Easter 2004
Crosswalk The official publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina
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Prayer, relationship— transformation When we don’t want to change, we don’t pray, knowing in our hearts that prayer is risky business— mysterious, transforming, risky business.
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Seeking transformation Where is God in all this? Two Upper South Carolinians reflect on the Good News in the challenges posed by General Convention.
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Transformation at work For Upper SC congregational coaches and those who participate in the diocesan School for Ministry, transformation is what it’s all about— “all things new,” for the individual, for the congregation, by the grace of God.
Visit our diocese online
www.edusc.org
“
Behold , I am making all things new.”
(Rev. 21:5)
Easter 2004
Crosswalk FROM THE
Bishop’s Desk
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
Crosswalk
Official Publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina 1115 Marion Street Columbia, South Carolina 29201 803.771.7800/800.889.6961 803.799.5119 fax dioceseusc@aol.com Crosswalk E-mail Address phill@edusc.org Bishop The Rt. Rev. Dorsey F. Henderson, Jr. Archdeacon and Assistant for Mission and Ministry The Ven. Frederick C. Byrd fbyrd@edusc.org Canon for Christian Formation The Rev. J. Philip Purser ppurser@edusc.org Missioner for Youth Ministry The Rev. L. Sue von Rautenkranz suevon@edusc.org Director of Communications, Editor of Crosswalk Peggy Van Antwerp Hill phill@edusc.org Assistant to Bishop Henderson Jane B. Goldsmith jgoldsmith@edusc.org Assistant for Finance and Administration Julie Price jprice@edusc.org Assistant to Archdeacon Byrd Bonnie Blackberg bblackberg@edusc.org Assistant for Christian Formation, Manager of Diocesan Resource Center Roslyn Hook rhook@edusc.org Assistant for Finance and Insurance Cynthia Hendrix chendrix@edusc.org Assistant for Youth Ministry and Communications Dora Jane Barwick djbarwick@edusc.org Bishop Gravatt Center bgravatt@mindspring.com
Over lunch at the spring meeting of the House of Bishops in late March, Bishop Michael Curry relayed this remarkable account from a friend whose relative was part of the story: Two ladies lived along the dividing line between neighborhoods, one black, one white. The white lady was very unhappy with this, and, to demonstrate her displeasure, she would toss the droppings from the chickens she raised, across the back fence into her neighbor’s yard. After several years of this, a time came when this lady became ill and was bed-ridden for an extended period. Who should appear at her door but her unwanted neighbor, bearing two gifts: food—and a beautiful bouquet of flowers! “Where did you get such beautiful flowers?,” she was asked. You probably know where this story is headed: the despised neighbor had used the chicken droppings to nurture her garden. What was meant to be offensive had been transformed into a thing of beauty— and the division between the neighbors was bridged; they were reconciled. We laughed at the irony of the story, but it immediately occurred to me, “This is what God does with us, and it will preach! There’s my Easter letter!” What we give to God—our sins—objectionable refuse—culminating in the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus, God took and transformed into something most beautiful: the gift of salvation! As one person in Bishop Curry’s story bridged the gap between her neighbor and herself, God bridged the division between him and us. “Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we, too, shall be raised.” Beloved, that most beautiful gift comes as a gift from God—we call it divine grace—wrought through the self-giving of Christ in obedience to the Father. I have not yet seen Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, but apparently some find antiSemitism in it—the blaming of the Jews for the crucifixion and death of Jesus. I have even seen a marquee in front of a church building which proclaims “The Jews killed Jesus,” complete with a biblical citation. Considering all of the good which results from this movie, it would be most unfortunate to translate the Gospel, or to be silent in the face of such translation, into an instrument which flies in the face of the very reconciliation which God accomplished through his mighty act on the cross! “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). The crucifixion and resurrection are part of God’s plan and God’s gift. The sins of all of us are responsible—and the authorities who played active roles in Christ’s death are as inseparable from us as our sins are inseparable from theirs. To maintain otherwise is to contradict the Christian teaching of salvation as God’s gift of grace which does not have to be earned. Jesus offered himself, as we maintain in the Eucharistic prayer, “in obedience to [the Father’s] will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.” His life was not taken from him; he gave it. “Knowing all that was to happen him,” Jesus endures the last day of his life with dignity and eloquence. He accepts the cup he has been given. He carries his own cross to the hill. No one takes his spirit from him; he gives it up himself. (See John 18:1–19:37) Otherwise the crucifixion would have been murder, not sacrifice. Otherwise Christ’s sacrifice would have been duty, and not a gift that reduces us to tears. As Barbara Brown Taylor asks, “…[I]s that the ram we see on the cross, who has taken our place on the pile of wood and set us free?” At the Great Vigil of Easter the celebrant bids, “Through the Paschal mystery, dear friends, we are buried with Christ by baptism into his death, and raised with him to newness of life. I call upon you, therefore, now that our Lenten observance is ended, to renew the solemn promises and vows of Holy Baptism, by which we once renounced Satan and all his works, and promised to serve God faithfully in his holy Catholic Church.” Beloved, the conviction that the risen Lord has conquered both sin and death is meant to influence all that the Christian is and does. And what we are and what we do is by the grace of God and consistent with the example of Christ whose life, death, and resurrection are the model for the Baptismal Covenant. As we prepare to reaffirm “solemn promises and vows,” it will be my intense prayer that, as “God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself,” we will be faithful to “the message of reconciliation” with which he has entrusted us , instruments for the transformation of things repulsive into gifts of incomparable beauty (see II Cor. 5:16–19)—life from death! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. Faithfully yours in our Lord,
Visit us on the Web at www.edusc.org Cover photo: Eric Schnaufer
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Crosswalk COMMON
Easter 2004
Prayer, relationship
transformation PRAYER...
By Peggy Van Antwerp Hill
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Seven
“revelations” Prayer lives never run
smoothly, and mine has been no exception. In the years since I became an Episcopalian in 1989, the most challenging task has been unlearning much of what I learned (or thought I did) during my Roman Catholic childhood and youth. The heart of prayer, I now believe, is relationship, and the heart of relationship is its power to change us, for better or for worse. Prayer, in a word, transforms.
Responding to God My first inkling ( R E V E L AT I O N that prayer was perhaps something other than I thought it to be came from diving, as a new Episcopalian, into The Book of Common Prayer, which defines prayer (on page 856) as “responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.” For me, this statement packed a double whammy—prayer is response? with or without words? Wow! I’d had it all wrong, having come to God all these years with the assumption that prayer worked the other way around, that God responded to my prayers or
ONE)
in the history of my life, according to my efforts. And here was the wise and holy BCP suggesting that such wasn’t so, and, suggesting, on top of that, that everything I might say, think, do was response, was meant to be prayer. “Pray without ceasing,” as St. Paul would have it; in every utterance and gesture strive for complete consciousness of God, which is perpetual prayer. Before I got my head (to some degree) around the BCP definition of prayer, I’d prayed a lot, since I was quite young, in fact. But my style was always to cut God off at the pass, to be “proactive”—telling God what God needed to do to make me happier, more comfortable—or to react when things didn’t suit my plan, turning away, giving up, wandering off, and for long periods of time—never RESPONDING, never listening, never understanding that I was part of an exchange, a conversation, a living, breathing relationship. Prayer, I came to see, was not something that I had to manufacture but rather something in which I was invited to participate, with my whole self. In one sense, this fresh understanding gave me new hope, new direction. In another, it really put the pressure on: called by God not to be a person who says prayers from time to time, but instead to be (strive to be) a person who is prayer all the time. A series of new “revelations” urged me to keep on, with the knowledge that the journey would doubtless take more than one human lifetime.
More “revelations” ( R E V E L AT I O N T W O ): Prayer is a gift. The very desire to pray is a gift, and what’s more, the desire to pray is a prayer. It comes from somewhere outside of me and inside of me at the same time, which is to say, it comes from the Holy Spirit. It’s a God-act, and as such, it calls for response. ( R E V E L AT I O N T H R E E ): Prayer,
like everything else I do, has to begin exactly where I am today, this moment, not where I think I should be. Pretending, as I had so often, that I would “get it together” and then be ready for prayer was no more than another of my handy-dandy excuses not to go out on a limb with God. ( R E V E L AT I O N F O U R ): There are no experts in prayer, only beginners (and that includes the saints). No matter how uncomfortable or anxious I might feel in my efforts to come before God in prayer, those feelings do not mean that God holds my fumbling and my uncertainty against me. ( R E V E L AT I O N F I V E ): God is longing for me, wanting me, yearning for me, even needing me. But God is not pushy. God offers, God waits. God acts. Will I respond? ( R E V E L AT I O N S I X ): From Henri Nouwen, in With Open Hands: “To
pray is to stop expecting from God the same small-mindedness you discover in yourself.” This incredible gem took me back to the beginning, to the BCP and the idea of response. It knocked me out, bringing me face to face with the fact that I understood in my head the concept of act and response but understood very little in my heart about entering into prayer as into true relationship, real, open, life-altering exchange. I was adept at being willful, far from being willing; there could be no relationship if my small mind was scripting in any way both my part and God’s. —continued on page 18
“To pray is to stop expecting from God the same smallmindedness you discover in yourself ” (Henri Nouwen).
Give me a candle of the Spirit, O God, as I go down into the deep of my own being. Show me the hidden things, Take me down to the spring of my life, and tell me my nature and my name. Give me freedom to grow so that I may become my true self— the fulfillment of the seed which you planted in me at my making. Out of the deep I cry unto thee, O God. Amen. Prayer by George Appleton, used with permission. This prayer is used at events sponsored by Journey into Wholeness, “a community committed to individual and collective transformation.” Visit Journey on the Web at www.journeyintowholeness.org.
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Easter 2004
Crosswalk WHAT’S IN THE WORD?
