Presentation to Wardens/Vestry 2011

I travel. I do about 30,000 miles a year in my car, more or less, as I make my way around. And one of the things I enjoy doing is to listen to books on tape. And so my wife suggested that I listen to a book called Lonesome Dove that some of you know. Evidently it’s going to take about 30,000 miles to get through that book.

As you know, in 1985 it was the Pulitzer Prize-winning western novel written by Larry McMurtry. It’s an earthy book, and I’m sometimes shocked by what happens in it, but I am enjoying it. In the very beginning of the book, a key character named Gus, Captain Augustus McCrae, an ex-Texas Ranger and cattleman and wrangler, Gus decides that the Hat Creek Cattle Company needs a sign out front. And so he begins this process of negotiation.

Now, those of you on a vestry who have ever decided you needed a new sign know exactly the kind of negotiations that Gus had to go through. They argue and argue about all the different things that can go on the sign, what the sign should say, and even where the sign is to hang.

When it’s all said and done, the politics are over, Gus proudly goes out and he hangs the sign up. It says, “The Hat Creek Cattle Company, a Livery Emporium. Captain Augustus McCrae and Captain Woodrow F. Call, Proprietors. P. Parker, a Wrangler. Deets, Joshua”— They didn’t know what Deets did so they didn’t give him a description. “For Rent: Horses and Rigs. For Sale: Cattle and Horses. Goats and Donkeys Neither Bought Nor Sold.” And this very controversial piece: “We Do Not Rent Pigs.”

We do not rent pigs. There was a lot of discussion about this addition to the sign, and Gus said, “Look, pigs are good for lots of things. They’re good if you want something to come over and wallow and soak up a mud puddle. They’re good for keeping snakes out of your cellar.” But he said, “I don’t want to have anything to do with any man who thinks renting a pig is a good idea. And so by putting that up there, ‘We Do Not Rent Pigs,’ we will avoid all kinds of business that is not our own. We do not rent pigs.”

Now, the sign hung there for quite a while but something, according to Gus, was missing—a little bit of Latin, he thought. So he dug through his belongings and found an old Latin book that his daddy had given him, and he found a phrase, “Uva Uvam Videndo Varia Fit.” It added something that was needed, a proverb, a tribute to an ancient Greek philosopher. It literally means “a grape or other grapes see changes.”

Changed by the world around us
Now, what’s interesting if you know Latin, which I don’t, but according to Wikipedia, if you know Latin, Gus has misspelled one of the words. And so there is a great literary debate. Did McMurtry make a mistake or is it intentional? I believe McMurtry was being intentional, for the mistake he makes changes the phrase to mean, “a grape is changed by living with other grapes.” A grape is changed by living with other grapes. You and I are changed by living with one another. You and I are changed by the world around us, and we have the opportunity to be about the work of transformational change in other people’s lives.

The Church Economy

As vestries, it is important to understand there are some things we do not do. We do not rent pigs, but we do change the lives of those with whom we serve, and we have the opportunity to change the world around us. But right now the world around us is having more influence on us than we are on it. We must be clear that the world and church that we thought would carry us forward is no longer systemically viable.

As a church, we have an economy. It’s like any other, at its very basic, one that is dependent upon income and expenditures. Our current economy, our way of doing things, though, no longer works. It has been forever changed. When it happened, I don’t really know. It is probably an event that has occurred over many, many years and only when we look back will we be able to say, “It happened then.” But we as leaders of our church have been treating this event, this change, this change in our economy, how things work in our churches, we have been treating this by dealing with the symptoms instead of realizing that the system itself is crumbling around us.

We have consistently believed some very basic things about life in the Episcopal Church. The first one is that those who are called by God to be Episcopalians will find us and come to our doors. It’s funny and then it’s not. Once they come inside our doors, we believe this:  that once they come inside our doors that they will stay because we have the most awesome liturgy. We do have an awesome liturgy. And someday, we say to ourselves, we will grow again. And when we grow again, that is the day we’ll take care of all of that deferred maintenance, that all we need is the right clergyperson.

You see, it’s not our communal responsibility, it’s simply the person with the funny collar’s responsibility, and if we could just get the right clergyperson, everything would be better. And then there is that one that if we just solve the issue of the day, whatever that issue is, we would surge in growth. If we were just true to the past or if we were just true to the future, either way, everything would be taken care of.

No corner on the market

The problem is that fewer and fewer people every year are actually looking for us. And when they come in, they do not necessarily react favorably to what they find. Meanwhile, our congregations are outperformed by the culture around us. We no longer have the sole market cornered on community life, on networking, on social services, on weddings or even funerals. We are outperformed by social media, bars, gyms, sports clubs, funeral homes, JPs, hospitals, and friends.

Think about your budgets for a moment. Our budgets themselves reveal this economic reality and what’s happening in our ministry, that our budgets are no longer sustainable. In 1997, a congregation with 50 people could support itself with a budget of about $100,000. Today it takes a congregation of more than 100 and a budget upwards of $150,000 to $180,000 a year without any debt—without any debt.

This congregation, depending on the health of its buildings and the deferred maintenance I mentioned a minute ago, might be able to afford a full-time minister and the cost of keeping the facilities open. However, this congregation, as you and I both know, has no money to do anything else. By the end of 2011, we expect that inflation itself may indeed grow to 2 percent. Maybe it won’t, but let’s just say that it does, just as an example.

So by the end of 2012, a congregation will see its expenses jump some $3,000 without doing anything. That means that the church will have to add one family who immediately is overcome by our liturgy and welcoming, who has felt called to be an Episcopalian their whole life but didn’t know it, and they are going to write a check for $3,500, the diocesan average, right then and there to take care of that inflation. And you will have to add that same family with that same commitment and understanding every year to break even and never add a dollar to mission, evangelism, or new ministry.

An old model

We are operating out of a model that depends upon assumptions about our culture that date back to the midcentury of the last millennium. I know. I have visited you all. I come and I see you in your congregations struggling with this. This is a painful acknowledgement, but we have got to get real. We must face this reality as a church. You and I did not do a whole lot to create this situation. I recognize that.

Most of us have been bumping along just trying to be good, faithful Episcopalians doing what we thought we were supposed to be doing. But I will tell you, no matter how many times we go back to sleep or close our eyes or hope for something different or try to fix a symptom, this dream is over. Continuing to do church the way we have been doing it leads to only one thing:  death.

God has expectations: A missionary economy

And I will tell you that I believe that God expects something different of us and that God will recreate God’s church without us because God’s mission is sure. God’s intention in recreating this world is certain, and God does not depend upon us to see his vision of this creation through. But God has invited us to change who we are and how we are in the world to meet the challenges that are before us, to accept the invitation of his grace and wisdom and to be partners in God’s kingdom.

We must be about changing the world around us. Our new missionary economy must add value to the culture around us. We must be about missionary work of transforming the world around us—the environment, the economy itself—and the societies—our neighborhoods and our cities. People’s lives must be better tomorrow because our Episcopal Church is proclaiming the good news of salvation in work and word today.

Everybody says, “Oh, let’s look at Africa.” Well, let me tell you, in Africa, yes, they are preaching the gospel, but they are changing the world around them. That is why they are growing, because the people in those churches care and are part of the community and help the community be better tomorrow than it is today.

The economies that will flourish globally and in the United States in the 21^st century will be ones that give life to people, to their community, to the environment in which we all live. We have to invest in relationship-oriented community and individual and environmental transformation. We must change the world around us.

