Church and churches

There’s been interesting discussion on Fr Milovan Katanic’s blog and elsewhere (including Steve Hayes’ wonderful blog) about hobnobbings between Roman Catholic and Orthodox leaders and the prospects for some kind of institutional merger. It may seem harsh to think everything ecclesiastical couldn’t simply be popped in the pot and boiled up into some great and glorious stew. However, because it has no externally imposed universal papcy, the Orthodox vision of God demands a kind of holistic coherence that calls for clarity and integrity on its own terms. Boiling up the stew would actually mush the ingredients to death.

So we come up against the mystery of the Church (in its broadest sense) as a clearly articulated but provisional reality. Every genuine expression of Christian discipleship carries within it the seeds of the whole, and one or two particular strands of glory. However, part of that inheritance is an awareness that its human expression is provisional (this side of glory). It does its job when, by its very limitations, it points beyond itself. The real glory of the Church lies wabeyond syncretism, and aly so beyond rational-bureaucratic imperialism.

An organic but limited and provisional awareness needs to inform any debate about the limits of national Churches. What rights does one church (small c) have to park its tanks on other churches’ lawns? Say “none,” and you compromise the totality of the vision that says we all belong to each other. Say “every right” and you walk the foothills of the toxic mess I’ve just called rational-bureaucratic imperialism. There has to be a better option than either of those.

One comment does stick in my mind from Fr Katanic’s blog, by Romanós.

All this smooching between hierarchs and popes is really quite comical, if not even tragic at a deeper level. I have long since personally given up hoping for as well as renouncing the kind of “unity” that this represents. For me, it is simply a non-issue. The unity which Christians share is above all a grace of Christ in the Holy Spirit, and we know that the Church has never been divided and never can be, but for those who battle it out on the external level. The canons of the Church are in place for good reason, and the lines have been drawn with good intentions, but all of these are temporal and fade away at the approach of Christ, for whose sake all who follow Him have given up all, and in whose presence all our righteousness, orthodoxy and orthopraxy, for all their “glory”, are still just filthy rags. Christ has saved us in spite of ourselves, so our best response is to love one another as He has loved us, without plucking each other’s eyebrows in the process.

Scribble, Scribble, Mr Gibbon

The Blogosphere is an essentially flat place, what Monty Python used to call an autonomous collective, hardly friendly to the whole idea of elites and awards, except the sort you award yourself. I have had rather ambivalent personal feelings about gongs, ever since Father Ted came unstuck over his Golden Cleric award. Nevertheless, the superior graphics, catchy red border, and unsolicited nature of the Superior Scribbler Award has subverted my anarcho-syndicalist tendencies and won my heart to this improbable enterprise. This is a free cascading tag chain of affirmation cooked up by The Scholastic Scribe. Melissa B (profile picture Left) teaches high school journalism, (Mel B? Shome mishtake?).

Melissa’s blog emanates from the legendary ghetto of Haight-Ashbury, so getting this gong feels, in itself, like a thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat at Alice’s restaurant, even without a real VW Microbus, let alone Implements of Dee-struction. The catchy logo comes complete with a quotation from Herbert Gould, elder statesman of the Beat Generation:

Diverting the internal traffic
between the Writer as Angel of Light
and the Writer as Hustler
is the scribbling child in a grown-up body,
wondering if anyone is listening.

Yep. Sounds like me.

Furthermore, what really does it for me is the joy of being awarded this gong by Bosco Peters, whose Spirituality and Liturgy Blog from NZ is one of the most thought provoking and informative reads out there — from the origins of Martinmas to Thomas Merton’s grandparents. Bosco deftly applies real knowledge and creative imagination to core anchor points of Christian praxis, with a seemingly constant stream of helpful and sometimes unique perspectives.

So, I gladly accept this prestigious honour, estabished October 2008,with grateful thanks to Bosco, my family, my parents, my colleagues, and those vital people a gushy Hollywood recipient once named in her acceptance speech, “all the people of the world, just for being themselves.”