Traveling to Emmaus
By Jonathan D. Greiser
Reflections on discipleship and transformation
The Christian tradition, quite rightly, views Jesus’ disciples as great heroes of the faith. We revere them as saints and look to them as models for faith and life. In the first centuries of Christianity, stories about their exploits and the manner of their deaths were told and occasionally embroidered. The New Testament itself, especially the Acts of the Apostles, provides historical evidence that Jesus’ followers were indeed men of great faith and accomplishment. But when we think of Jesus’ disciples, we often focus
exclusively on the Twelve, less Judas, of course. The Gospels, especially the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, present a somewhat different picture. In them, there is clearly a sense of the “Twelve” but there is a much broader category of disciples, too. And even the Twelve are not pictured in a purely positive light. While they agree on some important details, such as Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah, the Gospels also agree that it was Peter who denied him during the last hours of Jesus’ life. In fact, close reading of the synoptic Gospels, especially Mark, reveals a very different picture of Jesus’ followers during his life. Mark depicts them as somewhat clueless, especially about what Jesus understood as his task, and his expectation of death. Even more dramatically, as Mark tells the story of the last days of Jesus’ life on earth, he
emphasizes that the disciples abandon their Lord. Beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the disciples fall asleep while Jesus goes off to pray, Jesus is left alone to face his fate by himself. Mark makes quite clear that none of the Twelve was present at the crucifixion; instead, there are only “women looking on from a distance” (Mark 15:40). But they were Jesus’ disciples too, having followed him to Jerusalem from Galilee. Of course, that none of the disciples understands the significance of the empty tomb is hardly surprising. An empty tomb is weak evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. They interpreted it just like we 21st-century Americans might interpret a news story that an empty tomb had been found in a local cemetery. We, too, would assume either the body was moved or it was stolen. Luke’s account of two disciples’ encounter with Jesus on the road to
All my life By the Very Rev. Dr. Philip C. Linder
“All my life” is an excerpt from Philip Linder’s newly published book, A Priest’s Journal of Hope: God and 9/11 (iUniverse, 2004). The book is available from Trinity Cathedral Bookstore (803.771.7300, www.trinityepiscopalcathedral.org). All proceeds go to outreach.
There is constant amazement in the ways that God speaks to us through other people in what are sometimes the most difficult of situations. The steady voice of God interrupts the silence and awkwardness of a conversation that struggles because of the moment. I remember that cold sunny day
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that I headed to the funeral home to be present for a family during their time of loss. This was the family of a deceased person that I had never met, and I knew little of the family. He had died of natural causes well into his eighties, and as I arrived I pondered the words and presence that I could offer. After greetings, condolences, and plans were arranged for the service, I asked his wife: “How long have you and your husband been married?” I expected her to give me the number of years. Instead, she paused, a tear ran down her cheek and she responded, “All my life.” All of us in the room
welled up with tears. I took her hand and knew that she had spoken from deep within her heart, and that God had spoken through her as well from that same place. A relationship of love that has no memory of beginning, but rather just being and enduring, is what God hopes for from us. Perhaps at our own death God will ask us, “How long have you known me?” Will our response be, “All my life”? I believe that God desires such an answer. Can you strive to live this way—in this knowing? What are the implications of this kind of relationship with God?
Illustration by Joy S. Coolidge
Emmaus preserves something of synoptic theme of the disciples’ lack of understanding of Jesus’ mission. We know nothing of these two outside of this story. Luke even —continued on page 18
You see, to know God is a very different thing than simply believing in him. To believe something is not the same as to know something. One may believe that they can swim because they have studied others swimming and read books on the subject; however, until one gets in the water and flounders around one cannot know swimming. The same is true with your relationship with God. To know God embodies belief, but beyond that it requires a daily life lived intentionally with God at the center of all that you say, all that you do and all that you think. Imagine Christ asking you, “How long have you known me?” Imagine responding, “All my life.” Imagine living your life today in a way that brings forth such an answer to God. The Very Rev. Dr. Philip C. Linder is dean of Trinity Cathedral, Columbia.
Crosswalk
Easter 2004
orthe•doxy
What in the world is orthodoxy?
[correct]
It is orthodoxy as “right,” “correct” (orthe) belief (doxy) with which this article is concerned, not with Eastern Orthodoxy, as that term is used to describe those churches in the East which separated from Rome in 1054 C.E. The word orthodoxy is ambiguous. It means right liturgy or worship, correct theological belief, and a conviction of how one gives glory to God. Orthodoxy is “right” belief. While right behavior is related, it is spoken of as “orthopraxis” or “right” action. Orthodoxy has as its root meaning belief in or assent to the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. It is difficult to know how these truths are to be defined. The New Testament offers us confessional statements, such as “In the beginning God created,” “Christ died for our sins,” “Christ rose from the dead,” “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” Confessional statements are faith-statements, not doctrine. The Pastoral Letters of the New Testament offer us sound teaching, which implies doctrine, but, like confessional statements, such teaching is theologically undeveloped. St. Paul talks about “the Faith” in a manner that implies commonly held or commonly understood beliefs of those faithful to Christ, but “the Faith” as Paul refers to it had yet to be cast in theological terms that answered the many questions that arose as Jewish piety confronted Greek culture.
Orthodox teaching The following statement, from The Encyclopedia of Christianity (Eerdmans), summarizes the source of orthodox
[belief]
Orthodoxy, relationship, and witness By the Rev. Dr. Philip H. Whitehead
teaching of the Christian faith: “The fundamental orthodox vision of Christianity remains the one that was shaped in the classic period of Greek Patristic thought.” The classic period of Greek patristic thought begins with the writings of Clement of Rome (96 C.E.) and ends with the work of the second Council of Nicea (787 C.E.). The Patristic Age (The Age of the Church Fathers) defended the Gospel against heresies and misunderstandings, produced extensive commentaries on the Bible, provided the substance, rationale, and explanation of the historic creeds, and developed the full rich place of the Holy Spirit in the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. Church Fathers Hippolytus and Tertullian stressed the functions (“economies”) or works of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rather than their relationship to one another. Twentyfirst-century theology is vitally interested in the dynamics and implications of God, whose nature is relational. For a particular doctrine to qualify as part of the orthodox teachings of the Church it must be explicitly included in the Bible (virgin birth, death on the cross, resurrection) or be a belief proposed by the faithful as implicit in the Bible (the pre-existence of Christ, God as Trinity, the victory of Christ over death). Orthodoxy functions as a way of distinguishing and safeguarding authentic doctrines of the Church. The historic creeds of the Church (Apostles’, Nicene, Athanasian, Chalcedon) represent right beliefs of the Church as hammered out by the early Church on the anvils of scripture, tradition, and philosophical reason. Vincent of Lerins (c. 434 C.E.) defined
orthodoxy as that which has been believed everywhere, always and by all. The doctrines that have been foundational for Christianity are Trinity, Christology, the Church, and the Eucharist.
Do not assume you know who the bad guys are. . . . Orthodoxy, dependent so much upon the interpretation of the Bible, is as much a concern today as ever.
Orthodoxy challenged Do not assume you know who the bad guys are. There are enemies of Christ. There are challenges to orthodoxy. Some of those challenges are the historic Age of the Enlightenment, biblical criticism, Charles Darwin, John Shelby Spong, sociology, cultural studies, new multiple-universe theories, genetic research, and secularism. However, it is just as easy to say that Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’s The Left Behind Series, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, television’s “Touched by An Angel” are equally challenging because of the power of media images and impressions to imply truth. Orthodoxy, dependent so much upon the interpretation of the Bible, is as much a concern today as ever. John Milbank, Graham Ward, and Catherine Pickstock, in their introduction to Radical Theology: A New Theology, published by Routledge in 1999, observe: “For several centuries
now, secularism has been defining and constructing the world. It is a world in which the theological is discredited or turned into a harmless leisure time activity of private commitment.” Radical theology desires to return to a commitment to credal Christianity and the contributions of patristic thought, while at the same time assailing Protestant biblicism (literal authority of scripture) and Roman Catholic positivist authoritarianism (control by magisterium), which were destructive directions of theology prior to and after the Age of the Enlightenment. We have ignored the insight of St. Augustine that all knowledge is divine illumination—a view that should have a powerful influence on how we incorporate into Christian theology the insights of DNA and genetic research, sociological insights, cultural studies, and our present comprehension of human sexual development. Orthodoxy depends absolutely upon scripture and tradition for the right belief which it offers to the faith community. The Age of the Enlightenment, which cannot be written off as totally bankrupt in our day, has confronted credal Christianity with scientific, cultural, and sociological insights so challenging that Christianity has been forced to direct its evangelism towards nay-sayers, skeptics, critics, cynics, doubters, and biblicists. While the consequences of the Enlightenment may appear to be fizzling out because of its religious and moral vacuity, its benefits of freedom, democracy, and individualism have given us a secularism and a pluralism as a challenge to a faith in which God redeems time and intends plurality. (The Tower of Babel story [Gen. 11:1–9] is an attempt on the part of Israel to answer the question of societal diversity.) Cultural, religious, and philosophical diversity challenges the —continued on page 19
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Crosswalk
Easter 2004
EVANGELISM in my own words evan•ge•lism \ n (ca. 1626): the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ. So says the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition.And what do you say? As we in the diocese continue our journey together, guided by the vision statement "One Body . . . One Mission . . . Changing Lives," more and more people are talking about evangelism and what exactly that means in the life of a faithful Christian—especially a faithful Christian of Anglican stripe in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.
Crosswalk wants to hear from you—your experiences, positive or negative, as evangelist or evangelized, your reflections on how we keep that promise made in the Baptismal Covenant to "proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ." Send your story to Crosswalk, 1115 Marion Street, Columbia, SC 20201, or to phill@edusc.org. All contributions must include author's name, home church, and contact information.
Making peace with the “E” word Evangelism should be second nature to us. When we experience joy, or good news, our natural inclination is to tell somebody—to share the joy with a loved one, a friend, a neighbor, or even a stranger.
By Angela M. Daniel
My first encounter with the “E” word was frightening enough to scar me for life! I was probably seven or eight years old and my grandmother (most definitely not an Episcopalian, bless her heart!) had invited my sister and me to accompany her to the Sumter County Fairgrounds. We assumed we were going for a ride on the merry-goround, but we were in for a surprise. Instead, our grandmother told us that we would experience an evening of “evangelism” with a well-known “evangelist”—the first time I remember hearing those words. The microphone was working quite well, but the man on the makeshift stage who was using a very loud voice would have been just fine without it. First he screamed that we were SINNERS; then he shouted
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that we were well on our way to HELL, where we would BURN, BURN, BURN, for all of eternity. Somewhere in there, I am sure, was a message of salvation, but we were too young and too frightened to hear it. It was to be many years before I heard the “E” word without running in the other direction.