We have an opportunity in a new missionary age to claim a sustainable mission deeply rooted in our values as Anglicans who are unabashedly Episcopalian. The world around us is actually waiting for us. They are hoping for partners who will join in providing healthy, fulfilling, life-giving, dignity-bound ministry to their communities. The world is looking for partners interested in building a more sustainable creation. The world is looking for partners who will nurture the relationships for better and more wholesome lives.

A moment of transformation

You and I stand at a moment of decision, and I as your bishop stand there with you. I am not going to stand up here and force you to live and do this new model, but I am not going to be quiet about what I see we as the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Texas must do to inherit the kingdom of God that is being offered us.

Now, lest we think we do this untethered from our scripture and our theology, lest we think that somehow we are just supposed to be a new social network, let us be clear that God calls us to build the kingdom of God together through worship, witness, and ministry. In the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, we are one church who is reconciled by Jesus Christ, and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit through worship, witness, and ministry. That is scriptural.

Our mission is oriented and deeply grounded in our theology. We understand that God provides—God, that united being, that holy community that we call trinity—creates all of creation and provides all things for us, that this community that we have as church is intentionally supposed to reflect all of God’s glory back to God’s self and to be about a sustainable creation that provides for every human creature around us.

You and I are responsible, as the scripture says, for the Lazarus at our gate. The scripture is very clear. We cannot turn our eye or our back on the communities around us, and we are to be about showing God’s glory out in the world. But you and I also both know that grounded deep inside of that scripture that you and I are broken and that we have a hard time doing it because when fear and anxiety and our basic needs are threatened, you and I together only want one thing, and that is what we want, that when we get into conflict and when we get off track, we immediately start becoming the narcissistic human creatures that we are.

There is a little story in the Bible called the fall that has to do with that, you see. And that’s why that reconciliation of Jesus Christ is so important, that Jesus came to help us, provide for us, the freedom through his death on the cross and resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work we’ve been given to do, that we are given through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice the opportunity to join as partners with God in changing the world around us, which is what we were created to do originally, to be good stewards of God’s creation.

A vestry’s response

Now, what is your purpose as a vestry? The canons are really clear about your work. You are to take care of the temporal concerns of your parish or mission if you’re a bishop’s committee or vestry. That’s your job.

Property:  You are responsible for the construction, care, security, and maintenance of all property, buildings, and furnishings of the parish.

Stewardship:  The vestry is responsible for providing the resources necessary for the mission and ministry of the parish. Surely something is missing in that. It doesn’t have the word priest in there at all. The vestry is responsible for providing the resources. Okay, maybe that’s right.

Budget:  The vestry adopts and administers the budget and capital campaigns, endowments, etc. And legally, the vestry has legal responsibilities for the parish. In our current system, we think the canons tell us what we’re supposed to be doing. The canons ensure that the mission and ministry of the church are cared for.

This, my friends, is your minimum responsibility, not your maximum. The only reason to have a vestry in a community is so that the community may be intentionally focused on the mission of building God’s kingdom. These are the beginning points for you to lead your congregation out into the world, proclaiming the gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ. It is your responsibility—your responsibility along with the clergy in your congregation—to realize God’s expectations given your missionary context.

What does success look like?

We know what success is going to look like. We will know that we are accomplishing God’s mission in our congregations when we are involved fully in ministry that transforms and restores, when we are changing the world around us, when your neighbors know you’re there.

Do your neighbors know that your church is there? Or after 20 years, do they pass by the sign and think nothing of it? We will know that we are making strides when we have exceptional stewardship, the stewardship of resources, time, and money that is entrusted to us. Exceptional stewardship, not the diocesan average stewardship. That’s not the goal.

When did the goal become the average? Did God say, “I will give you some of creation, just a little bit?” No. God gave you all of it. God made you and gave you everything that you are and everything that you have. God has given you your friends and your family. God has given and blessed you with everything. The average is not the goal, exceptional stewardship is. And then we will have excellence in mission, excellence in mission.

You and I are responsible for changing the world through our gifts and the resources given to us and by looking outside of ourselves to the world around us. You and I will know that we are making strides towards this not just when we have these big categories, but I actually believe that you and I will know because we will have more people in our churches on Sunday, for instance.

But that’s not the only goal. It’s not just that our average Sunday attendance in this church will grow but our attendance throughout the week will grow, that there will be more people, there will be more people who affiliate with our church every day of the week. That’s how we’ll know.

We will know that we are making progress when evangelism, the proclamation of the good news of salvation, and caring for others is the hallmark that we’re known for. When we talk to people in our communities, they will say, “That congregation knows the good news, and they make a difference in the world around us. They helped us with this.”

I mean, do you even know what your neighborhood is struggling with? Do you have a sense? We will know that we are making progress when we see baptisms and confirmations and receptions increase in the Diocese of Texas. But, more importantly, we’re going to know that we are making progress when more people are participating in evangelism and mission and discipleship in our communities.

We will know that we are making progress when every one of our congregations has the most welcoming, the most hospitable front door in their city.

We will know that we are making progress when the median age of our membership decreases to reflect your mission context in the world around you.

We will know that we’re making progress when our leadership, our clergy and laity, are younger and more diverse ethnically, when they reflect the diocese that is around us.

We will know we are making progress when existing congregations take the initiative for planting new congregations instead of believing somebody else is going to do that job.

We’re going to know that we are making progress when we see flourishing in the Diocese of Texas new fellowships, new missions, new parishes every year we’re able to talk at our gatherings about the new work that is happening, the entrepreneurial work that is happening, when we take more time in our diocesan council celebrating the good work that is happening in our diocese rather than arguing over the issues of the day. That’s when we’re going to know that we are making progress.

We will know that we are making progress when all of our organizations, congregations, institutions, and foundations are working together on healthy stewardship.

We’re going to know when we have an intentional diocesan-wide planned giving program that focuses its attention on providing for the stewardship of God’s gifts in every one of the congregations, that we understand our work isn’t to accomplish the stumbling blocks of today but build for the future of God’s kingdom tomorrow.

Have you in your wills made a planned gift? You’re investing Saturday at least, right? But you’re going to invest three years as leaders of this congregation, or how committed are you to seeing that your congregation lives long into the future, undertaking God’s program in this world? How committed are you?

Have you made a life gift, as I have, to this diocese and to your church? That’s when we’re going to know, when we all can say, “Yes, we have done that.” We will know when our congregations and diocese are willingly funding and supporting new emerging initiatives, crazy ideas and new ideas and dreaming about what we could be doing in our community, when there are more churches and more emerging communities, more schools and more clinics, more outreach ministries, more opportunities that we’re engaged in day in and day out.

We’re going to know when we have funded for the future as a diocese leadership training, when we have funded dollars to go into funding and helping provide partnership for new communities through a Great Commission Fund and when we care for our clergy and lay leaders through a Wellness Fund. That’s when we’re going to know that we’re making progress.

How do we get there?

We have to do some basic things to do that. We’re going to have to be very clear. We must be about formation. We have to form people who know and understand God as trinity. We must be about forming people who know and practice a healthy spiritual life.

We must form people who invite, welcome, and build community. We must form people who care about the world in which they live and are integrated into the life of the community. And we must form people who make a difference. That doesn’t happen naturally. As congregations, we must be forming people, as CS Lewis said, to be little Jesus Christs out in the world around them.

