Called To Be Church for the World

I admit to a certain fondness for Anglicanism, especially Anglican liturgy. (If we had to have Mass in English, a viable model in good English already existed, obviating any real need for ICEL!). Highlighting our shared history, the Holy See has just recently loaned to the Archbishop of Canterbury an ivory handle (photo) of a crozier of Saint Gregory the Great, the Pope who sent Saint Augustine, Canterbury's first Archbishop, to England in 595.

Sadly, the Anglican Communion has fallen on hard times - in part undoubtedly due to cultural changes ultimately beyond the Church's control but in no small part undoubtedly due in some segments of the Church to a post-modern eagerness to be on the right sight of progressive history, with predictably catastrophic consequences. Things seem to have reached a crisis point in terms of the unity of the Communion.  Hence I read with interest the Archbishop of Canterbury's rather personal address to this week's Primates' Meeting.

In that address, Archbishop Welby spoke movingly of Anglican history since Saint Augustine as a mixture of good and bad,of the heroism of missionary endeavour from Augustine onwards, through the evangelism of the savage tribes of Scandinavia by monks from the north east of England, and onwards over the centuries to the great missions from the 18th century which led to so many of the churches whose Primates are here. We are all the heirs and beneficiaries of courage, of loss, of suffering and of martyrdom, of wars of independence and conquest, of the search for freedom and of others who have used the church for repression. But, while wheat and weeds coexisting in inevitably part of the story of every Church, it is God's grace and faithfulness which ultimately defines that story. Apparently that includes Archbishop Welby's own personal story of how indigenous Kenyan and Ugandan faith, through the East African Revival that set the pattern for holiness, for a vigour of lifestyle in relationship with Christ that so impressed an 18 year old teaching at Kiburu Secondary school. 

As he inevitably had to, he went on to address the problem of divisions within the Church - both historical and contemporary - divisions Welby calls an obscenity, a denial of Christ’s call and equipping of the church. He acknowledged a gloomy picture of the moral and spiritual state of Anglicanism. In all Provinces there are forms of corruption, none of us is without sin. There is litigation, the use of civil courts for church matters in some places. Sexual morality divides us over same sex issues, where we are seen as either compromising or homophobic. But in a kind of alternative picture he returned agin to that East African Revival to teach us the need for holiness. We must be renewed as a holy church, defined by our passionate worship and its content, with every Christian knowing scripture, prayerful, humble and evangelistic. In a sentence, we must be those who are, to the outside world, visibly disciples of Jesus Christ.

Under the circumstances certainly the invocation of the African church's contribution to his own spiritual journey and to that of the larger Church is itself a fitting (and clever) effort at reconciliation within a fracturing community. The same could be said for his account of Church of england's efforts to hold its own - against the prevailing wind of our society and to the dismay of the secularists. It remains to be seen how true it will ring to the assembled Primates, already so at odds with each other.

The idea is often put forward that truth and unity are in conflict, or in tension. That is not true. Disunity presents to the world an untrue image of Jesus Christ. Lack of truth corrodes and destroys unity. They are bound together, but the binding is love. In a world of war, of rapid communications, of instant hearing and misunderstanding where the response is only hatred and separation, the Holy Spirit whose creative and sustaining gifting of the church is done in diversity, demands that diversity of history, culture, gift, vision be expressed in a unity of love. That is what a Spirit filled church looks like.

Again, it remains to be seen how effective will be - or even can be - this appeal to get back to the basics of Christian community and mission. So many problems in the Church's life in the past 50 or so years (and by no means only in the Anglican Church) have resulted from an excessively inward focus and a consequent weakening of the Church's ability - and her confidence in her ability - to speak effectively to the world with the Word who is the world's one ans only Savior!World

The Church and the World - 2016 Version

The Holy Father gave his annual New Year Address to the diplomatic corps today. After summing up his own international travels and other activities (especially the Holy Year of Mercy) and some of the Holy See's major diplomatic undertakings during the past year, the Pope spoke at some length about the migration and refugee crisis - including a passing reference to his upcoming visit to the U.S.-Mexico border at Ciudad Juarez next month. He left no doubt that the migration and refugee crisis is a top priority for him - and, therefore, for the Church. He also threw down this challenge to the rich and powerful nations of the world: 