“what you do with your feet . . .” Evangelism should be second nature to us. When we experience joy, or good news, our natural inclination is to tell somebody—to share the joy with a loved one, a friend, a neighbor, or even a stranger. Why, then, is it so hard for us to share the really Good News of the Gospel? One of the resolutions from General Convention that did not get any press is one related to our Church’s 20/20 Vision for Evangelism: to encourage all Episcopalians to share their faith stories. That sounds fairly simple if you are sharing those stories with folks already in church. The challenge is to open our doors and share those stories with the un-
churched, and that is precisely what we are called to do as one piece of evangelism. I once heard Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina say that evangelism is “what you do with your feet when you get out of your seat!” Obviously, he suggests something in addition to “talking” about our faith. Could he have been paraphrasing Jesus when he gave us the Great Commission? “Go . . . and make disciples. . . . ” The operative word is “go”—do something, take action, get out of your seat, live the Gospel! In our daily lives, that could mean teaching a child about the holy child who grew up to save us all; it could mean visiting someone who is sick in body or spirit and letting them know you are praying for them; it could mean participating in a mission trip and helping total strangers; or it could mean calling a friend who just does not “get that God thing” and inviting him or her to church. Every Episcopalian is familiar with the signs, billboards, and bumper stickers that read: “The
Episcopal Church Welcomes You.” At a recent gathering in the Diocese of Mississippi, Bishop Duncan Gray III suggested a less passive slogan: “The Episcopal Church Invites You.” Now, that is a piece of evangelism that we Southern Episcopalians should be able to do quite naturally—invite others to join us. The “E” word, then, is an exciting call to action. We need to grow our Church—not to become a “megachurch” but to change lives as ours have been changed through the joy of knowing God’s love. Each of us can find a way to “move our feet” and respond to Christ’s call to us in the Great Commission. Our bishop leads our diocese in a vision of inviting all people to become One Body with One Mission—Changing Lives. We can live into that vision together by making peace with the “E” word. Angela M. Daniel is a member of St. John’s, Columbia.
Crosswalk
Easter 2004
The Episcopal Church welcomed ME! What is it about the Episcopal Church that told you, you were “home”?
perhaps, the most important story of all as we as One Body seek to live into our One Mission, which is Changing Lives.
Send your story to Crosswalk, 1115 Marion Street, Whether you’re a cradle Episcopalian or a seeker who’s recently found
Columbia, SC 29201, or to phill@edusc.org. All contributions must
your place, Upper South Carolina wants to know your story.Yours is,
include author’s name, home church, and contact information.
A bear hug from God
By Dennis Lowe
My church life started out at St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Columbia, Illinois. (Most of you probably haven't heard of that denomination, as it is not active in South Carolina. UCC roots are in the Congregationalists and the Puritans, in case you've ever wondered what happened to those two churches.) Ours was a moderate to conservative congregation, but the denomination was, and is, a bit left of the Episcopal Church: They ordained an openly gay man to the ministry over 30 years ago. I attended that church until shortly before I joined the Army, and then I got caught up in "The Church of the Self" so popular in the 1980's. (Like it isn't now.) Then I met a young woman. She was divorced, and had a cute little girl. They went to St. Alban's on Lumpkin Road, in Augusta. That congregation was fairly evenly mixed racially, and that impressed me. The parishioners were very warm and welcoming, and I really enjoyed being a part of that community. I was also impressed with the beauty of the service. Our priest always sang the service. It brought back fond
memories of sneaking off to Mass with the Roman Catholic guys when we went on Boy Scout campouts. (They got to go by a convenience store, for junk food, after church.) The young woman and I got engaged, and I went to the inquirer's class, to prepare to be confirmed. The night before confirmation, the priest took me aside, and told me that he would not marry us, that it was a bad match. We talked, I agreed, she and I argued, and I got confirmed anyway. Church services were understandably uncomfortable after that, and I wandered off. I wandered back occasionally, for instance causing my sergeant major much anguish over my spending a military leave at an Episcopal monastery. (There was no phone number to put on the leave form.) I read, and I inquired, and (nearly) every time I stuck my head in
It was like getting hugged so hard I couldn't breathe. an Episcopal church in my travels, I was welcomed, but didn't build on it. I played in a brass group for a large Episcopal church, and became disillusioned with what seemed to me a cold and aloof attitude. Although I was firm in my convictions about the evils of organized religion, I still felt the old need as a seeker, and a new calling as a
The second Sunday I was there they leader. I went and found probably put me in a choir robe. When I have the most unorganized of churches — Universalist— and was ordained in it. I asked to do more, to offer my gifts, they have graciously accepted. When I ministered to the unchurched, letting felt a call back to ordained ministry, them stay where they were, thinking that was the greatest good for them and they agreed to invest the time and energy to work with me through myself. discernment. On the night the vestry Newberry has an active community voted formally to support me in the theater program, and a third to a half process, David Stewart told me “those of the actors in most productions are people love you quite a bit.” It was like from St. Luke's Episcopal Church. I getting hugged so hard I couldn't was in my third play with them, and breathe. my first big role (Daddy Warbucks in Yeah, I'd say the Episcopal Church Annie), when I met fellow thespian and welcomed me. St. Luke’s rector the Rev. David Stewart. We talked, during long Dennis Lowe is a member of St. Luke’s, stretches of waiting for the orphans to be told yet again how to do something. Newberry. I began to wonder how the Episcopal Church was doing without me there to shore it up, so, out of curiosity, I went to St. Luke’s. When I had been there a little while I went to Cursillo, where I met people from the “big church,” and realized that, had I worked at it just a little bit in the earlier days, I could have found something very similar to St. Luke's. That was a humbling RECTOR, I WANT YOU JUST AS LONG AS experience for which I'm TO KNOW I’M IN NONE OF THESE very grateful. FAVOR OF YOUR NEW PEOPLE SIT PLANS FOR CHURCH IN MY PEW. The people were and have GROWTH. remained so warm, inviting, Copyright © 2002.The Church Pension Fund. All rights reserved. friendly, and caring; Heaven can only differ in degree.
CHURCH LITE
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Easter 2004
Crosswalk
Making all things new As Easter people, who know, with St. Paul, that “all
things work together for good for those who love God”
(Rom. 8:28), we are
ever mindful of the call to seek the Good News—redemption and transforming power—in every moment and every movement of our lives, within ourselves and in the larger world. So, therefore, Crosswalk began to wonder what Upper South Carolinians might have to say about “God in all this” as response to the consecration of the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson continued to unfold. We asked two of those who served on Bishop Henderson’s General Convention Response Committee to give us their thoughts on transformation: Where is the “growing edge”—the redemption, the new life—that beckons to us all via recent event? Here’s what they had to say.
Allowing God to be in charge By Susie White All of us have experienced disappointment. Often that disappointment is the result of unmet expectations. We had our heart set on something, but that something did not happen, or maybe it happened, but not in the spectacular, beautiful, caring way that we had imagined that it should have occurred. There are also times when we are not even aware that we had an expectation until we realize that it has not been met. Joyfully, we also have experienced times when our hopes have been too faint, and we feel great joy and celebrate when our expectations are exceeded. For some of us, the issues confronting the Episcopal Church have been a challenge to our personal expectations for our Church. Others of us have been elated that our expectations were exceeded this summer at General Convention. How we have dealt with these expectations has been interesting. For many, our
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faith has been deepened as we look for God’s guidance in this struggle. I imagine that there has been more Bible study by individual members of the Episcopal Church since August than ever before! We have been learning more about ourselves and our neighbors as we have explored and discussed issues relating to human sexuality. I am quite confident that the number of Episcopalians who can name the Archbishop of Canterbury has increased exponentially. We also have a new understanding of the word “primate,” and we have a better knowledge of what it means to call ourselves Anglicans.
“Imagine yourself as a living house.” One of my favorite analogies included in C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity discusses our expectations about our relationship with God. He says, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house.” He goes on to describe the work that we would expect God to do in our “house” as he repairs leaks and drains and other problems of which we are aware. Lewis then describes some activities that we do not expect, and we begin to question what is going on as God “starts knocking the house about
in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.” He explains as follows: “[God] is building quite a different house from the one you thought of— throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little
We do not have copies of God’s architectural drawings for our lives. . . However, this uncertainty on our part provides an opportunity for personal growth and challenges us to strengthen our faith. cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” We are being transformed! We do not have copies of God’s architectural drawings for our lives. This is a distressing thought for those of us who like to feel as if we are in control of the direction of our lives or, at a minimum, desire to see the path clearly ahead of us. However, this uncertainty on our part provides an
opportunity for personal growth and challenges us to strengthen our faith. As we are being transformed (and I do believe it is a lifelong process), we learn more about ourselves, and we strive daily to accept the fact that we must rely on God and allow him to mold us and shape us.
Where is God in all this? We may not have God’s “house plans” for us in our hands; however, as we study his Word, we see that, in fact, he does show us the direction in which he is taking us. It is in the Holy Scriptures that we are able to learn about God’s expectations for our lives as disciples of Christ. It is there that we have a glimpse of what design God has for our lives. I pray for a willingness to be transformed and a growing faith to allow God to be in charge of the transformation, even though I cannot know exactly where the process may lead me. I trust joyfully that the designs God has for my life are far better than any that I may conceive of on my own. May God’s grace be ever present in my life as the transformation takes place. Susie White is a member of Christ Church, Greenville.
Crosswalk
Easter 2004
. . . in the Church Giving goodness a chance By Lucy Rollin I don’t like change. The older I get the more I fear that something else is going to change tomorrow—the road to my house, what my husband will or won’t eat, the skin around my eyes, the price of a postage stamp. And I know I’m not alone. Probably the underlying reason for the popularity of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, and of the mystique of the Grail, is its seductive hint that there really is something immutable—a chalice, some old bones, a word or a symbol. But words and symbols change in translation, or become lost over time. Bones turn to dust. Metals oxidize. I like to think of the Church as a refuge from change, but of course that is a delusion. I take comfort in the apparently unchanging liturgy, but a visit to an 8 a.m. service instead of my usual 10:30 one, or a quick glance at the less-thumbed pages of The Book of Common Prayer in my pew, shows me that things don’t stay the same. The Gospels themselves record a multitude of changes—in people, in environments, in policy. Having just finished a three-year vestry term, I am only too familiar with the kinds of transformations that must take place if an individual church is to survive.
Translate this into thousands of churches, with millions of communicants: The Church is a great, surging human phenomenon that must change to live—just as all that lives must change. Even the very foundation of the Church is itself the most amazing transformation of all: full divinity into full humanity; death, resurrection, eternal life.