We must lead and be about leadership, not just clergy leadership but all leaders, lay and ordained, so that they are able to see the challenges as opportunities, to see the opportunities through the lens of an entrepreneurial leader who has a sense of how to take our excellence and stewardship and make a difference in the mission and ministry of the church.

We have also to be people who make connections, because we know that’s where the change happens. We must connect people with people, and this is your responsibility:  to build healthy networks of mission across your congregational boundaries and out in the world, building healthy networks that support individual vocations, building healthy networks between institutions and congregations, connecting people with resources that change their lives, connecting people with resources that change the communities around them.

The people called to be the Episcopal Diocese of Texas must do this work. It is perhaps our greatest challenge. We have not seen a missionary age of this magnitude since the very earliest days of this diocese when we looked outside our doors and our cabins and saw simply frontier land. That is the world outside of our church doors. We have a mission, and we know what we must do to get there.

In closing

I’m going to close with this. It’s a little piece of scripture. Some of you may remember it. It’s from Joshua, chapter 24. Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel—they make it pretty clear—from everywhere. There’s a long list of from everywhere. And Joshua gets them all together, and he summons the elders and the heads and the judges and the vestries.

He didn’t have vestries and bishop’s committees, but if he had, it’s clear he gathered them too. And he got them there, and he presented all of them and he said, “Here they are, God. Here are your people and the leaders of your people. They’re all right here, and we actually have a list. It’s a registration list, and we know who they are and where they belong.”

And Joshua said to all the people, “Listen to what God said.” We would say, “Look at what the scripture reminds us.” “God, our God, our God is the God of Israel, for long ago, back when our ancestors were wandering around, God took one of them, a man by the name of Abraham, from beyond the river and led him through all which way.

Do you know what Abraham did along the way? Every place he stopped he built an altar and worshiped God as he made his journey. And then he gave him a lot of offspring—lots. And Jacob and his children, they went down to Egypt. And then God sent Moses and Aaron and God brought them out, and then they lived in the wilderness for a long time.”

We won’t get into that journey, but it was a long time. And God provided for the people in their wilderness, just as God has provided for us in ours.

“And then God brought you to this land and God upheld you and God supported you in your mission and in your ministry and God gave you a land,” Joshua says, “that you did not labor for and towns that you did not build. But you live there now. You, leaders, have received the blessing of God, his vestries and bishop’s committees of churches you did not labor for in which you sit and you worship but you did not build. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive yards that you did not plant. God made way for you.”

And Joshua said to the people, all those leaders, he said, “You know all this. I’m not telling you anything new. And if you believe these things, you have to understand that you must be very fearful of the challenge that is before you. You should be concerned about this kind of God that you choose to worship and work for. In fact,” Joshua says, “you probably should not serve this Lord. You shouldn’t. It’s just too hard.”

Joshua says, “But as for me and my household, I will serve this Lord. I will serve this Lord.”

And the people answered, “No, no, no. No, wait. Joshua, no. We will. We’re going to serve this God. We promise we will.”

And Joshua said, “No, no, no, no. That’s nice of you. No, don’t really. You don’t really mean that, you see. You don’t understand what is at stake in the mission that you are accepting.”

The people said, “No, we’re serious. We will serve this God.”

You and I have a choice to make. We must choose in this moment and in every moment as we go forward to serve this God and this God’s church. We must not fear, we must not be anxious, we must not set our personal agenda above the transformative and creative and re-creative agenda of our God whom we know through the person of Jesus Christ. You and I have a choice. I’ve made mine. I’ve made mine. I will follow Jesus, and I intend to lead us forward.

But it is my dream—it is my dream and it is my daily prayer—that you and I shall be known as a generation who also chose to serve this God in mission, who at a time of great trial and a changing economy and a changing culture chose intentionally to follow God and were freed by God to change the world around us. We have an incredible opportunity as vestries and bishop’s committees of the Diocese of Texas.

We have an opportunity to beat our swords into plowshares and to sow the fields of the Lord with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that when our time is over and we have labored in God’s field, we may hear his words to us, “Well done, good and faithful servants.” May we come to the end of our time as leaders with confidence and say, “As for me and for my house, I have chosen to serve the Lord.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

An Advent Meditation

I have been thinking a great deal about my Advent message this year. The Twitterverse and internet are seemingly filled with conversation about the need for repentance this Advent as a way to prepare for the feast of the Incarnation and Christmastide. This may be so. 

However, I have really been moved by the Advent readings and especially those from Isaiah. Specifically, I am thinking of God’s invitation to comfort the people. From Isaiah 40, beginning at the first verse: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…”

Advent has several themes but as a pastor among pastors, shepherd among shepherds, this passage speaks to me deeply. If I question it, God continues with these words, “…Cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Here God asks Isaiah to see the people in their pain and suffering. To see how they suffer now and how their long-suffering has cost them dearly.

The prophet continues, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

I was inspired by the short essay on this passage by The Rev. Todd Weir, found on his Bloomingcactus blog entitled: "Straight Highways," He reminds us that the highway Isaiah may be referring to is the one that began in Heliopolis, Egypt, and went East to the land of Moab and then North to the Euphrates. The Highway Isaiah is remembering may be the highway that literally put Israel on the map and speaks to the people who would have heard this prophecy of a time of greatness in the past. Moreover, the prophet would be intimating of a future return home and again a return to the past.

Such an image would have been a comfort. It would have reminded the people of a return home and a return to renewed age of stability. In the Gospel of Mark, we find that the passage is also a passage of hope.

Mark’s message to the people is that they have long been suffering and that Christ comes bearing a new Gospel for a hurting people. Luke reminds us that this good news and comfort is for all people. Isaiah’s prophecy was meant for a nation, but that in the revelation of Christ we see the comfort is meant for all people.

This Advent I am thinking that after months of COVID and a continuing crisis of managing the disease, after months and even years of party politics, and a struggling economy we may need to lift our eyes to see the people before us. God may this Advent be inviting us to comfort each other.

Perhaps we are to comfort those doctors and nurses who continue to fight this disease. Comfort for those who get it and struggle to live. Comfort for the hundreds of thousands of families who have lost loved ones to COVID. Comfort each other who have loved ones but see no longer with resurrection hope.

Maybe we are to see the families and friendships ripped asunder by political fights. Those wounded by hate speech and those who feel the pain of being forgotten by a system that is supposed to care for them.

We are called to comfort our brothers and sisters of color as they continue to fight for recognition in a system that is blind to the integration of structural racism.

Possibly Advent is for us to understand the economy is made of people. That in our state 20% of the people feel hunger on a regular basis. That the joblessness itself is a pandemic of epic proportions. That there is a fair amount of hopelessness and fear. That our suicide rate in Texas has been rising all year. Might we comfort with the wisdom that there is nothing that separates us from God's love. 

Perhaps the message of Advent needs to be one of comfort. We are invited to comfort each other not only with words but through actions.

I believe comfort implies more than empathy. Too often, as Rabbi Ed Friedman wrote, “Empathy [can be a] disguise for anxiety, a rationalization for the failure to define a position, and power tool in the hands of the sensitive.” What we learn from Friedman is that sometimes empathy falls short of aiding people to learn from their experience. We need an understanding of comfort that does not stymie maturity and spiritual growth. Comfort, as proposed by Isaiah, or in the mind of the Gospel authors, invites us to actively participate in each other's life.