Many of the causes of migration could have been addressed some time ago. So many disasters could have been prevented, or at least their harshest effects mitigated. Today too, before it is too late, much could be done to end these tragedies and to build peace. But that would mean rethinking entrenched habits and practices, beginning with issues involving the arms trade, the provision of raw materials and energy, investment, policies of financing and sustainable development, and even the grave scourge of corruption. We all know, too, that with regard to migration there is a need for mid-term and long-term planning which is not limited to emergency responses. Such planning should include effective assistance for integrating migrants in their receiving countries, while also promoting the development of their countries of origin through policies inspired by solidarity, yet not linking assistance to ideological strategies and practices alien or contrary to the cultures of the peoples being assisted.

And in his overview of developments, both positive and negative, in the international situation, the Pope devoted an entire paragraph to nuclear agreement with Iran and the climate agreement at the recent Paris conference:

2015 witnessed the conclusion of important international agreements, which give solid hope for the future. I think first of the so-called Iran nuclear deal, which I hope will contribute to creating a climate of détente in the region, as well as the reaching of the long-awaited agreement on climate at the Paris Conference. This significant accord represents for the entire international community an important achievement; it reflects a powerful collective realization of the grave responsibility incumbent on individuals and nations to protect creation, to promote a “culture of care which permeates all of society” [Laudato Si', 231]. It is now essential that those commitments prove more than simply a good intention, but rather a genuine duty incumbent on all states to do whatever is needed to safeguard our beloved earth for the sake of all mankind, especially generations yet to come.

The realities of the Middle East are so negative right now that the Iran agreement really is practically the only potentially positive thing to have happened in that region recently. It remains to be seen, of course, whether or not it will actually accomplish its goal. Likewise, the Parish agreement really represents but the barest minimum of progress toward what needs yet to be achieved. That the most powerful nation in the world still harbors climate-change deniers among its political class is not only a moral disgrace for the United States but also represents a serious danger to continued progress in this vital area.

Wigs on the Green

Emotions rule - really rule - in the second episode of Downton Abbey's final season. We are stuck, apparently, with the somewhat tiresome tussle between Violet and Isobel that risks embroiling the rest of the Crawleys and other local luminaries. Not that there isn't a real issue in the battle over the village hospital's future - whether to stay small and backward or move ahead with the times at the cost of amalgamation and modernity's bureaucratic alienation. But the endless sparring between Violet and Isobel is really all just part of the series' large leitmotif of a society being forced into change. In this episode, however, it does introduce us to a wonderful Britishism I had never heard before - "wigs on the green" - referring to the consequences of disagreement getting out of control!

Daisy too remains out of control. Her emotional outburst in episode 1 did her father-in-law no good, but she continues to try to interfere. Thomas Barrow, as we already all know, has always been a barely corked, seething cauldron of emotions. His hurt feelings at young Andy's unresponsiveness to his overtures and his accumulated resentments have persuaded him to start looking for work elsewhere. It remains to be seen whether these two partially lit fuses will just blow up, or whether the series still may have a happier ending in store for either or both of them.

Speaking of happy endings, will Anna finally get pregnant, now that the formidable Lady Mary has connected her with good medical help? But why does Anna still refuse to trust her husband? Why can't she confide in  him? It seems secrecy has seldom served anyone well at Downton. Yet it remains the path of choice for Anna - and others.

Among them, of course, is Lady Edith! The result has been the complete upending of the Drew family, who must now look elsewhere for a new tenancy, since Mrs. Drew's emotional attachment to Marigold cannot be turned off. As the long-suffering Mr. Drew admitted to Lord Grantham, the plan he and Edith had hatched was a good one, but they forgot to factor in the power of emotion.

And then there is Mr. Carson's emotional attachment to and enduring bond with Lady Mary that threatens his and Mrs. Hughes' wedding plans!

Of course, emotion has always ruled in human affairs. But a major point of the old regime now unravelling before our eyes in 1925 was to keep emotion in check, to keep it from overpowering judgment and reason and order, to prevent "wigs on the green." The trajectory of 20th-century cultural change has been to forget - or ignore - that lesson of history and human nature.

