Christ Church Blog

I was recently asked, “What are the core beliefs of The Episcopal Church?” I’ve actually been giving this a lot of thought, if not particularly of The Episcopal Church, of Christianity in general; because I’m teaching a five-week course in the Seminary for Seniors entitled “Basic Christianity.” I want to reflect on that question in a series on this blog over the next few weeks.

I begin with an observation. Any definition of Christianity is partly or wholly dependent on who is doing the defining. For example, I recently received a “Christian Voters’ Guide” that rated candidates for state and Federal offices on a “Faith Friendly” scale. (Curiously, each candidate was either 100% or 0% faith friendly. No one was in between!) The criteria were these: positions on abortion, homosexual rights, Obamacare and birth control.

My point is simply this. I know of no creed, confession of faith, or catechism that defines Christianity or faith based on these criteria. One would be hard pressed to even find them mentioned in Holy Scripture. But the producers of this Voters’ Guide are trying to do just that: define Christian faith in terms of hot-button social issues.

More on “Core Beliefs” in next week’s post in this series.

The root of the word “Hebrew” means “nomad”. Our ancestors in faith were nomadic people who roamed far and wide across the Middle East seeking water and pasture for their flocks.  In keeping with this transient life, their understanding of God was broader than that of many of their neighbors. God was not limited to a particular rock, mountain, or other geographic location. The Hebrew God moved with his people. Their sanctuary was a “tent of meeting” and their altar was the portable “ark of the covenant”.

The Hebrews eventually settled in Israel, built a fixed temple in Jerusalem, and created a priesthood. Christianity began with an itinerant preacher of whom it was said, “He had no (permanent) place to lay his head.” We, too, evolved into elaborate cathedrals, parish churches and hierarchies.

I am mindful of these roots of our faith in the early Hebrew experience as the face of religion is changing today. Organized religion is weakening, and our beautiful buildings are ageing. But really vital spiritual practices and ministries are flourishing in homes, coffee shops, homeless shelters, food banks. Many are in small venues beyond the walls of official holy sites and outside the purview of the ordained.

Perhaps a way forward is to recover a sense of the nomadic and portable—an understanding that God is experienced in and among her people, wherever they may be.

–John Paddock

What does it mean to be engaged in mission? The Anglican Communion has adopted “Five Marks of Mission” to point the way for responding to the call of Jesus.

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom;
• To teach, baptize, and nurture new believers;
• To respond to human need by loving service;
• To seek to transform unjust structures of society;
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

The church does not take partisan political stands nor do we endorse candidates. But we do remind people of our values, the marks of what it means to be in mission in the name of, and for the sake of, Jesus. I encourage you to keep these values in mind as we go through this political season. And then I urge you to vote. Vote your conscience. Vote your values. Vote with Jesus in mind.

 –John Paddock

Over the past few years there has been a marked increase in the amount of applause in our worship. This is particularly true at our main service on Sundays where musical offerings from children, youth, and adults are more frequently applauded. Occasionally, this is true of sermons as well.

I was raised with the understanding that clapping in church was completely inappropriate. “Worship is an offering to God and is not a performance,” was the refrain.

This is not just an Episcopal thing. I recently came across this story:

One Baptist congregation in a metropolitan area was very pleased to have younger families joining the church. But some of the long-tenured members were upset when others in the congregation applauded the children after they sang an anthem in the children’s choir. “What do I do?” asked one member, who felt caught in the middle. “I really feel like clapping, and I think the children need the encouragement. But I also know that I’m breaking my father’s heart. He is standing right next to me and hates to hear clapping in church.” (Leading Change in the Congregation, Gilbert R. Rendle, p. 32)

For some folk, I’m learning, applause is seen as a response to the spontaneous movement of the Holy Spirit. It is also a celebration of the gifts and offerings of others. For others (like me), even when I do clap in church, I do so looking over my shoulder, wondering if I’m about to experience the wrath of God (or at least the condemnation of those voices from my own youth that still play in my head).

