Anglicans, Unite!
Something else I thought of after writing "Why I am No Longer An Evangelical." A sacrament is merely the outward and visible sign of that which is inwardly visibly true. Part of Anglican sacramental theology is that Holy Spirit works within us in ways that we don't know. We don't have to be conscious of it, merely trust that it is so.
It is another reason why we should not be so quick to condemn the sin of others. We have no idea how the Holy Spirit is working in them. We need to trust that the HS is working in them at least as much as we trust She works in one's self.
IMO, a need to uncover the sin of another is to attempt to replace the action of the HS in a person. It is perhaps the very opposite of humility. It is like trying to do God one better.
It strikes me also that part of the mess the WWAC is in this days is that some of the participants are more Reformed and others more catholic in their theology and that either end there are those who misunderstand Richard Hooker.
If you will allow me to establish a metaphor, I promise you it is not the non sequitor it sounds. We knitters have come to agree that there are usually 2 sorts of knitters: results oriented knitters and process oriented knitters. Results oriented knitters want finished product. They enjoy finished product and so they are one project at a time knitters and work consistently to get it done.
Process oriented knitters OTOH get their enjoyment merely from the knitting. So they may have any number of projects on the needles at once. They pick them up and put them down to pick up another, content to let the process move them along.
Both groups are knitters. Both use the same materials, tools, patterns, reference books. But it is the manner in which they approach their commonalities that makes the difference.
Seems to me there is an analogy between those of Reformed orientation and results oriented knitters while process oriented knitters correspond to those of a more catholic orientation. Some just want the job done, over, finished while others are content with a slower pace, letting the river that is the Holy Spirit take us where she will.
As with the results oriented knitters and the process oriented knitters, both Reformed Anglicans and catholic Anglicans share the same Bible, creeds, history, sacraments but once again, it is the way these are employed that makes the difference. We see this difference in small things as well. A results orient person will want to know where and how an error is intentional made before offering an apology, for instance, while a process oriented person is willing to admit immediately that they might have made unintentionally the error and offer the apology.
The thing is, though, that results oriented knitters and process oriented knitters both reach a common goal: the finished product. Results oriented knitters and process oriented knitters have learned to respect each other's differences and accept the love of knitting that unites them. We grow from each other's strengths and become better knitters as a result. There are factions on either end who want to insist that their way is the only way with predictable results that others get caught up in the hype that is symptomatic of an extreme. This does damage to the knitting community and it takes a while for the majority of voices, moderates from both results oriented and process oriented knitters, to make their voices heard and recall us to our love of knitting, our love of the needles moving, of the yarn sliding over our fingers, the smell of it, the feel of it.
On the whole, I believe the same is true of the Reformed and catholic Anglicans among us. On the whole I believe it is true that it is a minority on both sides that fail to respect each other's differences and accept the love of Christ that unities us. On the whole, I believe that we grow from each other's strengths and become better Christians as a result. There are, of course, factions on either end who want to insist that their way is the only way with predictable results that others get caught up in the hype that is symptomatic of an extreme. This does damage to the WWAC and it takes a while for the majority of voices, moderates from both results oriented and process oriented Anglicans to make their voices heard and recall us to our love of Jesus, our love of the turning pages of Bible and Prayerbook, of the Host resting in our cupped hands, the wine on our lips and tongues, the smell of it, the feel of it.
More and more of us are speaking up, refusing the labels that have been pinned upon us by those at the opposite ends of the Anglican continuum. More and more voices in the middle of the bell curve are rejecting the outliers as unrepresentative of the majority. We are seeing through the rhetoric offered by polar opposites to their real issues and concerns and we want no part of that.
What we in the middle, where the majority of all inn the WWAC are, what we want is this: we reclaim "orthodoxy" to mean:
- loving God with every fiber of our beings, hook, line and sinker which means, among other things, that we step back, get our egos out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to have Her way with us because that is the obedient response of creature to Creator;
- loving our neighbor as ourselves which means, among other things, that we will resist consumerism and instead do without what we don;t need anyway in order to see to it that no person on the earth goes to bed hungry or thirsty, that all have clothing and shelter, that the sick and dying are cared for, that those who are unable to provide for themselves and their families through no fault of their own shall receive without shame or humiliation what they need, prisoners shall,be visited so that they do not despair of being welcomed back into their families, communities, jobs with the result that, when we unite to work on all these, the nations will rise up to bless the Lord and become His disciples;
-that we stand up and shout out the ancient profession of our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, in the words of our Prayerbooks, in the words of the Saints Benedict and Francis, in the words of all the voices of Christendom who tell us over and over to love God and neighbor and to live as though nothing else matters except love of God and neighbor.
Maybe your team is the Red Sox or Manchester United, the Chargers or Birmingham United, but my team is Anglicans United to serve and love the Lord our God and to be His hands, feet, voices as He remakes humanity in His image and likeness.
