interest.” for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it. Last year, the diocese allotted $13,000 toward MDG — Reverse the incidence of malaria and other grants. A congregation may receive up to $500 in major diseases by 2015. matching funds from the diocese if it develops an 7 ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL overseas ministry that meets MDG criteria. All grants must be approved by Jewson and the Diocesan Council. SUSTAINABILITY — Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without “We’ve never had one that wasn’t approved,” Jewson says. “As specific as the eight MDGs may be, they allow sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. for a multitude of possibilities.” Still, last year left a surplus of several thousand dollars — Reduce biodiversity loss. in the diocese’s MDG budget. The money was donated 8 DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT to Episcopal Relief & Development. The deadline for — Develop further an open, rule-based, grant consideration this year is Oct. 15, which will st predictable, non-discriminatory trading and allow Jewson to prepare a report for the 121 Annual financial system. Diocesan Convention. — HUGH WELSH — Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries.
A Woman, Committed
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MDG
Internationally Interconnected
How do you eliminate global poverty? One congregation at a time. Stories by Hugh Welsh
The photograph is taken from Our Little Roses’ Web site.
Parishioners from St. Paul’s teach at l’Ecole Ste.-Croix School in Ravine a l’Anse, Haiti.
St. Paul’s (Kansas City) ST. PAUL’S IN KANSAS CITY HAS A BROTHER and a sister. Its brother is the church and community of Ravine a l’Anse, Haiti. Its sister is l’Ecole Ste.-Croix School. St. Paul’s presence in the town dates to 1988, when the church’s then-rector, the Rev. Murray Trelease, entered into a covenant with Ravine a l’Anse. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Herb and Nettie Davis led a mission to found l’Ecole Ste.-Croix School. In 2007, a new Ravine a l’Anse Episcopal Church was completed. In addition to sending a team of parishioners at least once every year, St. Paul’s designates a portion of its budget to finance work in Ravine a l’Anse. In 2009, St. Paul’s donated $3,876 to a feeding project at l’Ecole Ste.-Croix School. “We have provided medical and dental care, immunizations, education, nutrition, and are currently working on establishing a supply of clean water for the students and families of Ravine a l’Anse,” says Ellen Aisenbrey, member of the Haiti Committee of St. Paul’s Church. “In addition to our work with the people of Ravine a l’Anse, it is a great joy to simply be with them, to see the children and to see firsthand the work God is doing in this place.”
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Shepherd of the Hills (Branson) WHEN ENTERING BRANSON’S SHEPHERD OF the Hills, its outreach bulletin board is difficult to miss. And so are three auburn faces – sisters – and their accompaniments: letters written in broken but heartfelt English and Christmas cards with scenes of Christ in His cradle, an infant in another’s care until His destiny can be fulfilled. Parishioners at Shepherd of the Hills don’t just like to know where their donations are going – but to whom. “The congregation knows all three girls well,” says the Rev. Virginia Brown, former rector at Shepherd of the Hills. “The personal link means everything to them.” In 2009, Shepherd of the Hills raised $900 to sponsor three girls at Our Little Roses in Honduras. The Brotherhood of St. Andrew, an organization within Shepherd of the Hills, raised another $700. Brown says the $500 MDG grant awarded to the church by the diocese has allowed them to add a third sister. Our Little Roses provides at-risk girls with basic needs and life skills. The church has adopted two of the sisters for many years, Brown says. Parishioners write letters to the girls as often as, if not more than, they receive them. The girls are mentioned frequently in the prayers of the church’s people. Sometimes prayers are self-conscious of the fortune of an American birthright and other times they implore the girls’ safety in an unsafe world. “The congregation loves these girls as if they were their own,” Brown says. Shepherd of the Hill’s ministry meets several of the MDGs, including gender equality and achieving a universal education. “By giving to Our Little Roses, Shepherd of the Hills is addressing the long-term well-being of Hondurans,” Brown says. “The people of Shepherd of the Hills and Our Little Roses will give these young ladies all they need to be responsible, successful young women.”