Changing the light bulb So I wonder why we as a Church fear change. Even while we feel the impulse to “move on,” we have a visceral need to stop where are. The old joke about the number of Episcopalians it takes to change a light bulb probably has us nailed. (The answer is six: one to screw in the new bulb, five to stand around explaining why the old one was better.) Perhaps it’s all in the timing. When I had the honor last fall of serving on Bishop Henderson’s General Convention Response Committee (GCRC), I saw that those who expressed turmoil and anger believed that an unwarranted, cataclysmic change had been thrust upon them. But I also saw the tentative balance of feelings in those who believed that the Convention’s actions were the latest in a gradual series of thoughtful transformations that were probably inevitable; in some I saw unalloyed joy that the Church is alive to possibility and still striving for inclusiveness. In a New York Times Magazine interview of January 4, 2004, the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, describes his
struggle with his decision to consent to the election of the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson. Bishop Lee’s is a story of gradual change over many years regarding racial and sexual discrimination, a quiet but deep personal transformation through various avenues of thought, prayer, consultation with others, and immersion in scripture, resulting in his certainty that the Church was meant to be inclusive. The article’s description of the actions of his angry parishioners was very disturbing. But Bishop Lee’s own gentle journey inspired and comforted me. When the risks of change are balanced by a respect for (but not a veneration of) the past, the result can be
Where is the redemption in all this? Where it always is in Christianity: in kindness and love for one another. In approaching every conflict in a spirit of forgiveness. In recognizing the goodness in all of us. In giving that goodness a chance to reveal itself over time. healthy transformation. The statement that emerged from the GCRC tensions (www.edusc.org/GeneralConvention/
was an effort to re-establish a balance between stasis and transformation. It acknowledged, to my way of thinking, that some change—gradual change—is necessary if the Church is to remain alive and able to fulfill its mission. We now know that constant, imperceptible cellular changes keep our own bodies healthy and stable. We know that a little regular exercise is healthier than strenuous training once in a while. We know that a nourishing daily diet over the long haul is more effective than crash diets. St. Paul would, I think, still find his metaphor apt: If the Church is to remain the healthy body of Christ, it must make allowance for small changes and avoid the ecclesiastical equivalent of a crash diet.
Where is God in all this? Where is the redemption in all this? Where it always is in Christianity: in kindness and love for one another. In approaching every conflict in a spirit of forgiveness. In recognizing the goodness in all of us. In giving that goodness a chance to reveal itself over time. Unlike the oxidation of metal or the decay of old bones—or even the state’s road works projects—you and I can control these principles of change. Without them, change happens anyway—usually painfully. But through them, and only through them, we can experience healthy transformation, and the joy of being truly alive.
GCRCStatementFromClergyConference 2003.shtml),
as adopted by our diocesan convention in October 2003,
Lucy Rollin is a member of Holy Trinity, Clemson.
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Easter 2004
Crosswalk Transforming congregations
Upper SC coaches lead churches though four-step process By Pam Steude Churches in our diocese are being transformed through a new four-step process facilitated by a team of “congregational development coaches.” Congregational coaches are trained lay people who come into a congregation to work with the leadership to develop a plan for that particular church’s ministry. These coaches take the time to listen intentionally to the history of the church and take what is heard to help create a vision and strategic plan for the church’s future ministry. This process can be used for congregations simply seeking direction or congregations in transition, such as those in a search process, but the entire process must be deeply rooted in the identity of the church or the planning will not work. The first step in the process is to identify the core values and identity of a congregation. This half-day activity usually involves about 24 people, including the vestry, staff, and key leaders who gather to consider why the church was created, its unique contributions to the community, and how it differs from other churches. If this process works, it results in a core values statement by the church, which leads to the second step. Once again a group of leaders within the congregation gathers to examine what their particular church is uniquely called to do. To begin this process, the group starts by looking at what scripture tells us to do to carry out our Lord’s Great Commission, in particular. The result of this work is a mission statement, which adds a sense of identity to the active call. Both of these steps reflect the present state of the church.
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The third step is visioning what the church will look like three to five years in the future. For this step to be effective it must involve the entire congregation or at least 10 to 25 percent of the average Sunday attendance. In this step all aspects of the church—worship, Christian formation, outreach, the facilities, and so on—are examined. When this step is completed the church should have a blueprint of what the congregation is trying to build. The fourth and final step is to take the vision, break it into goals and formulate a strategic plan. In other words, it is taking a tactical plan and putting the vision into reality. This plan includes the specifics of how the congregation actually accomplishes the goals that have been set. Belton Zeigler, a Columbia attorney and member of Trinity Cathedral, is the diocesan coordinator for the congregational coaches and is passionate about helping congregations get a clearer vision of who they are and what they are called to do. “When you do the visioning process with a congregation, you see people begin to dream. And as they begin to dream, tremendous energy, commitment, and enthusiasm are generated,” says Zeigler. ‘The results of this process allow new leaders to step forward in congregations.” As part of a search process, the coaches enable the church to understand itself better so that the members can articulate more accurately what fundamental requirements are necessary in calling the next priest. The Diocese of Texas, for example, requires this process as part of a congregation’s search process. “When a church is in conflict,” says Zeigler, “the best medicine is a shared sense of a calling bigger than themselves. Focusing on a vision helps a congregation to move more quickly out
Upper SC congregational coaches pose with Bishop Henderson as their mission gets under way. Front row (kneeling): Jim Neuberger, Russell Stall, Dick Jones. Back row: Carol Dobbins, Duncan Ely, Blount Shepard, coaches’ trainer Mary MacGregor, Jonathan Greiser, Bishop Henderson, Dick Dobbins, Mark Abdelnour, Joan Green, David Thompson, Belton Zeigler, Chris Lehi, and Bobby Love.
of conflict and to concentrate on its calling or mission.” When a congregation in conflict focuses on its mission, then the opportunity for hope, perspective, and healing arrives. The information gained in the coaching process can be integrated into all aspects of congregational life, including lay leadership programs and clergy development. It is also a very helpful tool kit for clergy deployment, ordination discernment, and any other decision a church will be making. Ideally, in fact, the vision becomes the basis for every single decision that the church makes. Mark Abdelnour, one of the current group of 13 coaches and a member of St. Simon & St Jude, Irmo says, “The real work is done by the congregation. We are facilitators not conflict resolution mediators. Our job is to vision and to help make strategic plans for the future mission of a parish. The actual fruits of the labor will be seen down the road.” Abdelnour explains that St. Simon & St. Jude came to the process early because their former priest, Lynne Jones, knew Mary McGregor from the Diocese of Texas who came to The Great Gathering in 2002 to present a workshop on visioning and congregational development. It was after that workshop that the diocese hired her to train a cadre
of people to become congregational coaches. The education for these coaches took place over several months of weekend training sessions. Senior warden of St. Simon& St. Jude, Ernest van Horn, claims that, without the visioning process, the congregation would still be struggling. “It helped to focus attention on the proper things.” There are 12 congregations currently involved in the visioning process, and the word so far is that there are a great many things a congregation can learn about itself by undertaking the exercise. Those churches that have gone through the process generally experience an energizing of the congregation and more involvement from those people who may have been on the fringe. The diocesan congregational development coaches are available to meet with vestries to discuss the process and to provide answers to questions the church might have about initiating the development process. There is a nominal fee per session for the four to six sessions necessary to complete the process. Congregations interested in engaging in this process or obtaining more information about this transformational tool should contact Belton Zeigler, bzeigler@zeiglerllc.com, 803.787.7055. Pam Steude, former editor of Crosswalk, is a member of St. Francis of Assisi, Chapin
Crosswalk
Easter 2004
Transformation at work
The Diocesan School for Ministry By Duncan C. Ely “Our classes have been a great environment, a great place, a great laboratory for transformation.” —Andrea Blake
The School for Ministry is one of Upper South Carolina’s best-kept secrets for lay people looking for some convenient, stimulating, and transforming learning experiences. The school’s attentiongetting brochures and posters have the heading “Bread for the journey . . . Find it at The School for Ministry.” They describe the school as the diocese’s “newest Christian formation opportunity for lay persons seeking personal growth or training for a variety of ministries, clergy engaged in life-long learning, and for individuals preparing for ordained ministry.” The school did not originate at Diocesan House. Several years ago people on the local level saw a need for such a school and worked to put it into the diocese’s long-range plan. The school itself is a work in progress. It is growing and changing to meet the needs of Upper South Carolina Episcopalians, particularly the laity. And its students and faculty are a work in progress as they grow personally, train for a variety of ministries, or engage in continuing education. True to the transformational message of the Gospels, the School for Ministry seeks to be an agent for change. Its mission is “to inspire, equip, and empower disciples to make disciples and change lives.” It provides classes on the Bible, Church history, liturgy, spiritual formation, and other interesting and relevant topics at its Upstate and Midlands campuses. It has already helped many people transform their
faith, their lives and their ministries—a living reminder of the diocesan mission statement: “One Body . . . One Mission: Changing Lives.” The majority of students have been clergy—deacons and priests—or people working to discern a call to the ordained ministry. But that should change soon. Lay people have given the School for Ministry Task Group feedback on what offerings they want and need. Its chair, the Rev. Bob Chiles, points out that the curriculum is undergoing transformation. “To attract more lay students and to feed them,” Chiles says, “the school will be offering mid-week and weekend courses—some of which will be one-day courses—with titles such as ‘Mary Magdalene: Truth and Fiction’; ‘Fundamentalism: From Baghdad to Batesburg’; ‘The Bible and Sexuality’; ‘The Passion According to Luke’; ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls: What Do They Have to Say to Us Today?’; and ‘Theology of Ministry.’” Additional possibilities are “David and Bathsheba” and “The Ten Commandments.” “The curriculum is a work in progress,” Chiles emphasizes, “and we are always interested in feedback from people about what offerings they would like to see.” The Rev. Beth Ely taught “Christian Spirituality I” at the school. She describes her class as “an opportunity for lay people who are hungry for knowledge to learn and experience the field of Christian spirituality.” The students tried out some spiritual disciplines connected with the teaching, and had reading assignments, a paper, and interaction with faculty and fellow students. Ely notes that, “A good community forms among the students, and they get a lot of encouragement, feedback, and support from each other.” One of Ely’s students, Andrea Blake, says, “The things I took away from my classes turned out to be the ones that have been transforming in my life.” Blake particularly remembers an exercise
Watch for these (and other) new one-day offerings! • Mary Magdalene:Truth and Fiction • Fundamentalism: From Baghdad to Batesburg • The Bible and Sexuality
on meditation and prayer. The students practiced the same centering prayer in three different positions: orans (standing with hands outstretched), kneeling, and lying prostrate (face down with arms stretched out). “It was awesome experiencing prayer and the differences that spiritual attitude and physical position make,” Blake remembers. “It was a changing experience.” She thought studying Western spirituality and the lives of the saints was eye-opening. “Most of us picked uncommon saints to write our papers on,” Blake says. “We all had a blast!” Dennis Lowe has also taken several courses. “The classes transformed me back into a student again,” Lowe
remembers. “Bible I” and “II” with the Rt. Rev. Rogers Harris, retired bishop of Southwest Florida, and “Liturgy” with the Rev. Tom Davis were good experiences for him. “It was a real treat to study with Bishop Harris,” Lowe says. “And even more transforming than the actual classes were the classmates.” Lowe remembers the sense of community that develops within each class. Mark Abdelnour, another student, says, “I feel I have been sleepwalking through my faith all of my life.” He describes his courses as “an alarm clock that wakes me out of my sleepwalk, and forces me to examine why I belong to this Church.” He says his classes have transformed his life as a Christian. Talking about his “Sunday Christianity,” he explains that “learning that the Great Thanksgiving wasn’t just some hoo-ha that Marion Hatchett or even Cramner came up with was HUGE for me. It is definitely more powerful knowing that these words have been said for 18 centuries. After 49 years as an Episcopalian, I am hearing these words [from the Eucharist] again for the first time.” —continued on page 17
Jim Neuberger (St. Mary’s, Columbia) and Annette Bethel (St. Simon & St. Jude, Irmo) study liturgy under School for Ministry instructor the Rev. Canon Michael Sullivan (Trinity Cathedral, Columbia).