This is part if the tension in which I live, and I suspect that there are others who do as well. The issue for some may be clapping—for others it’s kneeling or something else. What about you?

–The Rev. John Paddock

One of the best adult formation experiences is Education for Ministry, commonly called EfM. Participants learn about the Bible, Church history, theology and ethics. More significantly, they grow in their ability to do theological reflection. Theological reflection refers to thinking about our lives and our world and her issues in the light of God.

A new group is forming in the Dayton area that will be mentored by Eric Schryver.

The EfM seminars will be held at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 5520 Far Hills Ave., Dayton 45429. The group will meet from 7 to 9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, beginning September 12, 2012, and ending on June 5, 2013.  No classes will be scheduled around holidays. 

The enrollment fee is $350 and is due by August 26, 2012.  Reduced rates may be available through a variety of sources, and some scholarship assistance may be available through Christ Church.

Interested participants are encouraged to go to the EfM website at www.sewanee.edu/EfM.

If  there are questions about the local group, please contact Eric Schryver. Call the parish office or email me for Eric’s personal contact information.

We have a number of Christ Church folk who have participated in EfM over the years and several who have mentored groups as well. Let me know if you would like to talk with any of them.

Please prayerfully consider EfM.

–John Paddock

Our vestry has undertaken a discipline this year of spending a good half hour in Bible study early in their monthly meetings.  This practice changes the tone of meetings.  The goal is to bring the business of the church into dialog with our faith.  The details of the scripture passage may not seem to be the one to speak to the details of that meeting’s agenda but the practice of the study lays a foundation for discerning God’s call and presence whatever that agenda may hold.

At our July meeting, the passage was Acts 8:1-13 which immediately follows the stoning of Steven, the first deacon.  The nascent church is being scattered and harassed and yet, is very alive.  After listening to the passage three times from different Bibles and sharing our first and second responses to the passage.  We took up the question, “What is your dream of what you want the church to be?” 

Home     Inclusive     Remembers dignity and reverence at worship     Searches for balance     Teaches the faith     Allows movement in faith life    Moves toward Christ   Free from constraints

Visions and dreams enable us to see what’s not yet apparent and keep us moving despite difficulties and obstacles. Vestry’s work can seem difficult and filled with obstacles. And, keeping God in the midst of it all seems far-fetched because God’s ways are not necessarily the ways of the world.                   –the Rev. Mary Slenski

This is the end of the traditional Church year. I am coming to understand that while fall/winter/spring programs enter a hiatus, other things become possible as we switch into summer mode. Many folk will find themselves outside more and more. As I do lawn and garden work I see and talk with neighbors whom I’ve only seen at a distance for some months. Street vendors attract crowds at Courthouse Square when the weather permits to feed the weekday lunchtime folk. Occasional visits to a Dragons Game bring me into contact with people I don’t know. Even taking a morning coffee break with church staff outside gives me a chance to engage passersby.

These are all opportunities for conversation beyond “What’s your name? Where do you live? What do you do?” This summer I’m making a conscious effort to discover what folk are thinking by asking open-ended questions and trying to listen to their answers. Perhaps the Holy Spirit speaks, and I’m too busy with my own agenda to hear. God may be doing a new thing and calling me to new tasks. Maybe I can turn that around a little bit by pausing to listen.

–The Rev. John Paddock

“A leper came to him, begging him, and kneeling, he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can  make me clean.’  Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him,…” (Mk 1:40-41a,NRSV)

What Jesus did was a pretty radical thing for his time.  To touch an unclean person was to make one’s entire person unclean and required separation.  Jesus choose to take that separation upon himself.

Touch is one of the biological mechanisms that helps us form and sustain close bonds with other human beings, bonds essential for our survival.  It’s long been known that touch is essential to the flourishing of newborns.  But, it’s gotten complicated with fear of harassment and influenza.  And yet, touch is built in to our liturgy.  The time after the prayers and before the offertory known as The Peace builds in an invitation to shake hands or share a brief hug or pat on the back.  To insiders, it’s easy.  To the visitor, it’s immensely complicated. Let compassion and sensitivity rule the moment!