St. Mary’s (Kansas City) TO EARN A DECENT WAGE IN CENTRAL America, one must be English literate and have computer skills – though being well versed in the performing arts has its benefits, too. “The arts give people an identity, a sense of their own culture,” says the Rev. Gerry Shaon, deacon and parish administrator at St. Mary’s in Kansas City. “And we’ve had a number of students who studied the piano and were accepted into the Conservatory of Music in Managua.” Shaon oversees La Escuelita in Managua, Nicaragua. La Escuelita is a learning center that offers classes teaching English, computer technology, dance, piano and guitar. Free to the public, it averages about 65 students daily, ranging in age from 10 to 70. In 2009, $6,500 was raised for the center, nearly half of it from Shaon’s own bank account. The diocese awarded the ministry with a $500 MDG grant. “Most of the money for La Escuelita comes from outside sources,” says Shaon, who organized an Advent offering within St. Mary’s that raised approximately $450. La Escuelita was founded about 20 years ago by the Rev. Grant Gallup, who died in November of last year. Gallup was a priest for 35 years at a parish on Chicago’s Westside before the bishop asked him to serve as a liaison officer in Nicaragua. “Rev. Gallup had a love of teaching neighborhood boys English,” Shaon says. “It was something he really enjoyed doing.” Gallup ultimately retired in Nicaragua, teaching English classes from his home. All three of the English teachers at La Escuelita were pupils of Gallup’s. Four more teachers – one per subject – complete the staff. At a rate of $50 per month, La Escuelita’s instructors teach a one-hour class five days a week. La Escuelita includes a computer lab, a room for piano and guitar lessons and a multipurpose room for English and computer classes. Shaon’s involvement in the project began in 1997, when he was a staff member at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Along with Grace Cathedral parishioner Deborah Cornue, Shaon organized La Escuelita into one of the church’s leading ministries that generated $10,000 per year, enough to sponsor high school and university students. Each January, Shaon would lead a group of parishioners on a pilgrimage to Nicaragua.
“It was a great way for people to learn about the culture and to see what we are doing there,” Shaon says. “I’d like to make it an annual event at St. Mary’s.” Shaon inherited administrative responsibility at La Escuelita in 2002. Shaon came to St. Mary’s five years ago and, while Cornue’s role at La Escuelita has lessened, his has increased. Every three months, Shaon spends three weeks at La Escuelita on his own dime. Shaon is grooming a successor, a 30-something Nicaraguan who learned English from Shaon. But, alone, the position won’t provide enough income to care for his family. “He is very smart with computers and his English is as good as any university graduate,” Shaon says. “No one else comes to mind at the moment.”
MDG GRANTS AWARDED IN 2009 CHURCH
PROJECT
St. Andrew’s (Kansas City)
The Upendo Orphanage Center (Tanzania)
St. Mary’s (Kansas City)
La Escuelita (Nicaragua)
Shepherd of the Hills (Branson) All Saints (West Plains)
ERD (Nets for Life)
Grace Church (Carthage) Christ Church (Springfield) St. Paul’s (Kansas City)
Our Little Roses (Honduras)
St. Andre’s, St. James’ and St. Philips’ Schools (Haiti)
Plumpty Nut Nutrition for Lespwa Timoun Croix-des Bouquets (Haiti) Feeding Project at l’Ecole Ste.-Croix School (Haiti)
Church of the St. Thomas de Redeemer Merson School (Kansas City) (Haiti) St. John’s (Springfield)
ERD (Drought-resistant seeds and tools)
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BOTSWANA
Orphan Outreach
Two years ago, the diocese knew little about Botswana. We scarcely knew of its African location, much less its people. That was then.