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Easter 2004
Crosswalk
Book review
One man’s transforming ministry
Genius manifests itself often in individuals who are willing to allow their passion and their life to become one and inseparable—the artist who
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, by Tracy Kidder. New York: Random House, 2003.
Reviewed by the Rev. D. Eric Schnaufer Genius manifests itself often in individuals who are willing to allow their passion and their life to become one and inseparable—the artist who lives for his art, the writer who lives to write, and for Paul Farmer, medical doctor, Ph.D. anthropologist, Harvard professor, infectious disease specialist, world authority on drug resistant TB—it is being a doctor ministering to the dismissed and forgotten in this world. A co-worker and one- time love interest of Farmer’s, Ophelia Dahl, wrote him when he proposed, “My inability to promise a life with you, as your wife, does not stem from a lack of love or deep, deep commitment to you. . . . You pointed out to me once, during an emotional argument, that the qualities I love in you—that drew me to you—also cause me to resent you: namely your unswerving commitment to the poor, your limitless schedule and your massive compassion for others. You were right, and, as your wife, I would place my own emotional needs in the way of your important vision; a vision whose impact upon the poor (and the rest of us) can’t be exaggerated. . . .”
Unswerving commitment, world significance Those of us in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina who have met, known, and worked with Paul Farmer over the years are well aware of that unswerving
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commitment and compassion. We forget, however, how prominent Farmer is on the world medical stage. It is only when we see him on TV’s “60 Minutes,” or see him portrayed as a modern hero on the back cover of Reader’s Digest, or see him as the subject of this book by Pulitzer prize-winning author Tracy Kidder do we begin truly to comprehend his importance and the world significance of his work growing out of our shared ministry with him in Cange, Haiti. How Paul Farmer, who grew up in an old bus formerly used as a mobile TB clinic and later on a boat, came to reach such heights is interesting, but not nearly as fascinating as how his work, which began Haiti, and in which our diocese has played an important role, has spread around the world. Along with Dr. Jim Kim and Thomas White, a benefactor, Farmer founded Partners in Health, an organization devoted to bringing health care to the poor, and together they have tackled HIV and tuberculosis, especially that strain which is drug resistant. These two formidable diseases often go hand in hand with each other and with poverty, and Farmer and his associates have revolutionized the way the sufferers are treated worldwide.
lives for his art, the writer who lives to write, and for Paul Farmer, medical doctor, Ph.D. anthropologist, Harvard professor, infectious disease specialist, world authority on drug resistant TB—it is being a doctor ministering to the dismissed and forgotten in this world. still going to make these hikes . . . because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you’re saying that their lives matter less than some others’, and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.” It is also what feeds and energizes this remarkable man and doctor. Mountains Beyond Mountains is especially interesting reading because of our diocesan connection with Farmer, Partners in Health, and Cange, Haiti. But more than that, it is an important account of how a single individual can truly change the world. Kidder’s book gives a particularly good insight into Farmer’s call of ministry upon us as he helps us realize more and more that we have obligations to the poor, whether
they are the poor in Haiti or in our own backyard, because we in our blindness and greed have contributed to these horrendous conditions and situations. Nevertheless, Farmer never dwells on blame—it is the cure he is seeking and holds before us all to help accomplish. It is that cure that gives his life its drive and total focus. “You’re like a nestless bird,” Ti Jean, maintenance man at Cange, tells Farmer. “Where is my nest?” Farmer asks. “Your nest is Haiti,” says Ti Jean. “You go everywhere, but this is your base.” Let us pray it will remain an important base for the Diocese of Upper South Carolina in the years to come as well. The Rev. D. Eric Schnaufer is rector of St. Peter’s, Greenville.
Changing lives, one on one Yet for all his global work, Farmer never strays far from his base—treating patients one on one. This respected medical authority who lectures to gatherings of prominent specialists, who struggles and fights the bureaucracies of governments and the medical profession, still takes time to hike for hours through the mountains of central Haiti to see a handful of patients. He is criticized for such attention to individuals when he could be devoting that time to “more important” work. The book’s author, Tracy Kidder, observes, however: “He’s
Paul Farmer attends to a young patient (photo: Mark Rosenberg, MD. Copyright 2001 © Partners In Health. All rights reserved. Used with permission).
Crosswalk
30 BELOW!
( YO U T H & YO U N G A D U LT S )
Easter 2004
W a n d e r i n g s By Duncan C. Ely
Two takes on transformation . . .
here & now
Belonging to the community . . . one step at a time By Hayley Moore
Transformation is creating something old into something new and "transformed." My spiritual walk with Christ is a transformation that has grown tremendously throughout my high school career. I began doing youth events in middle school but, mainly used them as social events rather then getting-to-know-God events. Then, I hit high school and Youth Council for the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina. From the moment I agreed to participate on Youth Council, my spiritual transformation began. Planning events, being part of events, and just hearing about events that I was a part of in the diocese made me so proud to be considered a Christian and Episcopalian. My love for the Church and my thirst for knowledge within the Church have been avenues of enormous transformation, taking me to where I am today. Today, I am proud to say I have participated in over 800 service hours, been on DYLC (Youth Council got a new name, Diocesan Youth Leadership Commission), and am set on going to a Christian university in NC. Transformation for me was going from a middle school kid looking to fit in somewhere to a high school teen ready to take on the world one step at a time. Hayley Moore is a member of St. David’s and a senior at Ridge View High School, Columbia.
God where least expected By Abi White Smells, dirt, garbage—piles and piles of garbage. All I could see when I got out of the car were mounds of dirt and heaps of garbage here and there. I had gone to visit my friend Cameron Graham, a parishioner from Church of the Advent, Spartanburg, now engaged in missionary work in Quito, Ecuador. We had begun the day in the city of Quito, with a shower and breakfast in our stomachs. And then we went to call on the families who live in the city's dump. Their day did not begin the same way: for them, there was no running water, no homey morning meal. Most everything we did that day was different from what those families would need to do. But we shared, somehow, a moment of transformation and grace—the grace of presence, the grace of God’s love. When Cameron and I hopped out of the car to say hello to the family, we interrupted their work, but their faces beamed with smiles of hello and greetings—to Margarita (Cameron) and to her friend from the States. There was conversation and catching up and hugs all around. Warm embraces welcomed me to their home. We had interrupted their day and been greeted with love and friendship. Cameron and I continued the day with a tour of the dump (a plot of land a mile and a half long by mile wide) and a visit to one of the local schools. But the day had been transformed. Life in a dump. And in that dump I saw love, I saw hope, I saw living. There was hardship, runny noses that wouldn't stop, flies that swarmed, families that were large, but there was also a sense of joy. God's presence was there and in that I believe transformation occurs.
Not all who wander are lost. —J. R. R. Tolkien We all find ourselves wandering—roaming or traveling without a settled course— from time to time on our journeys as Christians. Our families and our society teach us that our lives should be purposeful and full of direction, and that wandering implies being aimless. But if we look at our Old Testament heritage, we see that God encourages—even requires—us to wander. Led by Moses and Aaron, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness between their Exodus from Egypt and sight of their Promised Land. God sustained them with manna and water and was ever present during their wanderings toward God to receive the Ten Commandments and away from God to worship a golden calf. Seen in this light, our own wanderings become necessary as Sabbath times and can become periods of reflection and cleansing. Like the Israelites, we question, we find answers, we are afraid, we find peace, we become seduced by our own golden calves, we hear God’s will for us. “Wanderings” is a series of meditations to encourage us to make use of this wandering—this wilderness time—in a productive, reflective, cleansing way and to be open to God’s honing influences. First in the series is “Wandering as transformation.” Look for others in subsequent Crosswalks.
Wandering as transformation The spirit of Christ wanders with us during the good and the bad. —The Rev. Gordon Straw Events in our lives don’t just happen. They transform us. The birth of a child, a marriage, a graduation, the death of a loved one all have an impact on who we are. Wandering can be transforming, too. A simple act or something of longer duration can provide the space and the catalyst for transformation. Taking a walk or a few days off, or going on a retreat or a sabbatical, can give us an opportunity to grow. My work as a congregational coach in Upper South Carolina is an apt analogy for wandering as transformation. The congregation and I start our journey by wandering around together to get to know each other, much the way people who like each other start doing things together. They don’t plan exactly what they will do, for how long, and precisely when. They just start. So the congregation and I wander. Though we hope for certain results, we’re not always sure precisely what path will get us there. When we have sized each other up and agree to work together, we begin to wander off together more intentionally. We pick a series of different paths as catalysts for change. We start by looking at the core values that shape who we are. Next, we create a short and challenging mission statement that expresses our unique contribution to building up the kingdom of God. Then we assess the current ministries, gifts, and talents God has given us to achieve our mission. After that, we dream about where God wants us to go and what God wants us to do. We put that dream into words. Finally, we develop a detailed vision path or strategic plan that will get us from where we are now to where God wants us to be. The process sounds tightly organized, and we do have an outline. But wandering adds another dimension, and frees us to visit places the Holy Spirit leads us to that might not be on the map. O God of wanderers and wandering, help us to know your presence as we wander; keep us open to your will as we journey; remind us to trust you to lead us where you would have us go; and protect us during our transformations. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, whose times of wandering and transformation were always in your care. Amen.