God invites us to an active pastoral response of comfort. This is a comfort that reminds us that this crisis and trauma is not the axis upon which our world revolves. This is a comfort that continues to develop the church community as a support system for our people. The comfort we are to preach is one the reminds us of the highway that is yet before us – the continuation of mission through evangelism and service. We are to pray with each other and walk with each other at this time. Our comfort is one of joy and love. Comfort also includes holding the answer for the trouble before you lightly. We are to comfort each other as we try new things and comfort each other when they don’t work.

We are to do something about the hungry. We are to do something about division. We are to do something about the pain and suffering people are going through.

We have been experiencing our own Babylonian captivity since March – or longer in some of the cases of suffering we face. We have yet before us a good amount of wilderness journey. Indeed with rising cases, we know that the good news about the vaccine is tempered with the long months until we can receive it.

So, I write to you. I invite you this Advent to engage in Comfort with each other. See where we have come and embody comfort for all the people you come into contact with. Be a comforting presence, offer a comforting word, take on comforting action this Advent.

Comfort, comfort my people. Comfort them in COVIDtide, in the political arena of family and friends, and as people struggle with hunger, joblessness, and hopelessness.

There is a highway that even now is being brought near and stumbling blocks that are being brought low. There is hope in that COVID, politics, and even our struggles economically will not have the last word. The Church is here. The people are here. We are here to receive and share a comforting word.

Pastoral Letter Released on the Episcopal and Lutheran Celebration of Full Communion

 

 

Episcopal, Anglican, Lutheran Pastoral Letter issued

on 10th Anniversary Celebration of Full Communion 

 

The Episcopal Church, Anglican Church of Canada,

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

“We look forward to the development of fuller relationships

that will lead to a common mission, ministry, and witness in the world.”

 

[April 26, 2011] The leaders of the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have issued a Pastoral Letter for the May 1 celebration marking the 10th Anniversary of full communion.

 

“On the basis of Called to Common Mission and the Waterloo Declaration,” the letter states, “we look forward to the development of fuller relationships that will lead to a common mission, ministry, and witness in the world.”

 

Called to Common Mission, for full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the similar Canadian document, the Waterloo Declaration, between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, both took effect in 2001. The anniversary of this historic milestone will be celebrated on May 1 with the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church; Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Most Rev. Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada; and Bishop Susan Johnson, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. On May 1, simultaneous celebrations will be held at 3 pm Eastern at St. Paul's Anglican Church, Fort Erie, Ontario and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Buffalo, NY (Diocese of Western New York). Bishop Johnson will preside at St. Paul’s Anglican and Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori will preach. Presiding Bishop Hanson will preside and Archbishop Hiltz will preach at Holy Trinity Lutheran. 

 

The Pastoral Letter in full follows:

__________________________________________________________________

A Pastoral Letter On the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary Celebration of Full Communion: Anglican Church of Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Episcopal Church

May 1, 2011

 

Grace to you and peace.

 

Ten years ago, when Lutherans and Anglicans in Canada and in the United States embarked on journeys of full communion with one another, we pledged our commitment to unity in Christ for the sake of the mission of Christ’s church.  On this anniversary, we rejoice and give thanks for those places of cooperation and ministry that our agreements have enabled. We are mindful that our commemorations in Buffalo and Fort Erie this day take place during the great Fifty Days of Easter. As the Resurrected Lord breathed his Spirit onto his disciples and commanded them to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth, we continue to ask for God’s Holy Spirit to empower us continually to live together into that call.

 

We have chosen a place near the border between our countries to celebrate our historic agreements, to provide a unified witness to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus, to share our commitment for renewal in Christ’s Church and God’s creation, and to serve our neighbor in need. 

 

As we continue this journey, we call upon our pastors, bishops, and denominational and congregational leaders to active engagement in God’s mission and an increase in their capacity for multiplying ministry in the world.

 

We recognize God’s call to serve and protect Earth in the face of unprecedented global threats to our air, land, and water.  Principles of justice call us to live more sustainably as individuals and in community, and to work for systemic changes that support care for God’s creation and for our neighbors. We acknowledge that our economy is based upon a worldview that sees creation as “resource” rather than sacred, of intrinsic worth, and “very good.” As a result we often plunder creation, and the well-being of low-income and minority communities, as well as other-than-human communities, suffer. We call upon our congregations and institutions to advocate for and embody a more sustainable, compassionate economy. We also challenge our congregations and institutions to make choices and support policies to reduce our collective consumption of energy, thereby reducing the pollution and climate change that stems from the burning of fossil fuels.  We call upon our four churches to work together in matters of environmental justice.

 

As people of faith, we have a strong tradition of helping our neighbor in need. These acts of charity are an integral expression of our faith and help meet the immediate needs of people living in poverty and those hit by disaster. Now is the time to work for justice as well, to advocate for more substantial long-term solutions that will create an anti-poverty agenda which we can all support. We will continue to encourage members of our congregations to meet immediate needs but also ask them to join together and pressure our governments to focus seriously on reducing poverty. We must continue to advocate for decent employment and to enhance our social safety net -- and to ensure that all have the opportunity to access both.  Working together on matters of poverty and economic justice is an area where our four churches can forge an important common witness.

 

Meeting along the border of our countries, we are painfully aware of the issues of immigration and of people who lack lawful immigration status along other borders in the world.  In our own context, we are mindful of those who have migrated to our countries to join their families, to work, or to seek refuge from persecution or violence.  Countless families are separated by stringent immigration laws.  As Christians, we are compelled by Christ’s life and teachings to welcome the stranger as neighbor, serving, as Christ did, those who are marginalized.  In our national and international ministries with and for migrants and refugees, we continue to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. 

 

We acknowledge that almost all of us are immigrants ourselves:  we live in nations built on land taken from others.  Our churches have long involvement in mission and evangelism among First Peoples.  Sadly we have an equally long history of marginalization and oppression, often through church-run boarding schools, whose main goals were assimilation and the eradication of First Peoples’ culture and heritage.  As we atone for the past, we call upon our churches to continue processes of dialogue, healing, and reconciliation. Today, the definition of Evangelism and Mission has transformed into partnerships with First Peoples and their ministries walking side by side with Christ.

 

We are also aware that our own full communion arrangements reflect this border between our two countries:  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Anglican Church in Canada are in full communion, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church are in full communion. We ask our four churches to explore ways to formalize our relationships and deepen the partnerships between all four of our churches.  On the basis of Called to Common Mission and the Waterloo Declaration, we look forward to the development of fuller relationships that will lead to a common mission, ministry, and witness in the world. 

 

We put our trust and hope in Christ, who has led us thus far in these relationships. With boldness we venture now with a time of breaking new ground, planting more seeds, and tending them in the spirit of authentic partnership in the Gospel. With humility we offer all our labors to the Lord, hoping they take us and all our brothers and sisters in Christ towards a fuller realization of that unity for which he prays.

 

In the words of the Waterloo Declaration, “We rejoice in our Declaration as an expression of the visible unity of our churches in the one Body of Christ.  We are ready to be co-workers with God in whatever tasks of mission serve the Gospel.  We give glory to God for the gift of unity already ours in Christ, and we pray for the fuller realization of this gift in the entire church.”