Anglicans, unite! Perfect love has cast all fear. The chains of sin have been shattered by the Resurrection.
It is another reason why we should not be so quick to condemn the sin of others. We have no idea how the Holy Spirit is working in them. We need to trust that the HS is working in them at least as much as we trust She works in one's self.
IMO, a need to uncover the sin of another is to attempt to replace the action of the HS in a person. It is perhaps the very opposite of humility. It is like trying to do God one better.
It strikes me also that part of the mess the WWAC is in this days is that some of the participants are more Reformed and others more catholic in their theology and that either end there are those who misunderstand Richard Hooker.
If you will allow me to establish a metaphor, I promise you it is not the non sequitor it sounds. We knitters have come to agree that there are usually 2 sorts of knitters: results oriented knitters and process oriented knitters. Results oriented knitters want finished product. They enjoy finished product and so they are one project at a time knitters and work consistently to get it done.
Process oriented knitters OTOH get their enjoyment merely from the knitting. So they may have any number of projects on the needles at once. They pick them up and put them down to pick up another, content to let the process move them along.
Both groups are knitters. Both use the same materials, tools, patterns, reference books. But it is the manner in which they approach their commonalities that makes the difference.
Seems to me there is an analogy between those of Reformed orientation and results oriented knitters while process oriented knitters correspond to those of a more catholic orientation. Some just want the job done, over, finished while others are content with a slower pace, letting the river that is the Holy Spirit take us where she will.
As with the results oriented knitters and the process oriented knitters, both Reformed Anglicans and catholic Anglicans share the same Bible, creeds, history, sacraments but once again, it is the way these are employed that makes the difference. We see this difference in small things as well. A results orient person will want to know where and how an error is intentional made before offering an apology, for instance, while a process oriented person is willing to admit immediately that they might have made unintentionally the error and offer the apology.
The thing is, though, that results oriented knitters and process oriented knitters both reach a common goal: the finished product. Results oriented knitters and process oriented knitters have learned to respect each other's differences and accept the love of knitting that unites them. We grow from each other's strengths and become better knitters as a result. There are factions on either end who want to insist that their way is the only way with predictable results that others get caught up in the hype that is symptomatic of an extreme. This does damage to the knitting community and it takes a while for the majority of voices, moderates from both results oriented and process oriented knitters, to make their voices heard and recall us to our love of knitting, our love of the needles moving, of the yarn sliding over our fingers, the smell of it, the feel of it.
On the whole, I believe the same is true of the Reformed and catholic Anglicans among us. On the whole I believe it is true that it is a minority on both sides that fail to respect each other's differences and accept the love of Christ that unities us. On the whole, I believe that we grow from each other's strengths and become better Christians as a result. There are, of course, factions on either end who want to insist that their way is the only way with predictable results that others get caught up in the hype that is symptomatic of an extreme. This does damage to the WWAC and it takes a while for the majority of voices, moderates from both results oriented and process oriented Anglicans to make their voices heard and recall us to our love of Jesus, our love of the turning pages of Bible and Prayerbook, of the Host resting in our cupped hands, the wine on our lips and tongues, the smell of it, the feel of it.
More and more of us are speaking up, refusing the labels that have been pinned upon us by those at the opposite ends of the Anglican continuum. More and more voices in the middle of the bell curve are rejecting the outliers as unrepresentative of the majority. We are seeing through the rhetoric offered by polar opposites to their real issues and concerns and we want no part of that.
What we in the middle, where the majority of all inn the WWAC are, what we want is this: we reclaim "orthodoxy" to mean:
- loving God with every fiber of our beings, hook, line and sinker which means, among other things, that we step back, get our egos out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to have Her way with us because that is the obedient response of creature to Creator;
- loving our neighbor as ourselves which means, among other things, that we will resist consumerism and instead do without what we don;t need anyway in order to see to it that no person on the earth goes to bed hungry or thirsty, that all have clothing and shelter, that the sick and dying are cared for, that those who are unable to provide for themselves and their families through no fault of their own shall receive without shame or humiliation what they need, prisoners shall,be visited so that they do not despair of being welcomed back into their families, communities, jobs with the result that, when we unite to work on all these, the nations will rise up to bless the Lord and become His disciples;
-that we stand up and shout out the ancient profession of our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, in the words of our Prayerbooks, in the words of the Saints Benedict and Francis, in the words of all the voices of Christendom who tell us over and over to love God and neighbor and to live as though nothing else matters except love of God and neighbor.
Maybe your team is the Red Sox or Manchester United, the Chargers or Birmingham United, but my team is Anglicans United to serve and love the Lord our God and to be His hands, feet, voices as He remakes humanity in His image and likeness.
Anglicans, unite! Perfect love has cast all fear. The chains of sin have been shattered by the Resurrection.
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 11:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home