Abi White is youth minister for Church of the Advent, Spartanburg.
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Easter 2004
Crosswalk
S
piritual
Navigation
Guiding the Church
By Thomas G. Bandy
Both congregational and denominational leaders are wrestling with issues that threaten to fracture the church and undermine mission multiplication. I call the overarching, anguishing, controversial, complex, and multifaceted issues “The Great Ambiguities In Our Times,” or “GambITs.” Such issues obsess the public and/or the Church for decades. And decades later they have all but disappeared from heated conversation, only to morph into another form a century later. When was the last time you participated in heated debate on such Church-splitting, mission-destroying “GambITs” as . . . • The second repentance of Roman collaborators; • The divine right of kings; • Whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only, or from the Father and the Son; • The family rights of priests; • The independence of universities; • The practice of charging interest on loans; • The legitimacy of the stock market? Today’s “GambITs” cause the same fistfights in public taverns and floor-fights in denominational gatherings. They include . . . • Sexual orientation and same-sex unions; • Unilateral military intervention; • Whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from Christ only, or from a larger experience of God; • The boundaries between private life and sexual exploitation; • The independence of seminaries; • The practice of charging high fees (or high taxes) for medical treatment; • The accountability of multinational corporations.
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These are only a few, of course, but leaders today may learn a few things from the leaders of yesterday.
The hidden, deeper risk of cultural accommodation No matter what side you are on amid the great fistfights and floor-flights of today’s dogmatic and ideological “GambITs,” each side accuses the other of cultural accommodation. The irony is that all sides have already accommodated to culture in a hidden way. North American culture is all about power struggles. Our culture assumes that if a faction (political party, lobby group, or any agency with an agenda) can simply gain control of a bureaucracy (government, board, or any agency that votes), they can legislate it into being their particular version of Utopia. It doesn’t matter whether you are on the left, right, or somewhere inbetween, everybody has already caved in to that cultural assumption. Therefore, the first lesson from the great Church leaders of history is to avoid this accommodation to culture. Lives will not be transformed and society will not experience lasting change simply because a congregation or denomination has voted, spoken to the media, reprinted curricula, shifted representation in committees, or sent memos to all staff. Real change is never, ever, top-down. It always emerges in its own time from the prayer and conversation of ordinary people on the sidewalk and amid the grassroots of everyday living. Great Church leaders have always realized that there are in fact three kinds of people caught up in any “GAmbIT.” There are people on the left, people on the right . . . and people for whom the polarization established by the left and right does not define their existence! These are not blind people who need to have their consciousness raised, but people whose meaning and destiny in life are not
determined by the debate. Moreover, great Church leaders also realize that the ultimate resolution of any “GAmbIT” will come neither from the left nor the right, but from that third group of people. Now here is the hidden, deeper risk of cultural accommodation. The more Church leaders allow the left and the right of any “GAmbIT” to dominate their attention, the more their organization will become irrelevant to that third group of people who in fact hold the key to the future.
The top five strategies of spiritual navigation Choose whatever white-water-rafting, reef-avoiding, or obstacle-circumventing metaphor you like. If you let the left/right debate on any “GAmbIT” determine your organizational planning, you will capsize, shipwreck, or be upside down in a ditch. Learn from the great ones in the past . . . 1. Elevate the mystery of Christ over the need for uniformity of opinion.
Time and again, the great Church leaders returned to the Chalcedon Confession as the only absolute in their faith: Jesus Christ, fully human and fully divine, irrational paradox, but crucial for abundant life. Whatever ambiguities keep you up at night, you will always have integrity if you cling to the experiential relationship with Jesus. That relationship will always lead you to humility and compassion. Leaders talk about that experiential relationship all the time. They are never content with any rational formulation of it. They never expect to fully understand it, nor do they expect anyone else to precisely imitate it. They do, however, recognize and reward those who bear the authentic fruits of that relationship. The Church was not expected to “hold the line” of dogmatic or ideological purity but to “cross the line” in humility and compassion. That’s what Jesus did.
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Easter 2004
through the great ethical ambiguities a 2. Prioritize mission over public policy. Time and again, the great leaders returned the Church to its fundamental mission to help people experience the transforming power of God and walk with Christ as disciples. Even in the “Christendom” world of supposed Christian influence, they realized that no government, corporation, union, healthcare institution, or club would care about Church pronouncements unless it was in its self-interest to do so. Imagine how the pagan world of today reacts! So the great leaders of the past simply refused to be driven by the sociopolitical agendas of any group, no matter how altruistic. The experience of God’s transforming power and process of that walk with Jesus could take individuals and congregations in many different directions (perhaps even unexpected and distasteful for the leaders who started it), but the reason for being the Church is the mission itself. 3. Emphasize spiritual life over program development. Time and again, the great Church leaders shifted their stewardship priorities toward coaching and spiritual life and away from developing programs, properties, and curricula. Program development presumes a certainty about choices and a confidence about strategic planning that is absent in the face of great ambiguities. So they do not put their money into them. Instead, they model and coach the spiritual life, even as the early monastic leaders did in the disintegration of the Roman Empire. If you want to find wisdom, Evagrius said, don’t hold a meeting. Dedicate yourself to contemplation of the
Incarnation, self-disciplined and distraction-free reflection on scripture, and a lifestyle oriented to seven acts of mercy: a. Feeding the hungry . . . those who yearn for physical nourishment and future hope; b. Providing drink for the thirsty . . . those who yearn for growth and deep spirituality; c. Clothing the naked . . . those who yearn for safety and respect; d. Visiting the sick . . . those who yearn for health in every way; e. Housing for homeless . . . those who yearn for roots and relationships; f. Ransoming captives . . . those who yearn to be rescued from poverty, violence, or addiction; g. Honoring the dead . . . those who yearn to overcome death and dying with faith. Contemplation leads to reflection, reflection leads to compassion, and compassion leads you right back into contemplation again. The desert fathers knew how to eliminate anything from their lifestyle that held them back from this simple life. 4. Nurture credible spiritual leadership instead of manipulating parliamentary process.Time and again, the great Church leaders responded to crisis by postponing conventions, conferences, and councils. Instead they selectively gathered a chosen, gifted few for prayer, mutual mentoring, and discerning dialogue. They used the above three principles as their criteria for choosing. Their views on any given “GAmbIT” were irrelevant. They were chosen because of their elevation of Christ over control, their priority for mission over public policy,
and their personal emphasis of spiritual life over program development. The last thing great leaders want to do is call a representational meeting and take a vote. They will not demean themselves by lobbying the power groups and manipulating the debate. They slowly build the credibility of handpicked spiritual leaders. These, in turn, mentor other spiritual leaders. And, in the end, the Church can live with disagreement and the public can respect controversial decisions because the leaders are credible, believable, and trustworthy.
5. Listen to “street smarts” instead of “front-office obfuscation.” Time and again, the great Church leaders left the office incognito and mingled with ordinary people within and beyond the Church. They did not simply read reports, study sociological expertise, dialogue with academicians, consult professionals, or download statistics in the safety of the head office. They spent more time with amateurs than experts, thus immersing themselves among micro-cultures with whom they did not commonly interact. Street talk is straight talk. It communicates more common sense, honest acceptance of diversity, and simple kindness for one’s neighbor than is found in most boardrooms, judicatory conferences, and church meetings. People in the front office are usually trying to sell you something. They will package a perspective, market a memory, or craft a concept—all to be very persuasive to the unwitting church leader handcuffed to desk and itinerary. But the real test of truth is out there, among the many micro-cultures of the world.
These five strategies of spiritual navigation give no guarantees that your ship will not be rocked by storms. “GambITs” are like hurricanes in a season of “El Niño.” Such hurricanes come and go, only to redevelop a century later on a different coastline. Individuals and churches will be lost overboard . . . but the missional movement embodied in your particular church organization can continue to thrive. Understand this. “Prophetic leadership” is not what is needed amid the great ethical ambiguities in our times. “Prophetic leadership” simply positions itself on the left or the right of any given issue. It rails, pontificates, manipulates, coerces, intimidates, “guilts out,” and generally seeks to control a desired outcome. What is needed is “Sentinel leadership.” Sentinel leadership declares a larger vision of mystery, mission, and hope that awaits its own time. “Sentinel leadership” creates a climate of waiting, listening, reflecting, testing, and enduring until such time as the Spirit elicits a resolution to crisis from the hearts of ordinary people. It is very difficult to be a “Sentinel leader.” Just consider that for every one of the few “great Church leaders” of the past, many hundreds were frankly not so great. These were not bad people. They failed to be great because they stooped to the power politics that typifies culture. They were not Christ-centered enough, mission-driven enough, lifestyle-disciplined enough, credibly mentoring enough, or attentive enough to the Spirit’s moving among ordinary folks. But if you can do it . . . if you can endure it . . . great Church leaders can do great things in the name of Christ. Thomas G. Bandy is senior editor of Net Results, a magazine offering “new ideas for vital ministries.” This article is reprinted by permission from Net Results, www.netresults.org.
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Easter 2004
Crosswalk BODY
P • A• R• T• S
PARISH PROFILE
Church of the Redeemer, Greenville By Christina Laurel
Who: Church of the Redeemer. Parish. Reedy River Convocation. 120 Mauldin Road, P.O. Box 9398, Greenville, South Carolina 29604, 864. 277.4562, www.churchoftheredeemer.com. Average Sunday attendance 170. Rector: The Rev. Richard Norman; deacon: The Rev. Carolee S. Quinn; intern: Dr. Jonathan Grieser.