These days, to talk about or suggest touching another person is a topic fraught with land mines.  Yet, touch is often a necessary part of healing ministry whether of the physician or health care provider.  The orders of our faith are passed on through the laying on of hands from bishop to confirmand or ordinand.  Oils of baptism and of healing are shared by making the sign of the cross on one’s forehead with an oiled thumb.  The same action places ashes on our foreheads as a reminder of our dustiness.  To touch is to break down boundaries and barriers.  To touch is to both deny and to abandon the safety of personal space.  To touch both allows and accepts vulnerability.   Following the pattern Jesus set for us, touch in these traditional, appropriate ways transmits the intimate grace of God.

“Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose.  Be made clean!’  Immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.”

Jesus’ touch allowed grace-full compassion to transform the leper’s disease into wholeness overflowing.  Anyway, to be clean, to be outwardly unafflicted and whole made one eligible to be restored to the fellowship of the community.  Healing, wholeness, even our very salvation are intimately woven together, as close as Jesus’ touch to the leper.

O God of peace, you have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength.  By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may know your touch of your hand; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Shalom, 
the Rev. Mary Slenski

I have tried to respond to Steve Grech’s comments to my previous post, point by point. His words are in italics. (This is coming as a new post from me since I could not figure out how to do the italic thing within the “reply” box.) Please scroll down to read my previous post on abortion.

After reading this, I have an important question for you “What is your personal belief as to when life begins?”

I am a real conservative on the matter of when human life begins. From the Book of Genesis right on through many religious and legal codes through the millennia, human life begins when we take our first breath.

Why is this important? Because in your own words, you relate “Language is metaphorical and symbolic.” If you believe that, nothing can be a foundation for you. Life, love, Jesus, God, faith, Incarnation, Resurrection, blessing, miracle-are these all “symbolic’? You cannot build a life of faith on “symbolic”.

I did not say that life and faith etc. are symbolic. I said, “Language is metaphorical and symbolic.” Language is composed of signs, symbols, and sounds. The word “horse” is not a horse. It is a symbolic representation of another reality to which it points. And there is a great deal of subjectivity in the word “horse,” because one person hearing the word may think about a particular horse he has ridden, while another may think of an equestrian granite statue.

“Symbolic” language leads you to believe Planned Parenthood gets a “small percentage of its operations” from abortions. Fact (not symbolic):

1. In its last annual report (June 30, 2010), PP received $487.4 million tax dollars.
 2. Over that some time period it performed 329,455 abortions.
 3. It provided prenatal care to 31,098 women.
 4. It referred 841 women to adoption agencies.

Steve, I believe that if you check that same report you will see that Planned Parenthood provided over 11 million services during the reporting year, of which 3% were abortions. According to my math that qualifies as a “small percentage of its operations.”

“Small percentage” is a very poor symbol when talking about the facts listed above. 91% of pregnant women seen by PP get abortions.

Be careful here. My dad was a statistician who used to claim that “figures lie and liars figure.” (Please don’t take this personally. My dad didn’t. I only quote him to make the point that we must read the numbers carefully, so that we don’t draw conclusions that are not revealed in the data.) Again, according to the report, only 31,098 women received prenatal care. But prenatal care is not Planned Parenthood’s primary mission. 1,144,558 women received pregnancy tests, of which at least a few probably came out positive. In addition, statistically, some of the over 5,775,000 who participated in cancer screenings/prevention and STI/STD testing and treatment were pregnant as well. So it cannot be accurately claimed that “91% of pregnant women seen by PP get abortions.”

When you speak about the “official position of the Episcopal Church”, you relate women should have the legal right to choose…” The government does not grant “rights”, only God can give rights.