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M
elissa Bolden was once not unlike a lot of us in regards to Botswana. “My knowledge was limited,” Bolden says. But today she is, as Mary Howe says, among the Companion Diocese Committee’s “torch bearers.” The committee coordinates the diocese’s partnership with the Anglican Diocese of Botswana. “Speak to Melissa for a minute or two, and it’s clear how much she loves the people of Botswana,” says Howe, spouse of Bishop Barry Howe. From late August to early September of 2009, Bolden visited Botswana along with committee chairman Dennis Robinson, a parishioner at St. Mary’s in Kansas City. Once she arrived in Palapye, Bolden was greeted by children. A hundred of them. Botswana is overrun by the AIDS epidemic, affecting one in four people. It is a nation of orphans. Then she noticed the smiles, unbroken by a life of
with dirt floors and wooden pallets for beds. “Joana was their caregiver,” Bolden says. “She had no formal support in the children’s spiritual, mental and physical development.” Progress was slow at first. In Botswana, communication doesn’t move with lightning speed like in the United States. Nor are government funds as easily accessible. Bolden knew most of the children were eligible for government support, and yet only two were signed up. “It took a little while to get the engine running,” Bolden says. All pistons are currently firing. Gosego Nthume, the chairperson of Botswana’s HIV Committee, has worked closely with both dioceses as well as the Masiela Trust Fund, an agency tasked with aiding the nation’s orphan population. Among other responsibilities, it ensures qualified orphans are registered for government aid.
(Opposite): A girl plays with a jump rope at a camp in Palapye, Botswana. (Top): Members of the Moeti family gather beneath a tent at a camp in Palapye, Botswana. Photos by Melissa Bolden.
unfufilled wants and, sometimes, unmet needs. The gifts Robinson and Bolden brought – handmade rag dolls, toothbrushes, flip-flops – made the children’s eyes glisten like daisies in the rain. But happiness is not everlasting. Many of the children are classified as vulnerable, meaning their futures are not as bright as their smiles. When Robinson and Bolden left Palapye, the orphans, ranging in age from 2 to 8, had neither running water onsite (they drew water from the property of Joana Mokandla, a Sunday school teacher and godmother to the children) nor permanent housing. One family of several dozen children (the Morakes) was living in temporary government housing, and another (the Moetis) was in a weathered tent
Through funds from the HIV/AIDS program, Nthume had a water line established, and the Masiela Trust Fund has agreed to build two houses for the families at no cost to either diocese (there is, however, a cost for furnishings and upkeep). Nthume was reimbursed for the installation of the water line, which cost about $100, by St. Luke’s in Excelsior Springs. The church raised $640 in late 2009. The money will also cover monthly water bills at an average cost of $10. Bolden plans to return to Palapye as a representative of the diocese this fall when construction begins. “The first step was getting them fresh water,” Bolden says. “The next step is community.” — HUGH WELSH SPIRIT, SUMMER, 2010
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BOTSWANA
More than a Daycare
I
magine a future in which a camp of orphans – dirty, underfed, susceptible to so much – can grow up to be healthy, educated, self-sufficient adults. This is the objective of the capital campaign launched by the Companion Diocese Committee June 20: Building a daycare in Palapye a couple blocks from the permanent housing for the Morake and Moeti families. “You’re not putting money in an envelope,” Bolden says. “You’re building a relationship.” The daycare will be modeled after St. Peter’s Daycare Centre in Gaborone, Botswana. Founded in June 2003, St. Peter’s offers educational opportunities and care to 100 orphaned and vulnerable children. St. Peter’s is headed by the Rev. Andrew Mudereri and his wife, Gladys Mudereri, 18
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(Top): Children seek shelter from a passing thunderstorm at St. Peter’s Daycare Centre in Gaberone, Botswana. Photo by Margaret Fasel. (Opposite top left): Children at the orphan camp in Palapye, Botswana. Photo by Melissa Bolden. (Opposite bottom right): Children enjoy a complementary meal at St. Peter’s Daycare Centre in Gaberone, Botswana. Photo by Margaret Fasel.
who are consultants for the Palapye daycare. They will assist the daycare with budgeting, programming and support. “They know what success looks like,” Bolden says. Margaret Fasel, the daughter of the Rev. Canon Dr. William Fasel and Michelle Fasel, spent her January college term as an assistant teacher of 20 3-year-olds at the daycare. “Without St. Peter’s, they would not have had the opportunity to just be kids,” Fasel says. The initial phase of the project will include the construction of a daycare with a 100-child capacity.