Where: The church is situated on the top of a knoll a quarter-mile from Exit 46 of Hwy. I-85, and to the north, a quarter-mile from Augusta Road. Redeemer serves parishioners who come from a 10+ mile radius, a great many from Mauldin and Simpsonville, referred to as the “Golden Strip.” A Greenville County Library is under construction literally in the backyard, with a resultant sharing of 90 additional parking spaces for the church, and increased visibility in the community.
When: In 1951 the diocese determined that a church would be propitious to serve those stationed at the now inactive Donald Airbase. The Rev. John T. Harrison was called as Church of the Redeemer 's first rector, and the first service was held at the Buckhorn Fishing Camp at Paris Mountain State Park on June 3, 1951, where Bishop Gravatt celebrated Holy Eucharist with 87 in attendance.
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Worship services were initially held in Augusta Circle School; ground was broken on July 7, 1952. Church of the Redeemer was the first Episcopal Church to be built in Greenville in more than 40 years. On September 7, 1952, the first worship service was held in the new building that has since been named Purser Hall in honor of the Rev. J. Philip Purser, rector from 1981–2000.
The current church building was completed in 1958, gutted by fire in 1969, and renovated/reopened in 1970. Another renovation of the sanctuary (including the unique and beautiful baldachino over the altar), nave, and narthex was completed in 1991; in 2003 the exterior was painted, gutters repaired, stained-glass windows protected; a commercial kitchen was installed (by parishioners), and informational signs were placed.
Why:
“We are a welcoming church.” Located in an upwardly mobile suburban area, there is a large turnover every three to five years, with a fluctuating attendance that results from competing secular/extracurricular activities and families that travel a great deal. “The vestry is young in age and in years of attachment to this parish,” states Father Richard—as he prefers to be addressed. “We pray, play, and work together.” Although their vision/action plan has been in place since before his arrival, Fr. Richard states that “it was so big, the parish [of 485 baptized
Rector and chef extraordinaire the Rev. Richard Norman, at home in Redeemer’s kitchen
members] couldn’t get their hands around it.” This summer, they are going back to the drawing board to look at “core values, who we are, who we are called to be.” During the summer of 2002, the rector organized an awareness exercise, inviting vestry members to walk the campus one July evening in the guise of “a visitor.” This and the church’s commitment to congregational development led to the establishment of a greeter program, complete with magnetic nametags, and refreshments served after both the 8:00 and 10:30 a.m. Rite II services. Formerly, refreshments were available after only the early service but, as Fr. Richard states, “Where would a newcomer meet us after the 10:30 a.m. service?”
How: The mission statement, “A community celebrating, sharing and serving Christ, the Redeemer” is mirrored in every aspect of parish life. Church of the Redeemer celebrates by eating together, welcoming children, involving youth in every Sunday’s worship, and at the annual retreat at Kanuga. The guilds of St. Cecilia, of St. Margaret, and of St. Blase provide female fellowship; a men’s group does the same for their gender. Friends Eating And Socializing Together (FEAST) was started in 1993 so that members could become acquainted in a comfortable small setting over dinner; a large group FEAST dinner takes place in February/August. Fourth Friday
Crosswalk
Parish Profile—continued from page 16 Fellowship offers parishioners a monthly venue for food and fun at members’ homes. Fr. Richard “loves cooking,” and he and his wife Adrienne have cooked for more than 80 (with the help of some parishioners) at the Passover/Seder meal in 2002, and on May15, 2003— the rector’s 10th ordination anniversary— he treated the parish to crawfish etoufée, a culinary treat from his home parish in Louisiana. And there is also the church cookbook: Let Us Keep the Feast— Food from the Foothills of South Carolina. Sharing and serving, or “servanthood,” is facilitated by the rector, the deacon, the youth minister, and parishioners. Members of the youth group volunteered at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in New York City; others, Habitat style, have helped build St. Philip’s (Greenville) new worship space; tutor children from the nearby Pleasant Valley housing project; and mentored Hispanic professionals (many
of them from Colombia) in career transition. Redeemer teens have traveled to a work camp in Puerto Rico to repair weather-damaged homes, and the congregation also participates in annual mission trips to Casa Hogar in Serdan, Mexico, where the number one priority is to “love the children” in the home, and then to address needs such as repairing water lines, running electrical lines, and building a pen for the goats the church purchased. Within the Church of the Redeemer, parishioners minister to one another via prayer, food, and financial assistance. They are “attuned to the need for prayer,” Fr. Richard states, pointing to the establishment of a Daughters of the King chapter in October 2002, a guild whose primary activity is prayer. Within the diocese, St. Andrew’s and the Church of the Redeemer participate in each other’s Easter Vigil; also with St. Andrew’s and St. Peter’s, the church will soon begin a yet-to-beannounced outreach project; and several years ago, the church mentored St. Peter’s in the start-up of their Godly
Play Sunday School. Christian formation at Redeemer has been refined where needed the rector’s arrival two years ago: Godly Play for preschoolers and 1st-2nd graders; Sanctus Workshop for 3rd-5th graders where “they are getting prepared for participation in the church, not just arts and crafts”; the self-named Junior HOG (Hands of God) and Senior Nirvana. Fr. Richard emphasizes Redeemer’s celebration of children, “Everyone, even teens and other kids, watch out for all of the other children. It’s a wonderful feeling to have this extended family.”
Quote:
In April, as Fr. Richard and Adrienne await the arrival of their second child, the rector anticipates his or her induction into Redeemer’s extended family. “Our son was born on Thursday night and was in church Sunday morning. Children here are so welcome.” Christina Laurel is a member of St. Peter's, Greenville, and director of communication for Christ Church, Greenville.
Easter 2004
The Diocesan School for Ministry —continued from page 11
Talking about the transforming effect his classes have had on his weekday Christianity, he says, “While I know as a rational person that my ministry is as important as that of the clergy, I had no idea that was supported by our theology. Is it possible that some of us are called out specifically to model lay ministry?” Malcolm Dade is in the unique position of being both a student and a member of the School for Ministry Task Group. “My classes were exciting and opened up new vistas,” he says. They were “transforming to me in that they created an interest to learn more and understand better.” He believes that the School for Ministry is a great opportunity for lay people “who can only be better Christians and better Episcopalians for what they will learn.” Bishop Harris commented that he would like to see more laity enrolled in courses. “Lay people are a great addition to the classes,” he says. Students and faculty both agree that their School for Ministry experiences have transformed their journeys as Christians in different ways. The school hopes “to inspire, equip, and empower the churches and people to live out the Baptismal Covenant” and “to provide lay adult, diaconal, and priestly formation, education, and training to equip disciples to change lives.” Visit the diocesan Web site at www.edsusc.org and click on the Site Index and then School for Ministry. Explore the many possibilities for transformation available to help everyone in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina live out the call to be One Body with One Mission, which is Changing Lives. Duncan C. Ely is a member of St. Philip’s, Greenville.
The rector walks the Redeemer campus with a visitor’s eye.
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Easter 2004
Crosswalk
Prayer, relationship — transformation —continued from page 3 Why pray? I have a friend who keeps asking me, why pray? She is caught, I think, in the idea that we pray to get fairly immediate, mostly tangible results— miraculous cures, parking places, don’tlet-this-happen-to-me’s. I don’t believe that these prayers aren’t answered or that these issues don’t have their proper place in prayer, but I do believe that this is not the point of prayer and that if these are the guidelines and limits of prayer that the pray-er is expecting of God the same small-mindedness she discovers in herself. Prayer becomes a transaction when it should be an encounter. So I quote Nouwen to my friend again and again and say that prayer is the language of my relationship with God and that the reason and function of prayer is to create the space of that relationship. The why of prayer, I believe, is even more radical than this: relationship, my relationship with the Creator/Redeemer/ Sanctifier is no less than a crucible for my transformation. And transformation is the heart of the Christian journey.
God made me, I am certain, to be my “true self.” But by sin—which is failure of relationship—I am malformed into a caricature of that self God created; I am living out of a “false self.” It is this false self that is called to transformation if I am to heed the charge of St. Paul to “grow into the full stature of ” and have “the mind of Christ.” To pray is to risk everything, to say yes to the whole life task of becoming fully human, which is what God did in Christ. ( R E V E L AT I O N S E V E N ): From Joan Chittister in Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: “To pray only when we feel like it is more to seek consolation than to risk conversion.” I can say for a fact and from too much personal experience that when I do not wish to change I do not pray, because prayer changes things, prayer changes me, prayer, which is relationship, somehow mysteriously creates the open spaces that enable grace to break through. And the transformation of individuals through the grace of God transforms the world. Prayer, then, and the transformation it brings, are the building blocks of the kingdom of God. Let us pray.
Traveling to Emmaus —continued from page 4
gives us the name of only one of them, Cleopas. The Gospel writer attributes their failure to recognize Jesus to supernatural intervention: “but their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24: 17). But their misreading of the signs, their inability to interpret scripture and the events of the past few days correctly, was a strictly human failure. This latter shortcoming is confirmed by Jesus’ response to them: “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!” (Luke 24:25). The appeal of the Emmaus story is not just the human drama of it. Luke gives us considerable detail. As readers we feel the sorrow and dejection of those two disciples who are making their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We sense their confusion. Jesus’ death on the cross seems to have dashed their hopes that he was the Messiah. But, they have heard of the empty tomb and of the message to the women that Christ was risen. Perhaps, there was room for hope after all. And we can imagine their walk to Emmaus with
this enigmatic man. His conversation rekindled their hopes. The complete transformation doesn’t come until they sit down at table with Jesus. As he breaks the bread, their eyes were opened, and they knew their Lord. We tend to think that the disciples had it relatively easy with their faith. Sure, they were tempted, they struggled, they were persecuted. But unlike us in the 21st century, they had concrete, visible evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead. The beauty and wonder of the Emmaus story is that their transformation came, not from unambiguous evidence that Jesus was raised. Unlike Thomas, Cleopas and his companion did not demand to see and touch the marks of the crucifixion on the risen Christ’s body. They saw and knew their Lord in the simple gestures of a shared meal. In that meal, in the bread and wine, Jesus made himself known to them, as he does to us each time we receive the Eucharist. Jonanthan D. Greiser is an intern at Church of the Redeemer, Greenville
Transformation, Home Works style By Hank Chardos Webster’s defines transformation as an act or process that changes composition, structure, or outward form. Webster apparently never participated in a Home Works project! Home Works of South Carolina, Inc., is an ecumenical effort enabling teens, with the assistance of adults, to repair homes of the elderly and disadvantaged. Home Works sponsors one-day and week-long projects during the year throughout South Carolina and North Carolina, and in Zorritos, Peru. It’s true that those who see the “before” and “after” pictures of homes that have been repaired immediately notice enormous changes in composition, structure, and outward form. For perhaps the first time in months the back door opens and closes and there’s no more broken glass
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in the bedroom window letting the wind blow in leaves. Home Works is committed to repairing homes but that is actually a “by-product.” The mission of Home Works is to bring hope to the homeowner; to provide an opportunity for individuals, especially teens, to be of service to others; to sit on the front porch with Mr. Blassingame or in the living room with Mrs. Preston and talk about family photos. All efforts of Home Works volunteers revolve around prayer. When the team arrives at a home a morning prayer is shared with the homeowner; when the work is done there is a house blessing, giving thanks to God for repairs done and thanks for their safe completion and asking God to watch over the home and those who reside in it.