 

In the words of Called to Common Mission, “We do not know to what new, recovered, or continuing tasks of mission this Concordat will lead our churches, but we give thanks to God for leading us to this point. We entrust ourselves to that leading in the future, confident that our full communion will be a witness to the gift and goal already present in Christ, ‘so that God may be all in all.’”

 

 

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson

Presiding Bishop

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

The Most Rev. Fred Hiltz

Archbishop and Primate

The Anglican Church of Canada

 

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Episcopal Church

 

The Rev. Susan C. Johnson

National Bishop

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

 

 

The Episcopal Church

Office of Public Affairs

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

The Episcopal Church: www.episcopalchurch.org

Anglican Church of Canada: http://www.anglican.ca/

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: http://www.elca.org/

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada: http://www.elcic.ca/

 

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Buffalo, NY: http://www.holytrinitybuffalo.org/

St. Paul's Anglican Church, Fort Erie, Ontario: http://www.stpaulsfe.com/

 

Called to Common Mission: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/110055_111495_ENG_HTM.htm

 

The Waterloo Declaration:

http://www.elcic.ca/What-We-Believe/Waterloo-Declaration.cfm

 

# # # #

 

For more info contact:

Neva Rae Fox

Public Affairs Officer

The Episcopal Church

publicaffairs@episcopalchurch.org

212-716-6080  Mobile: 917-478-5659

 

 

 

La Iglesia Episcopal

Oficina de Asuntos Públicos

Carta Pastoral Episcopal, Anglicana, Luterana publicada en el  

10º Aniversario de la Celebración de la Comunión Plena

 

La Iglesia Episcopal, la Iglesia Anglicana de Canadá,
la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Canadá, la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de América

“Esperamos con interés el desarrollo de relaciones más plenas

que conduzcan a una común misión, ministerio y testimonio en el mundo”

 

[26 de abril 2011] Los líderes de la Iglesia Episcopal, la Iglesia Anglicana de Canadá, la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Canadá y la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Estados Unidos han publicado una Carta Pastoral para la celebración, el 1 de mayo, del 10 º aniversario de la comunión plena.

“Sobre la base de Llamados a la misión común y la Declaración de Waterloo”, dice la carta, “esperamos con interés el desarrollo de relaciones más plenas que conduzcan a una misión, ministerio y testimonio en común en el mundo”.

Llamados a la misión común, hacia una comunión plena entre la Iglesia Episcopal y la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de América, y su similar documento canadiense, la Declaración de Waterloo, entre la Iglesia Anglicana de Canadá y la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Canadá, ambos entraron en vigor en 2001. El aniversario de este hito histórico se celebrará el 1 de mayo con la Rvdma. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Obispa Presidente y Primado de la Iglesia Episcopal, el Obispo Mark Hanson, Obispo Presidente de la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de América, el Rvdmo Fred Hiltz, Primado de la Iglesia Anglicana de Canadá, y la Obispa Susan Johnson, Obispa Nacional de la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Canadá. El 1 de mayo, tendrán lugar celebraciones simultáneas a las tres de la tarde (tiempo del Este) en la iglesia anglicana de San Pablo, Fort Erie, Ontario y en la iglesia luterana de la Santísima Trinidad, Buffalo, NY (Diócesis del Oeste de Nueva York). El Obispo Johnson presidirá en la iglesia anglicana de San Pablo y predicará la Obispa Presidente Jefferts Schori. El Obispo Presidente Hanson presidirá y el arzobispo Hiltz  predicará en la iglesia luterana de la Santísima Trinidad.

La Carta Pastoral en su totalidad se encuentra a continuación:

__________________________________________________________________

 

Carta Pastoral en Ocasión de la Celebración del 10 º Aniversario de Comunión Plena:
Iglesia Anglicana de Canadá, la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Canadá, la Iglesia Evangélica Iglesia Luterana de América y la Iglesia Episcopal
1 de mayo 2011

Gracia y paz a ustedes.

Hace diez años, cuando los luteranos y los anglicanos de Canadá y de Estados Unidos nos embarcamos en viajes hacia la comunión plena, prometimos nuestro compromiso a la unidad en Cristo por el bien de la misión de la iglesia de Cristo. En este aniversario, nos alegramos y damos gracias por aquellos lugares de cooperación y ministerio que nuestros acuerdos han hecho posibles. Somos conscientes de que nuestras conmemoraciones en Buffalo y Fort Erie este día tienen lugar durante los gran cincuenta días de Pascua. Como el Señor Resucitado sopló su Espíritu sobre sus discípulos y les mandó a predicar el Evangelio hasta los confines de la tierra, continuamos pidiendo al Espíritu Santo de Dios que nos capacite continuamente para vivir juntos ese llamado.

Hemos escogido un lugar cerca de la frontera entre nuestros países para celebrar nuestros acuerdos históricos, para ofrecer un testimonio unificado de la gracia salvadora de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, para compartir nuestro compromiso de renovación en la Iglesia de Cristo y en la creación de Dios, y para servir a nuestro prójimo necesitado.

A medida que continuamos este viaje, hacemos un llamado a nuestros pastores, obispos y a los líderes de las denominaciones y de las congregaciones para que activen una participación en la misión de Dios y un aumento en su capacidad de multiplicar el ministerio en el mundo.

Reconocemos el llamado de Dios a servir y proteger a la Tierra en vista de las amenazas mundiales sin precedentes a nuestro aire, tierra y agua. Los principios de la justicia nos piden que vivamos de una manera más sostenible personalmente y en comunidad, y que trabajemos para lograr los cambios sistémicos que apoyen el cuidado de la creación de Dios y de nuestros vecinos. Reconocemos que nuestra economía se basa en una visión del mundo que ve la creación como un “recurso” en lugar de algo sagrado, de valor intrínseco y “muy bueno”. Como resultado, a menudo saqueamos la creación, y así sufre el bienestar de comunidades de bajos ingresos y de minorías, así como otras realidades más allá de las comunidades humanas. Pedimos a nuestras congregaciones e instituciones que promuevan y encarnen una economía más sostenible y compasiva. También desafiamos a nuestras congregaciones e instituciones a que tomen decisiones y apoyen normas para reducir nuestro consumo colectivo de energía, reduciendo así la contaminación y el cambio climático que se deriva de la quema de combustibles fósiles. Hacemos un llamado a nuestras cuatro iglesias a que trabajemos juntos en asuntos de justicia ambiental.

Como pueblo de fe, tenemos una fuerte tradición de ayudar a nuestro prójimo necesitado. Estas obras de caridad son una expresión integral de nuestra fe y ayudan a satisfacer las necesidades inmediatas de las personas que viven en la pobreza y a los afectados por desastres. Este es el momento de trabajar también por la justicia, para abogar por soluciones más substanciales a largo plazo, que creen un programa de lucha contra la pobreza que todos podamos apoyar. Vamos a seguir alentando a los miembros de nuestras congregaciones a que satisfagan las necesidades inmediatas, pero también les pedimos que se unan y presionen a nuestros gobiernos para que se centren seriamente en la reducción de la pobreza. Debemos continuar abogando por un empleo decente y por una mejora de nuestra red de seguridad social - y continuar garantizando que todos tengan la oportunidad de acceder a ambos. El trabajar juntos en cuestiones de pobreza y justicia económica es un área donde nuestras cuatro iglesias pueden forjar un testimonio común importante.