PALAPYE PROJECT The diocese is sponsoring the construction of a day care center, estimated to cost about $85,000, for orphaned and vulnerable children ages 1 to 6 in the Palapye community. The day care, serving approximately 100 children, will include classroom lessons, meals and social activities. The future goal is to expand the day care into a full-service community center. Donations may be sent to P.O. Box 413227 Kansas City, MO 64141. Please make donations payable to Diocese of West Missouri and indicate Botswana Palapye Project.
Operating costs are expected to be about $85,000 annually. This doesn’t include start-up costs such as architectural fees, furnishings and supplies. Initially, the diocese will contribute 80 to 90 percent of the finances for the daycare. Over time, the diocese’s commitment will decrease. “We don’t want them to rely forever on the good will of those in this diocese,” Bolden says. “Selfsufficiency is the key word.” Follow-up phases will transform the daycare into more of a community center with an activity room, multiple piggeries and poultry houses, a botanical garden and a classroom for courses stressing entrepreneurship and life skills. “In Botswana if you learn how to raise chickens and sell eggs, you can make a living,” Bolden says. While the campaign may be capital in nature, it carries a spiritual component, too. “We’re placing a call for all parishes to come up with unique, intangible ways to connect in fellowship with the people of Palapye,” Bolden says. “As much as we have to offer, we have everything to learn, too.” — HUGH WELSH SPIRIT, SUMMER, 2010
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ARTS
IT MAY NOT BE IN 3-D ON THE SMALL SCREEN, but Avatar deserves a spot on summer movie rental lists anyway – especially for people of faith. In addition to all its technical wonders, the film manages to tell a story of connectedness, holiness and new life. It’s not a telling of the Christian story per se, but it certainly gives incredible material for theological reflection. Avatar is set on Pandora, a moon of a distant planet, 140 years in the future. But the subtext seems to be that the more things change, the more they stay the same. American adventurers go to Pandora seeking the mineral wealth that lies under the land of profoundly spiritual indigenous people. Some of the newcomers seek to “civilize” the “natives,” teaching them English and more advanced technology. But the Na’vi people of Pandora see little advantage to the new ways and sense the 20
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aliens’ materialistic motives. Like The Mission (1986), Avatar challenges a European-American audience to struggle with the historical intertwining of the missionary impulse and the desire for treasure at any cost. But there’s a lot more here than a critique of colonialism. Jake Sully is a disabled Marine who alternatively inhabits his own broken body and that of his superhuman avatar (a mix of Na’vi and human DNA). He begins his journey working for the military-commercial invaders. Jake’s assignment: to infiltrate the Na’vi community, learn their ways, gain their trust and then persuade them to abandon their lands so the company can mine its precious metal, the appropriately named “unobtanium.” Jake’s two bodies incarnate the two cultures he straddles – one weak and broken, the other
DEBRIEFED WHAT IS IT? Avatar
WHO DIRECTED IT? James Cameron
IN A NUTSHELL
Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn... strong and whole. The payoff for completing and with each other through prayer and the laying his assignment is expensive surgery to repair his on of hands, tapping into that holy spirit for paralyzed legs. But Jake comes to see that the healing and new life. healing he needs can be found only on Pandora, In this connectedness among people and among the Na’vi. God, there’s a beautiful illustration of what we There, in his avatar body, he finds what his Christians understand about baptism. own culture can’t provide: a deeply connected, The Na’vi have a saying that “every person is deeply relational way of life. Like Kevin Costner’s born twice” – first at physical birth and then John Dunbar in Dances With Wolves (1990), Jake again when “you take your place among the Sully finds his own healing among the people people forever.” All the members of the holy he’s sent to control and perhaps destroy. He finds people gather for a consecrating ceremony at the relationship with the earth, with the Na’vi and Tree of Souls, the place of deepest connection with his with Eywa. soul mate. And He finds there, they OUR CHALLENGE IS TO TAKE OUR SECOND integration welcome and a new wholeness member on every into the BIRTH AS SERIOUSLY AS THE NA’VI DO. level, in body of contrast to his old way of life. the Na’vi, as Jake