Volunteering for a Home Works project expands Webster’s definition— outward forms are changed, but more important hearts are touched and souls are strengthened. The transformation extends even beyond the homeowner and the volunteers; it extends to the neighbors and to the greater community as well. Being of service to others and sharing one’s faith brings about life-long transformations that go beyond hammers and nails. Home Works extends a warm invitation to teens and adults, skilled and unskilled, to transform and to be transformed. For more information concerning volunteer opportunities contact Hank Chardos, 803.781.4536 or send e-mail to homewrksc@aol.com. Visit the Home Works Web site at www.homeworks-sc.org/.
Transformation, part one: Home Works, before and after
Hank Chardos is director of Home Works, Inc.
Crosswalk Orthodoxy, relationship, and witness ways in which Christians are to speak and live out the gospel. The bad guys may not be the postmodern thinkers whose insights open the Faith to people on the margins of society, but the Christians who are convinced that they alone see things precisely from God’s point-ofview.
Our old friend “Hermen”— Hermeneutics Hermeneutics is the theory of interpretation. Hermeneutics is concerned with examining the relationship between two realms, the realms of a text or work of art on the one hand, and the people who wish to understand it on the other. (See Werner G. Jeanrond, Theological Hermeneutics: Development and Significance, Crossroads, 1991—an essential work for any student of the Bible.) Hermeneutics is an essential discipline for approaching the interpretation of the Bible. Hermeneutics may well turn out to be the craftiness of God, as Holy Spirit, moving us more deeply into a postChristian, pluralistic, technological age where orthodoxy (right belief ) is equal in importance to right actions; is equal in importance to the development of character, virtue, loving human relationships, and the ultimate wellbeing of creation and creatures. Biblical criticism, thought to be an enemy of orthodoxy, may well have emerged in history to be Christianity’s friend. To this day, to this moment, Werner G. Jeanrond warns us: “We may wish to be particularly careful not to accept uncritically any biblical or Christological justification of past or present claims by any member or authority in the Church. Rather we should test any such claim over and against our best and most sincere appropriation of the salvific [redemptive] initiatives of God as experienced and textualized [put into writing] by different biblical communities. (For example, the Johannine community, which gave us the Gospel of John.)
Easter 2004
—continued from page 5
Our Episcopal Church is a biblical community. This community of those faithful to Christ teaches that the Bible contains all things necessary for our salvation. The content of what we teach as orthodox and traditional in our day must be an attempt to respond to Jesus’ own new theological initiatives witnessed in his life, death, and resurrection. That witness has to do with relationships, as does the Trinity, the nature of Christ, the mystery of the Eucharist, and what it means to be the Church. Orthodoxy may have to do with doctrine and tradition, but for those who would comprehend Christ’s initiatives, doctrine and tradition both begin by looking at the nature of relationships. The thing missing in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is specifically the thing that took Jesus to the cross. Jesus stood against the absolute claims of tradition in favor of, in Jeanrond’s words, “the immediate experience and worship of God in prayer, table fellowship, and in reaching out to all of the outcasts of society.” The way Jesus retrieved the love command from his tradition, the familiar You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself, and put it into action took him to the cross. Our friend “hermeneutics” wants to cry out and say what Douglas John Hall has written in Thinking the Faith (Fortress): “What is really happening in traditionalism is the same thing that happens with Biblicism, only now the subject is not the Bible, but some fondly held doctrinal orthodoxy. What is not recognized or taken seriously in this way of responding to the tradition is that the traditions which are thus fondled and preserved are themselves historical expressions, ergo contextual expressions, of Christian belief, ideas and systems thoroughly influenced by particularities of their times and places.”
The emerging story Marcus Borg, in his 2003 book The Heart of Christianity (Harper/Collins),
makes a distinction between “Earlier Christianity” and “Emerging Christianity.” On the basis that the Bible was written to the early communities that produced it, its content is metaphorical and sacramental. This means that God’s story is important not because of its
We may make a choice stubbornly to hold to earlier Christianity, or come to understand that God has acted through the creative Holy Spirit, blowing where the wind of the spirit will, in order to offer to the 21st century, as God offers to every century, an emerging Christianity. historic factuality, but because of its meaning for us. It is sacramental because of its ability to mediate the sacred. We may make a choice stubbornly to hold to earlier Christianity, or come to understand that God has acted through the creative Holy Spirit, blowing where the wind of the spirit will, in order to offer to the 21st century, as God offers to every century, an emerging Christianity. In light of where the Holy Spirit has led us at the beginning of the 21st century, orthodoxy remains a word that lifts up right and correct belief. But we can no longer find that right belief only in credal, doctrinal Christianity, but also in the metaphorical, poetic, storytelling of the Bible, which shows us both God’s love and relationship to creation and creatures. What kind of love are we emulating when we burn someone at the stake for not holding a particular doctrinal point of view? What kind of love are we emulating when we deny holy consecration of a gay priest to the ancient episcopate, because we are blind to emerging Christianity and angry about new theological hermeneutics?
A Jesus initiative point of view “There is so little love in the world, where I see it I want to bless it.” — D. S. Armentrout, St. Luke’s School of Theology, Sewanee
The primary Jesus initiative is love. When we think of orthodoxy, we must be willing to draw out “right belief ” from God’s story of redemption, particularly the story of Jesus, as he initiates a movement away from legalism, condemnation, injustice, and ostracism. Theological hermeneutics and the contextual character of scripture and creeds challenge the way we read Hebrew legal codes and New Testament Pauline thought. Given the love initiatives of Jesus, and the Augustinian view that all knowledge is divine illumination, Christians are compelled to review orthodoxy (right belief ) and orthopraxis (right action) as these relate to any of the thinking that we call “Christian.” This is not only true of the issues that emerge from within the complex study of human sexuality, but of the sacrament of marriage as well. The Holy Spirit may be leading the Church to ask questions about the nature, meaning, and purpose of marriage and the significance of the Church’s blessing. We understand that the act of offering a blessing is the invoking of God’s grace upon a thing, an event, a relationship in order that it may fulfill its true end or purpose. It is time now for orthodoxy and orthopraxis to witness to the world in a way that affirms that in Christ things that have grown old—old thinking, old practices, old oppressions, old customs, old systems, old prejudices—are being made new. Surely, out of utter joy, we would want to be a partner with Christ in this emerging Christianity. The Rev. Dr. Philip H. Whitehead has recently retired as rector of St. Michael & All Angels, Columbia.
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Easter 2004
Crosswalk The official publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina
SOUL food i thank You God By e. e. cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes. (i who have died am alive again today and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth day of life and of love and wings; and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any—lifted from the no of all nothing—human merely being doubt unimaginable You? (now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened) From Complete Poems 1913–1962, by e. e. cummings, volume 2, page 663. Reprinted by permission of Liveright Publishing Corp.
photo: Eric Schnaufer
Diocesan calendar
May
June
2
Bishop's visitation to St.Thomas, Eastover Bishop Harris's visitation to Good Shepherd, Greer
7–9
Jr. High Spring Retreat, Gravatt
9
Bishop's visitation to Church of the Ridge (Trenton) Bishop Harris's visitation to Resurrection, Greenwood
13
Clergy Day,All Saints, Clinton
16
Bishop's visitation to Ascension, Seneca Bishop Beckham's visitation to Church of the Cross, Columbia Bishop Duvall's visitation to St. John's, Columbia Bishop Harris's visitation to Redeemer, Greenville
July
6
Bishop's visitation to Trinity Cathedral, Columbia
4–10
Elementary session, Camp Gravatt
6–11
Senior high session, Camp Gravatt
5
Independence Day Observance. Diocesan House closed.
8–10
BACAM (diaconate), Gravatt
11
Bishop's visitation to St. Christopher's, Spartanburg
12
Ordination to the transitional diaconate,Trinity Cathedral, Columbia; Diocesan Altar Guild conference, St. Francis of Assisi, Chapin
11–17
Junior high session, Camp Gravatt
14
Bishop's visitation to St.Thaddeus,Aiken
15
DEC meeting, Gravatt
18
Bishop's visitation to St. John's, Congaree
18–24
Elementary session, Camp Gravatt
20–25
Province IV Youth Event, Berea, KY
25
Bishop's visitation to St.Alban's, Lexington
25–31
Elementary session, Camp Gravatt
13
Bishop's visitation to St. Barnabas, Jenkinsville
13-19
Junior high session, Camp Gravatt
17
DEC meeting, Grace Church,Anderson
17–20
Cursillo #99, Gravatt
20
DEC meeting, St. Philip's, Greenville
18–20
Province IV Daughters of the King retreat, Kanuga
22
Continuing Education Day, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Columbia; St.Thaddeus,Aiken; Our Saviour, Rock Hill; St. George's,Anderson;All Saints, Clinton
20
Bishop's visitation to St. Paul's, Graniteville Bishop Duvall's visitation to St. John's,Winnsboro
23
Bishop's visitation to Christ Church, Greenville
20–26
Elementary session, Camp Gravatt
30
Bishop's visitation to Our Saviour, Rock Hill
27
Bishop's visitation to Calvary, Glenn Springs, and Epiphany, Spartanburg
31
Memorial Day. Diocesan House closed.
27-7/1
Primary session, Camp Gravatt
Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina 1115 Marion Street Columbia, South Carolina 29201
DEADLINE for next issue of Crosswalk: May 15. Send submissions to phill@edusc.org, photos to photos@edusc.org, items for the diocesan calendar to djbarwick@edusc.org.
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