 

Al reunirnos en la frontera de nuestros países, somos dolorosamente conscientes de los problemas de la inmigración y de las personas que carecen de estatus legal de inmigración a lo largo de todas las fronteras del mundo. En nuestro propio contexto, somos conscientes de los que han emigrado a nuestros países a unirse con sus familias para trabajar o buscar refugio de la persecución o de la violencia. Innumerables familias están separadas por rigurosas leyes de inmigración. Como cristianos, estamos obligados por la vida y las enseñanzas de Cristo a acoger al extranjero como vecino, y a servir, como Cristo lo hizo, a los que están marginados. En nuestros ministerios nacionales e internacionales con y hacia los migrantes y refugiados, continuamos abogando por una reforma migratoria integral.

Somos conscientes de que casi todos nosotros somos inmigrantes: vivimos en naciones construidas en terrenos quitados a otros. Nuestras iglesias tienen larga participación en la misión y evangelización de los Pueblos Originarios. Lamentablemente también contamos con una larga historia de marginación y opresión, a menudo a través de internados administrados por la iglesia, cuyos objetivos principales fueron la asimilación y la erradicación de la cultura y patrimonio de los Pueblos Originarios. A medida que expiamos por el pasado, hacemos un llamado a nuestras iglesias a continuar los procesos de diálogo, sanación y reconciliación. Hoy en día, la definición de Evangelismo y Misión se ha transformado en alianzas con los Pueblos Originarios y con sus ministerios caminando juntos con Cristo.

También somos conscientes de que nuestros propios arreglos de comunión plena reflejan esta frontera entre nuestros dos países: La Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Canadá y la Iglesia Anglicana de Canadá están en comunión plena, y la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de América y la Iglesia Episcopal están en comunión plena. Pedimos a nuestras cuatro iglesias que exploren la manera de formalizar nuestra relación y profundizar la colaboración entre nuestras cuatro iglesias. Sobre la base de Llamados a la misión común y la Declaración de Waterloo, esperamos con interés el desarrollo de relaciones más plenas que conduzcan a una misión, ministerio y testimonio en común en el mundo.

 

Colocamos nuestra confianza y esperanza en Cristo, que nos ha conducido hasta ahora en estas relaciones. Con audacia nos lanzamos ahora a una época de abrir nuevos caminos, de sembrar más semillas y atenderlas con el espíritu de una auténtica asociación en el Evangelio. Con humildad, le ofrecemos todo nuestro trabajo al Señor, en la esperanza de que nos lleve y a todos nuestros hermanos y hermanas en Cristo hacia una realización más plena de esa unidad por la que él ora.

En las palabras de la Declaración de Waterloo: “Nos regocijamos en nuestra Declaración como una expresión de la unidad visible de nuestras iglesias en el único Cuerpo de Cristo. Estamos dispuestos a ser colaboradores con Dios en cualquier tarea misionera de servir al Evangelio. Damos gloria a Dios ya por el don de nuestra unidad en Cristo, y oramos por la realización más plena de este don en toda la iglesia”. 

En las palabras de Llamados a la misión común: “No sabemos a qué nuevas, recuperadas o continuas tareas misioneras conducirá este Concordato a nuestras iglesias, pero damos gracias a Dios por guiarnos hasta este punto. Nos encomendamos a ese liderazgo para el futuro, confiando en que nuestra comunión plena sea testigo del don y objetivo ya presentes en Cristo, ´para que Dios sea todo en todos´”.

 

 

El Rvdmo. Mark S. Hanson

Obispo Presidente

La Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en América

El Rvdmo. Fred Hiltz  
Arzobispo y Primado
La Iglesia Anglicana de Canadá

La Rvdma. Katharine Jefferts Schori  
Obispa Presidente y Primado
La Iglesia Episcopal

La Rvdma. Susan C. Johnson
Obispa Nacional
La Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en Canadá

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

La Iglesia Episcopal: www.episcopalchurch.org

La Iglesia Anglicana de Canadá: http://www.anglican.ca/

La Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de América: http://www.elca.org/

La Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Canadá: http://www.elcic.ca/

 

Iglesia Luterana de la Santísima Trinidad, Buffalo, NY: http://www.holytrinitybuffalo.org/

Iglesia Anglicana de San Pablo, Fort Erie, Ontario: http://www.stpaulsfe.com/

 

Llamados a la misión común: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/110055_111495_ENG_HTM.htm

 

La Declaración de Waterloo:

http://www.elcic.ca/What-We-Believe/Waterloo-Declaration.cfm

 

# # # #

 

Para ulterior información contacte a:

Neva Rae Fox

Oficial de Asuntos Públicos

La Iglesia Episcopal

publicaffairs@episcopalchurch.org

212-716-6080  Móvil: 917-478-5659

 

 

 

We Have Testamints To Make and a Sacred Heart Auto Club to Join

Consuming the World

The world in which we live has changed and is changing at a remarkable rate. Our culture--what we might call the Western Way--has spread touching and impacting every culture and society. Many people are no longer isolated and "indigenous societies" are in deplorable circumstances. If not in "terminal phases" of acculturation; many have in fact died out and are lost to future generations.3 Indigenous peoples and the known third world countries exist in detrimental poverty compared to their American and Western counterparts. Transnational corporations hold or employ many of their natural or human resources. The entire world has been undergoing rapid, dramatic culture change over the last century. We have a global economy knit together and forever (using the metaphor of Thomas L. Friedman) "flattened." Regional economic independence and self-determination no longer exist. 

In the year 2000, 51 of the 100 biggest economies in the world were corporations. More than 20 million Americans now work for major transnational corporations, often in other countries.5 The rate of globalization has been accelerating over the last decade. Contributing factors in making the world a smaller place have been the spread of Internet and e-mail access as well as massive levels of international travel. Meanwhile most people in underdeveloped nations do not travel and only 1% of people in the Middle East and Africa have internet. I once wrote in my diary these words from Murray Sheard, whose essay is now lost to me but whose words are perhaps profoundly important to us today, "Religion has declined whenever consumerism gets hold of a nation. Religion is also seen as a barrier to consumption. It's something people are committed to above their own appetites."

American Pop Culture 

Americans have appetites. We hunger to eat, drink and own. As many of you know Americans consume 25% of the global resources and are 5% of the population. If everyone on the planet consumed as we do, we would need four other planets for the waste.6 We twitter and tweet. We Facebook and MySpace. We EBay and Craig's list. We blog and epublish. We Ifun, ITune, IPod and IPhone. We Wii and XBox. One million, thirty-nine thousand and thirty one people subscribe to the New York Times, while TV Guide has 9,072,609 subscribers and battles it out with Better Homes and Gardens who has 7,602,575 subscribers.7

Some of our cultural core values according to George Barna in his book Boiling Point are: 

convenience, options for expression, time maximization, belonging, comfort, experiences, happiness, independence, flexibility, authenticity, education options, entertainment, diversity, customization, participation, gender equality, technology, instant gratification, meaning, skepticism, image, control, relevance, impact/influence, personal empowerment, relationships, self-image, simplicity, compassion, teamwork, integrity, youth care, family cohesion, humor tolerance, volunteerism, reciprocity, generosity, networking, spiritual depth, risk taking, change, wealth, physical health, and achievement.

I can take my whole music collection, the first season of the television show the "Big Bang Theory," a selection of my favorite movies, and the latest news from my top podcasts from NPR to Wall Street Journal everywhere I go on my telephone, which I can use to update my social networks, figure out my global position, level a picture or call a friend.