leaves behind his physical and That healing sconnectedness comes out most spiritual brokenness forever. vividly in the spirit of the planet and the seamless Avatar begins with Jake reflecting on his way the Na’vi tap into it. The planet embodies unlikely spot on this mission to encounter the Eywa, the Na’vi feminine God (also very nearly Na’vi. He’s taken the place of his brother, recently “Yahweh” backward); and the energizing spirit killed; and he muses, “One life ends, another of Eywa is the life force that drives and connects begins.” everything, from trees to animals to the Na’vi The film ends with the same truth – as does themselves. The people physically connect to this every celebration of baptism for us. Our challenge spirit through extensions of their nervous system is to take our second birth as seriously as the running through their hair, making them one Na’vi do. being with the horse or bird-like creature they The Rev. John Spicer is associate rector for mission at ride. St. Andrew’s, Kansas City. And at a deeper level, they connect with Eywa
“
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Christianity Revisited I WAS DRAWN TO THE BBC TELEVISION SERIES A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (available on Amazon) by a review of the book by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury (reprinted on opposite page). The author of the book and writer/narrator of the series is Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of the history of the Church at the University of Oxford. MacCulloch’s views must come with a disclaimer: He was ordained a deacon in the Church of England but refused ordination to the priesthood because he didn’t wish to deny his homosexuality. Such embitterment may explain why the TV series’ presentation of the Western Church is uneven: For every macrocosmic hilltop there is also a dung heap. MacCulloch offers an all-too-human portrait of St. Augustine of Hippo as a sexual deviant turned celibate who pronounced original sin as the reason for Christ’s coming. But MacCulloch is pitch-perfect in his rationale that the Roman Empire never really collapsed; it is alive and well today and called the Roman Catholic Church. Then there is MacCulloch’s unlofty opinion of St. Francis of Assisi, which reflects the darkly abstract painting of Francis by Bruno’s mother in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. MacCulloch says, “Was Francis of Assisi the lovable saint who talked to animals? Or was he somebody who madly chucked away wealth to proclaim Christianity to birds?” And, like an itch that won’t go away, MacCulloch harps again and again on the “petty awfulness” of the Crusades. At its best, MacCulloch’s document of the Western Church is no rival for the series’ journey to the east. We follow MacCulloch to modern-day Syria, where he gestures at a pillar now worn to a nub. In the early fifth century, Simeon, a pillar saint or stylite, devoted his waking hours to standing atop the column. Simeon believed this life is “our valley of tears” and barred himself from all bodily conveniences. But Simeon was not a hermit seeking to 22
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Diarmaid MacCulloch
torture himself in solitude; his 50-foot column was a short distance from a crossroads, and he welcomed guests. Is the ruin the last remnant of Eastern Christianity in the wake of Islam? Not exactly. MacCulloch travels to Damascus, where he visits the Syriac Orthodox Church, an ancient Christian sect that emphasizes ritual and authentic language (its members speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic). A Syrian Orthodox priest MacCulloch encounters has this to say: “Whereas in the West theologians are philosophers, here theologians are poets.” The priest’s words are backgrounded by Muslim prayer. Nearby is the Umayyad Mosque, where John the Baptist’s head is entombed, according to Muslim tradition. We learn that John the Baptist is regarded as a prophet in Islam and — contrary to the radical Islamic factions that make headline news — Jesus Christ,while not recognized as the Son of God, is sometimes known as “the son of light” in Islam. But my favorite is the installment on Eastern Orthodoxy, a Christianity that was brought lovingly to the Russian people by hermits then nearly obliterated by Islam, betrayed by crusading Catholics and besieged by the politics of the Tsars and Communists. Yet, today the double-headed eagle of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the symbol of its people. When Joseph Stalin declared Christianity dead — butchering 40,000 priests, monks and nuns to prove his point — in favor of atheistic community, it was his people’s quiet faith that staved off the Nazi war machine at Stalingrad and Leningrad. Just ask the Russian people. MacCulloch does — with powerful results. — HUGH WELSH