In spite of this tagging exercise’s hippy-dippy SF roots, there are rules:

Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

All that remains, then, is to nominate “five most deserving Bloggy Friends,” or the tag chain fails... So, I suggest, in no particular order, because that would involve envelopes, the following five off my feed list (their latest is always posted in the right hand column)...

• Steve Hayes
  At a time the word “Orthodox” is being increasingly used in ludicrous ways by Churchy politicos who don’t know Orthodoxy from a horse’s, er, bottom, Steve is a real Orthodox Deacon in South Africa. There’s a tremendous depth of experience and breadth of interest here, plus thoughtful reflection from an African perspective. All this spiced with interesting book reviews, and a well developed sense of fun about resources out there, including the notorious Typealyzer, that some people have been wasting hours with this past week.
  
• Tim Norwood
  produces one of the best day-to-day Vicar blogs out there, connecting with people around his ministry. His blog draws you naturally into what he’s doing as Vicar and area dean. I’ve often recommended it to colleagues wondering what use a blog might be in their ministry, and in these days of shared ministry, it’s a good means of sharing life and work, with its joys, frustrations and occasional flashes of inspiration.
  
• David Chillingworth
  was the first bishop blog I got to know — gently humerous, slightly quizzical, personal without ego, I’ve enjoyed getting to know what +David's work is all about, in its various dimensions. Coming from an Irish background, and ministering in Scotland, sometimes gives a particularly interesting twist to his view. +David also deserves a gong for his campaign of billets doux to the housekeeper, pressurizing University of Kent authorities to allow bishops’ spouses to share bedrooms with their fellas at the Lambeth Conference, just like the students do.
  
• Anne Droid
  is a Scottish prison chaplain. Get out of Jail Free rings various bells with me, having engaged in prison ministry myself in the past. She doesn’t duck the real issues, either. I’m struck how some significant dimensions of justice and grace that get hidden away in more genteel spheres of ministry stand out clearly in hers, and it’s a guaranteed good read. It also has an excellent blogroll for those times you just want to thumb round interesting and useful material.
  
• David Keen
  is a Vicar in the West Country, who reflects on a wide variety of issues and ideas around mission, ministry and the Kingdom. He brings together concerns about Kingdom and Ministry in all sorts of interesting ways — feet firmly on the ground, but with penetrating analysis, and a strong sense of justice which has given him a campaigning edge in articulating reactions to the dreadful saga of the SPCK bookshops and the Brewer brothers.
  

Demonic Buddhist Chant: Really?

All sorts of trenchant reaction has followed the news that the Bishop of Colombo’s sermon at the Eucharist in Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday concluded with a Buddhist Chant which one commentator described as “demonic.” Another ruled, quick as a flash,

The inclusion of this chant is unconscionable. The orthodox who are there should immediately vacate.

Among more reflective comments on this disturbing story, Bishop Robert Duncan said the inclusion of the chant was “very, very troubling” since it was an “invocation of something other than the God we know... to have a Buddhist chant at an Anglican sermon does not reflect the God we believe in.”

I strongly endorse Cardinal Dias’ rejection of syncretism in an Indian context. My Sinhala is not what it could be. The gospel says that if you have an issue with a brother you owe it to yourself and to your God talk it through calmly and directly with them first. Today I was able to discuss this chant with Bishop de Chickera. Much Sri Lankan culture is essentially of Buddhist origin, he explained. What did the words mean? I asked. Four verses:

I take refuge in God the Father
I take refuge in God the Son
I take refuge in God the Holy Spirit
I take refuge in the One Triune God.

I am surprised that the Bishop of Pittsburgh finds this a deeply troubling invocation of a God he does not know. I am sorry if it does not reflect the God he believes in. I rejoice to know, and better still, to be known through and through by this God, and to believe in him. Over fifty years he has been my creator, saviour, and sanctifier, and I know no other.

When we rush to judgment of others we do not know, like or understand, especially on the internet, especially on the basis of rumour, it is easy to make complete fools of ourselves.