We have a Bill of Rights amending our Constitution. The Supreme Court has affirmed that a woman has a legal right to choose an abortion. I referred to “legal” rights. Existential rights may be granted by God, but “legal” rights are spelled out in constitutions, legislation, and court rulings.

Government needs and should be limited in scope.

I agree. Government should not be in the business of regulating women and their bodies. As I said in my original piece, “If government can force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term, then government could also force a woman to abort (as has been the case in China).”

Abortion is not a “right”. Abortion is an act. What you left out of your paragraph was this interesting part of the 72nd Convention: “That this 72nd General Convention of the Episcopal Church express grave concern about the use in the third trimester of pregnancy…called partial birth abortion…except in extreme situations”. Really?! What possible extreme situation would cause a doctor to puncture a hole in the base of a baby’s skull, suck the brains out, and then pull out the rest? Is this language too “symbolic”? And you as a priest, stand by and support this?

A circumstance is that of a hydrocephalic fetus that cannot be delivered and may or will kill the mother. Another may be extreme septic shock. Please note that the General Convention did make an exception for extreme situations. Yes, as a priest, I follow the teaching of the bishops, priests, and laity gathered in General Convention.

“Bringing an unwanted infant into the world…having a baby with known or probable defects-these are just a few examples”. Where is God’s hope in this? Have you heard of Ben Carson (reknowned surgeon), Steve Jobs (adopted), Larry Ellison (adopted), Scott James (autistic singer), baby Isaac (recommended for abortion and now a happy 4 year old boy), and last, but not least, Rebecca Kreisling-conceived in rape and now an attorney. God’s hope is always there but its hard when the word “hope” is symbolic or metaphorical.

Let’s talk about the 30,000 children who starve to death every day. Remember, words are symbolic. Not the reality to which they point.

Congrats to you also for being a foster and adoptive parent. Foster parents and adoptive parents are very special. Using your reasoning about bringing “unwanted children into the world, birthing a child with physical or emotional ‘defects'” which child do you think should have been aborted? When they were born, I’m assuming there was no hope in their lives, out of the 80 children you fostered, chances are high one or more had physical or emotional “defects”, and as you state “every child born into this life places an additional burden on the earth’s resources”. So which child? All the mothers had that choice you support ardently. Can you honestly look at their pictures (or your grandchild’s pictures) and say “Abortion would have been so much better”.

Once they are here, breathing, fully human, yes, I will fight to defend their presence among us and their rights and care with all my life. Too often, that‘s when many folk want to abort them post birth by denying them health care, education, food and general welfare. Please note: “Abortion would have been so much better,” are your words, not mine. So which child would I choose? That’s my point. I don’t get to choose. I’m a man.

Finally, when you state “the individual must make her choices with fear and trembling, always in the belief and confidence that righteousness is an unearned gift”. I learned in EFM, righteousness is “walking with God”. Righteousness is not “unearned”. The person must make a decision to turn and walk and follow. God does not follow, He does not hover. He leads after He asks (free will) and you decide. Is the woman afraid of God (i.e. “trembling and fear”)? Why? Why can’t her priest in her life convince her God is love and not death? Where are the reverends to hold her hand and say, “The church will help you through this because God has a plan!”

I beg to differ. As a former EFM mentor and as person with a doctorate in theology, I maintain that righteousness is a gift from God that cannot be earned. It is a gift from God that we call “grace”. Grace is never earned. As you know so well, this was the main theological thrust of the Protestant Reformation.

Regarding the language “trembling and fear,” you will remember that Philippians 2:12, says “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

In your world, words are “symbols and metaphors” so only you can answer the question I asked at the beginning: Where in your personal belief does life begin?

See above.

Babies die if you answer wrong.

No. Fetuses are aborted. If they do not breathe, they are not babies.

Many Christians will disagree, and you are certainly among them. As often portrayed by the media, yours is THE Christian position on the matter. But as I stated in the beginning, mine is a Christian perspective that is held by many faithful people.

–John Paddock