And it will only get worse as the century progresses - from World War II to what Tony Judt in Postwar called "the self-congratulatory, iconoclastic impulse" of the 1960s!

Epiphany's Challenge

Notwithstanding the American anticipation of the Epiphany last Sunday, the real Epiphany was celebrated in the Universal Church yesterday in the usual way - including a challenging homily by the Holy Father at  Mass in the Vatican Basilica. (Meanwhile for those Eastern Christian Churches that still follow the Julian Calendar, the season is just starting. In the Julian Calendar, today is December 25, Christmas Day. The Julian Calendar's January 6 will fall on our Gregorian January 19. so by the time those Eastern Churches observe Epiphany, Christmas will already be just a faint memory for most of us in the West!)

In his epiphany homily yesterday, Pope Francis returned to one of his common themes, challenging us us "to rise an go forth, to leave behind all that leaves us self-enclosed, to go out from ourselves and to recognize the splendor of the light which illumines our lives." On this great festival of divine light penetrating the darkness of our world, the Pope recalled that"for the Church to be missionary means to give expression to her very nature, which is to receive God's light and then to reflect it."

Epiphany is a good corrective to Christmas, that is, to our annual December orgy of commerce wrapped in sentimentality. Epiphany reminds us what the incarnation is all about.  And there is certainly much that is "self-enclosed" about our contemporary Christmas, which itself reflects the character of our contemporary culture. That there is also, sadly, so much that is "self-enclosed" about contemporary Church life here in the United States simply highlights the depth to which so much of our American Church life has become a reflection of our contemporary secular individualist culture.

That is why we should be highlighting Epiphany's message more than we currently do. Epiphany is more than just a convenient target date to dismantle Christmas decorations. On the contrary, it is when Christmas grows up, so to speak, and becomes part of our no longer so ordinary life. (In the Eastern Churches' emphasis on Epiphany as the celebration of the Lord's baptism, we literally encounter the grown up Christ for the first time and recognize in him what the whole Advent-Christmas cycle has been leading up to.)

In his homily, the Pope highlighted the magi as spiritual seekers - "a living witness to the fact that the seeds of truth are present everywhere, for they are the gift of the Creator, who calls all people to acknowledge him as good and faithful Father." The magi highlight "the desire for God which is present in the heart of every man and woman" and the consequent mission of the Church, which reflects the light of Christ that has come into our dark world, it mission "to draw out the desire for God present in every heart." 

Reflecting the light of Christ rather than our contemporary secular individualist culture! How appropriate a challenge for our time and place! 

FDR's Four Freedoms at 75

Like its inspiration, the Sovereign's Gracious Speech from the Throne, the U.S. President's State of the Union Address occurs at the beginning (or close to the beginning) of the American congressional session and seeks to set the agenda for it. (Since the adoption of the 20th Amendment in 1933, this has occurred in January of each year.) But 75 years ago today, on January 6, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress with a speech of more than passing significance. Still 11 months prior to American entry into the Second World War, FDR nonetheless departed from the isolationist orientation of so many of his fellow citizens and called upon them to recognize and promote worldwide four fundamental freedoms that he argued ought to exist "everywhere in the world." The Four Freedoms FDR enumerated were freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear:

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."

Progress toward the universal achievement of these Four Freedoms - even toward a universal commitment to trying to achieve them - has been mixed at best. that is true not just globally but even within our own society, which in FDR's time was still characterized by legally institutionalize racism, among other ills. And it was only with the War on Poverty and the Great Society that the New Deal's aspiration to guarantee freedom from want began to seem likely to be achieved here in the US. Worldwide, progress in these areas has been real, but partial.

Then came the 1980s and American society began its ideological retreat from the national and global solidarity which underlie the Four Freedoms. How many of the current Republican candidates for President, for example, can one even imagine seriously advocating the Four Freedoms or actually trying to promote them nationally and globally if elected?

(The above photo shows the text of the Four Freedoms memorialized at Four Freedoms Park on roosevelt Island in New York City's East River.)