As Jack in "Fight Club" wondered in 1996:

"The Klipske personal office unit, the Hovertrekke home exer-bike. Or the Johannshamnh sofa with the Strinne green stripe pattern...Even the Rislampa wire lamps of environmentally-friendly unbleached paper. I would flip through catalogs and wonder 'what kind of dining set defines me as a person?' I had it all. Even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections, proof they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard working people of...wherever. We used to read pornography. Now it was the Horchow Collection. 

 Video clip: Who do you say that I am? 

Labor Day Thoughts on the Labor of the Church

On this Labor Day here are a few thoughts on the labor of the church. It is an excerpt from my book: Vocãtiõ: Imaging a Visible Church.

You can find various versions of the book here.

Humans, Tools, and Commons

Whatever structurally does not fit the logic of machines is effectively filtered from a culture dominated by their use.

Ivan Illich[i]

Teeming Ingots
by James E. Allen, printed by Charles S. White, 1935

Throughout the book Vocãtiõ I have critiqued the post-Constantinian Church and demonstrated how vocations have been compromised by both chrematistic valuation and complicity with secular power. (The word chrematistic means related to or occupied with the gaining of wealth.) But there is still more to say about the impact of our shifting economic practices. Our global economy has obliterated local communities, rendering them insufficient to meet their own needs, and making the people who live in them terminally isolated. The vast majority of human beings do not make anything, let alone make anything for themselves. Berry writes, “Outsourcing’ the manufacture of frivolities is at least partly frivolous; outsourcing the manufacture of necessities is entirely foolish.”[ii] Household economics must reclaim a local focus. “Neighborhoods” and “neighborliness” must remerge as important values. A yearning for neighbors is baked into the small-batch movement, which is reconnecting producers and consumers, and individuals with the creative minds behind the products they purchase.[iii] The small-batch trend is bringing about local production of foods and household goods--many created inside homes and garages. Small batch bread, bourbon, clothing, and the farm-to-table movement are sacramental views of this trend in neighborliness.

The Gospel community can further undermine the dehumanizing practice of the global market by focusing locally and adding value to the neighborhoods where their communities are embedded. The church must partner with others and help people in local communities to relearn the art of household management, which has been obliterated from cradle to grave because chrematistic patterns of exchange have adhered to every part of life.  The Church must help individuals re-member themselves as parts of a family because families are the foundation for rebuilding local communities. Jesus went to families. He met in homes. Family is the core of the shalom community. Chrematistic rituals of exchange wear away family bonds and even collapse friendship circles by the weight of the powerful, urgent drive to accumulate money. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke to a group of economists about the emerging issues that an unencumbered system of competition has on individuals, their families, and their children. He said,

An atmosphere of anxious and driven adult lives, a casual attitude to adult relationships, and the ways in which some employers continue to reward family-hostile patterns of working will all continue to create more confused, emotionally vulnerable or deprived young people. If we're looking for new criteria for economic decisions, we might start here and ask about the impact of any such decision on family life and the welfare of the young.[iv]

Williams also points out that the human creature is meant for creativity. We have already spoken about God’s invitation to be a partner. But chrematistic systems of exchange force people to live without space for imagination. Imaginative play is how we learn to question, to problem solve, and to see the world with its future differently. Adults need space and time to play as much as children do.

It is the extra things that make us human; simply meeting what we think are our material needs, making a living, is not uniquely human, just a more complicated version of ants in the anthill. One of the greatest legacies of the British labour movement has been a real commitment to this--to the enlarging of minds and feelings (anyone who's been able to see that wonderful play, The Pitmen Painters, will know what I mean). So the question is how far economic decisions help or hinder a world in which that space for thinking things might be different is kept open.”[v]

In Philip K. Dick’s classic sci-fi novel entitled, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, later made into the popular film Blade Runner, androids can only mimic empathy but cannot truly express it. For Dick, empathic connection is the exclusive purview of the human being. Nurturing family and friendship circles through play and a leisurely sharing of life and time expand the human capacity for understanding, sympathy, and empathy. Chrematistic systems of exchange demand that life be oriented around work. Self-interest and success are promoted in the workplace. Williams points out that such a culture, “encourages you to struggle for your own individual interest and success, you are being encouraged to ignore the reality of other points of view--ultimately, to ignore the cost or the pain of others. The result may be a world where people are very articulate about their own feelings and pretty illiterate about how they impact on or appear to others--a world of which reality television gives us some alarming glimpses.”[vi] We generally scapegoat individuals who demonstrate villainous lacks of empathy without looking at the social determinants that make such toxicity possible.

The Church as a community of shalom has much work to do in a world dominated by chrematistic exchange. Christian charity pushes us to reach out to the casualties of society, and the number of broken people continues to mount. The community of shalom is a different kind of life where families are celebrated, new families are formed, and all these families bless one another. People recover the value of the Sabbath. They discover that they are made for partnership with God and that imagination, play, and discovery rejuvenate human relationships. Such a community of shalom names the lie that things and people can only delight us if we have them in large quantities. To actually die with the most toys (a bumper sticker popular in the West) is to die with nothing. God comes as mystery, inviting human participation in a great narrative, which stands in stark contrast to the world where relationships, friendships, and families can only be known as commodities.[vii] Williams points out that “an economic climate based on nothing but calculations of self-interest, sometimes fed by an amazingly distorted version of Darwinism, doesn't build a habitat for human beings; at best it builds a sort of fortified boxroom for paranoiacs (with full electronic services, of course).”[viii] The modern Church has failed at grafting a theology of charity into the dominant culture of chrematistic exchange. The inverse has happened: chrematistic exchange has grafted itself into the heart of the Church. We have made the baptized and the clergy into commodities for the maintenance and support of the institution.

A renewed gathering of the followers of Jesus must break into the world, and break up the world. The gathering where bread is broken, stories shared, and prayers are offered reminds the local community that they are implicated in a narrative of peace. Such a renewed gathering also breaks up the constant work expected by chrematistic institutions. The gathering in God’s name to proclaim the message of grace, reminding each other that all are invited into partnership with God, and giving thanks for a creation that has enough for all is an act of defiance in the face of chrematistic institutions promoting works righteousness, limited success for only the most devoted apostles, and a philosophy of private ownership and scarcity. In his book Political Worship Bernd Wannenwetsch observes,

Worship again and again interrupts the course of the world. Through worship the Christian community testifies that the world is not its own. And this means also that it is not kept alive by politics, as the business of politics, which knows no sabbath, would have us believe. That is why the celebration of worship is not directed simply against this or that totalitarian regime; it is directed against the totalization of political existence in general.[ix]

Christian community is one of the few ways that people can successfully resist the colonization of our bodies by the institutions of chrematistic exchange. We are slowly reverting to a model of social and political life where, through technology, the powers and authorities have a total claim on the body of every human being. Humans, once again, are seen as resources rather than beings.[x] The gathered community of shalom reveals this total control to be a lie. The human body is meant for a different end altogether. Gathering reminds the community of our heavenly purpose. Worship reminds the community of our heavenly purpose. In fact, the true beneficiaries of Easter are those who have suffered and died at the hands of unjust powers and institutions of chrematistic exchange for not even institutions as powerful as these can separate God from the faithful. (Romans 8:37-39) Christians remember the dead when we gather because our remembrance is a sign of our hope, and a declaration that the powers of death will have no victory.[xi]