T
he provocative subtitle alerts you to the fact that this is going to be much more than a textbook. Diarmaid MacCulloch begins with what turns out to be one of many tours de force in summarising the intellectual and social background of Christianity in the classical as well as the Jewish world, so that we can see something of the issues to which the Christian faith offered a startlingly new response. Greco-Roman religion had ended up with an uneasy mixture of the cult of the emperor (increasingly odd as the empire became a military dictatorship constantly changing hands after bloody conflicts) and a chaotic plurality of local rites and myths. The Jewish world was marked by a lively tension over how Jewish identity was to be understood. What Christianity brought into all this was a definition of Jewish identity that opened up to become a definition of human identity independent of any particular state apparatus; it created, you could say, the very idea of a religion as a form of belonging together that did not depend on political loyalties. Of course, Christians rapidly worked out how to deploy political power and to enforce conformity. But MacCulloch resists the glib narrative of decline and fall which is always going to tempt the sceptical historian of the church. Instead, he traces the sheer variety of ways in which the basic forms of Christian life and faith were fleshed out. As a serious historian, he brushes aside the luxuriant growths of conspiracy theory — the Gnostics plus Mary Magdalene plus Knights Templar fantasy world. But he also cautions against the popular current assumption that minorities and dissidents in past ages were enlightened moderns in disguise — reminding us, for example, that Pelagius’s opposition to Augustine on original sin was not a sunny and optimistic vision but part of a fiercely rigorous morality that left little room for the lights and shadows of human experience and the uneven quality of what we call freedom. MacCulloch’s treatment of Augustine is just one instance of the excellence of this book. He is fair, remarkably comprehensive, neither uncritical nor hostile; what is more, he shows an extraordinary familiarity with specialist literature in practically every area. The sections on Christianity’s expansion eastwards and the tragic history of
the churches of central Asia, still a little-known and underresearched subject, are among the very best in the book. Also outstanding are his treatments of the achievements and limitations of European Christian mission (he describes India as the “greatest failure” of Protestant mission effort, given the political advantage with which it worked), of the intimidatingly complex stories of Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox in the borderlands of the Russian empire, from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and of the distinctive legacy of Calvin, whom he rightly sees as setting out not just to carry through piecemeal reforms of an existing institution but to reimagine the Catholic religion itself on the basis of the same biblical and traditional material that others used to defend the papal church. Time and again, there are glimpses of lost worlds, possibilities that flickered and disappeared - not only the Christian empire of China in the 13th century and the Unitarian commonwealth of Poland in the 16th, but the Islamic republic of central America (a short-lived proposal for anti-Spanish cooperation between Elizabeth Tudor and Morocco). MacCulloch does what a good historian should in helping you to see developments as both intelligible and by no means inevitable (he is specially good on the papacy in this respect). He also makes it plain that a good many of these lost possibilities were own goals — lost because of internal Christian conflict, including the interference of Christian colonial powers. He knows the use of irony, but doesn’t let it become the nervous tic it sometimes is in historians who bring no theological agenda to their work. This book is a landmark in its field, astonishing in its range, compulsively readable, full of insight even for the most jaded professional and of illumination for the interested general reader. It will have few, if any, rivals in the English language. The story is told with unobtrusive stylishness as well as clarity. And at a time when Christianity’s profile in our culture is neither as positive nor as extensive as it has been, this book is crucial testimony to the resilience of the Christian community in a remarkable diversity of social settings. The first three thousand years do not seem likely to be also the last. — ROWAN WILLIAMS Copyright The Guardian, reprinted with permission SPIRIT, SUMMER, 2010
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