Sunday morning worship services are being changed as people make new communities that share meals in other settings. Certainly, the missional movement and the farm-to-table gatherings of Christians are whittling away at the traditions we have received through the institutional Church. Borrowed spaces, public and private, are reshaping assumptions about what is needed for gathering. Jesus said that there is something “more here than temple.” (Matthew 12:6) Jesus broke open the centralized faith of his day and redistributed the faith of his forbearers. For instance, Jesus used the term worship in only a few instances.[xii] Worship is indeed part of what Christians do. We continue the notion of giving thanks to God, prayers, and worship that we received from our faith ancestors in the Mosaic or Sinai tradition. But Christians are doing more than simply worshiping God. The very act of gathering in relationship and holding hands resists commodification of our bodies.[xiii]

Another basic tool the shalom community uses to resist colonization is the chabûrah --the feast of friends. Neighborliness, as Peter Block, civic engineer and author, argues, is rooted in friendship. The community has an opportunity to engage in friendship with its surroundings. It bears witness to Jesus’s willingness to eat and drink with others by engaging relationally with the community around him. “Service can be commoditized, friendship cannot.”[xiv] The missional movement across the Church is rooted in this principle of friendship. This kind of friendship leads beyond outreach and the dehumanizing practices of toxic charity into a relationship of collaboration. It breaks open our inherited models of Christian community and knocks down the walls that buffer our private spaces. Friends are not bound by private space or false ideas of secular and sacred, but by agape: friendship love. As Wendell Berry writes, “A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.”[xv] He reminds us that the abdication of communal authority to the powers and authorities through governmental systems has freed us from each other in a toxic way. Reclaiming neighborliness as part of the communal life is essential to Christ’s vision. No person can live unto themselves. It is simply impossible. But, more importantly, the personalization of neighborliness returns authority to the members of the small community the local church serves. Its members start to care for one another again, which taps into the inclusive DNA of the Jesus Movement.

A shalom community engaging in friendly partnership with its neighbors will gravitate towards the urgent issues that preoccupy the local community. If people in our neighborhood care about safe public spaces, transportation, economic development, crime, or education, then God cares about these things, as does the community of shalom in a living partnership with the neighborhood will invest in local remedies to all of these issues. It will invest in economic development and partnerships that empower those in need of a better life. Along with the financial investment and time investment, a community of peace will focus on raising up new leaders within their neighborhoods. Indigenous leadership or contextual leadership is essential for the success of such partnerships. This is how friendship works. Friends empower each other to share their voices and do things they did not think were possible. A Church resisting colonization will be busy helping its neighbors invest in each other so that cycles of violence are broken and a new vision of life together in peace becomes possible. Gathering for worship and service bears a visible public witness against the powers of this world, and undermines them by resetting the boundaries of physical space in the world.

            Finally, a community of shalom will resist the powers of chrematistic exchange by recovering a commons that can be enjoyed by every member of a neighborhood. The privatization of land as resources, the eventual carving out of mineral rights, or immanent domain has contributed to our isolation by placing new boundaries upon our shared space. We view space as a commodity we individuals have the right to exploit rather than as part of a created order in which we all live and are invited to be partners together with God in managing. (Genesis 1:26) The transformation of our lived environment from a space held in common to a series of spaces held privately serves the interests of the few while impoverishing the many. This has amounted to a slow appropriation of the “commons.” Historically, the commons in the West, or the word iriai in the East, has designated the environment in which people lived. The commons were governed by custom and were characterized by shared access.[xvi] Ivan Illich explains,

People called commons that part of the environment which lay beyond their own thresholds and outside of their own possessions, to which, however, they had recognized claims of usage, not to produce commodities but to provide for the subsistence of their households.[xvii]

The openness of the commons meant that people could fish, hunt, graze, collect wood, or plants.

An oak tree might be in the commons. Its shade, in summer, is reserved for the shepherd and his flock; its acorns are reserved for the pigs of the neighboring peasants; its dry branches serve as fuel for the widows of the village; some of its fresh twigs in springtime are cut as ornaments for the church—and at sunset it might be the place for the village assembly.[xviii]

The use of the commons had limitations for the sake of sustainability, but the commons were shared spaces that made gathering with neighbors essential for individual life. The Church’s position towards the practice of maintaining commons in cities and villages began to change in the fourth century. As became normative in Western society, the Church became a private property owner. Somehow the Church must reclaim its critique against the evacuation of the commons. Privatization of common resources inevitably leads to those resources becoming assets that undergird invisible wealth. This is the slippery slope of chrematistic exchange.

Enclosure, once accepted, redefines community. Enclosure undermines the local autonomy of community. Enclosure of the commons is thus as much in the interest of professionals and of state bureaucrats as it is in the interest of capitalists. Enclosure allows the bureaucrats to define local community as impotent to provide for its own survival.

Enclosure of the commons allows for a sort of economic independence upon the enclosed resources and the commodities produced there. Conversely, people become tied to the land in a way that they were not prior to shared commons.

Furthermore, enclosed commons accentuate the separation of the secular and the sacred. The Church can take steps towards eroding private space by stepping across the lines that demarcate such enclosures. First, the Church can become a commons itself, gathering the local community, and sharing its resources for the improvement of the neighborhood. Second, the Church can offer the Eucharist in public and other private spaces. In this way, the gathering of people for Haggadah, the feast of friends, redefines the space. Both of these tools (worship and service) reinterpret the boundaries of church space and reengage neighborhoods across the boundaries of private space. The Church’s reentrance into public environs of any kind is a direct confrontation with the powers and the making of a feast there undermines the stories of scarcity, the survivalist mentality, and expands the political boundaries of acceptance.

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[i] “Silence is a Commons” (1982) [edited] Address at the "Asahi Symposium Science and Man - The computer-managed Society," Tokyo, Japan (21 March 21 1982); as published in The CoEvolution Quarterly (Winter 1983).

[ii] Berry, What, 51-53.

[iii] For more information see my 2016 book entitled Small Batch.

[iv] Rowan Williams, "Human Well-Being and Economic Decision-Making,” The Archbishop of Canterbury, November 16, 2009, Accessed August 14, 2017, http://rowanwilliams.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/767/human-well-being-and-economic-decision-making

[v] Williams, "Human”.

[vi] Williams, "Human”.

[vii] Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann, and John McKnight, An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Culture (Hoboken: Wiley, 2016) 37, 64-66.

[viii] Williams, “Humans”.

[ix] Bernd Wannenwetsch, Political Worship, trans. Margaret Kohl, Oxford Studies in Theological Ethics (Oxford University Press: New York, 2009) 127.

[x] Jean Bethke Elstain, "Christianity and Patriarchy: The Odd Alliance." Modern Theology, November 12, 2008, accessed August 15, 2017, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0025.1993.tb00297.x/abstract

[xi] Wannenwetsch, Political,132-3.

[xii] Matthew 14:32, 28:9; Luke 24:52; John 9:38.

[xiii] Brueggemann, Sabbath, 89.

[xiv] Block, “Kingdom”, 132.

[xv] Wendell Berry, "The Loss of the Future." Manasjournal Volume XXI, 47. November 20, 1968. Accessed August 15, 2017. http://www.manasjournal.org/pdf_library/VolumeXXI_1968/XXI-47.pdf

[xvi] Illich, “Silence”.

[xvii] Illich, “Silence”.

[xviii] Illich, “Silence”.