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All Along the Watchtower

~ A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you … John 13:34

All Along the Watchtower

Tag Archives: Diversity

Tradition

28 Sunday Jun 2020

Posted by chalcedon451 in Catholic Tradition, Faith

≈ 104 Comments

Tags

Change Tradition, Diversity

Pope Francis Not Catholic Enough

I was saddened by Scoop’s comment yesterday.

I personally have given up on going to or giving money to the Novus Ordo Church in the US and will have to do with a parish visit every now and then when a Traditional Mass is available. And I would never have thought of doing such previously but things have devolved so rapidly here in the US. I am grateful that I can do this in accordance to Canon Law; being exempt from my Sunday Obligation in lieu of my age and my physical constitution.

Although he and I have not always agreed, I have never for one moment doubted the depth and steadfastness of his faith, which is why reading this heartfelt cry made me sad. I understand, as many will, his reasoning. It raised in my mind the subject of tradition and change.

Living things change, it is the pre-eminent sign of life; what does not live begins to decay or, at best, can be embalmed in preservatives; but Christianity lives, which means it changes.

Every time the Gospel is preached something changes, every time someone turns to Christ they are changed. The Apostles did not celebrate the Liturgy  as established at the Council of Trent, indeed, they did not even read the Gospels in their Churches, and they certainly did not have statues of Jesus or Our Lady, white, brown or yellow. Wherever the Apostles went, they encountered a local culture, and as we see in Acts, they brought the Good News into that context and changed it; but they also adapted to local conditions. There was no insistence on a one-size fits all model, and those who, like St James and the church in Jerusalem, tried to insist on one, failed to get their way. Had they done so, it would have been, as St Paul knew (which is why he was so passionate about it) far more difficult for the Faith to have spread as it did. There were those who disapproved, and no doubt those who turned away sadly because they thought they had much to lose (as Jewish Christians did in terms of family contacts if they ate with Gentiles). But the pattern set then continued, and it was, and is, one of continuity and adaptation.

Thus, as far back as we can trace, Christians have met to break blessed bread and share blessed wine in memory of the Last Supper and as a sign of the Resurrection. The early Church argued, as the modern one has, about what “in memory of me” meant, and whether, and even how, the bread and wine became the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ; but whether literally, symbolically or as a memorial, Christians have gathered in communion from the earliest times. In some traditions bread and wine have always been distributed, in others it has from time to time been held that since the Lord in fully present under both species, bread alone is sufficient. In some traditions there has been a continuous tradition of the bread being just that, an actual loaf; in others, a wafer has come to represent that bread. Having communed in both ways, I have to say I prefer bread, but having been denied the Lord for so long, I will take and eat whatever a priest has consecrated.

From earliest times Christians have wanted to know more about Jesus. The Gospels originated as a response to this need. They have also argued and disagreed about matters, and the letters of Paul, John, Peter and Jude originated as part of the attempt to deal with the questions asked and answered by the first Christians. Fierce arguments flared about the day of the Sabbath and the date of Easter, and Christians argued about whether celibacy was mandatory for all, or just for priests, or even for them, taking their evidence from where they found it, or claimed to, in Scripture.

The question of what was and was not Scripture also exercised Christians from very early on. When St Paul wrote that every word of Scripture was “God-breathed” he did not add “and that includes what I have just written to you, so behave and stop arguing with me.” But from very early on, contrary to modern myths, there were only ever four Gospels accepted, and those are the ones we have received. Originally in Greek (although some see behind the Greek traces of Aramaic), in the West they came to be translated into Latin, and fairly quickly St Jerome’s Vulgate became the accepted text. No doubt there were those who protested that this was not the same as the Greek, but in the West for centuries, the Vulgate was the Bible, and when locals began wanting it in the vernacular, there was opposition, just as once it was in the vernacular, later generations protested attempts to modernise the language. But all these changes were in response to changed contexts, and contexts have not ceased to change. Brought up on the King James Bible and The Book of Common Prayer, I have to admit to loving them both, and though I am well aware of the various deficiencies time and scholarship may have shown up, they still stir my imagination and my heart in a way the modern Catholic Missal and the New Jerusalem Bible fail to match; but for others, those texts I love so much, are obstacles to understanding and belief, and since no one has ever seen fit to elect me Pope, I accept what the Church tells me.

We like what we are used to, and for some of us the process of adaptaing to change is painful, especially when that change does not seem to be one for the better. This is where one can only pray for our priests, bishops and the Pope.

The Church is universal, but local; we do not live in the universal or worship there; we do that locally. There has to be unity, but within that there has to be diversity, just as there has to be commonality and independence; continuity also involves change. And here lies the problem.

As we see at the moment with some of the rhetoric of “Black Lives Matter”, there are interest groups who will always assert that their views have to have precedence, and if that means that other must be made to do as they want, so be it, because in their eyes what they want is the right thing. But as Christians we are called to a higher vision of the human condition, recognising as we must that such assertions are manifestations of our fallen nature. We are called to humility and self-restraint. We are the branches, not the vine, and the latter is not to be defined by the former. As Dean Martyn Percy has commented: “There seems little understanding than an unfettered claim to act freely can become antisocial, or even unethical. Great freedome comes with great responsibility.” (Percy, Thirty Nine New Articles, p. 31).

Obedience is the hardest of Christian virtues. Of only one thing can we be sure, that if it is of the Spirit, change will last, and if not, then not.

 

 

 

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Spirituality?

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by JessicaHoff in Anglicanism, Faith

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Christianity, Diversity, Evangelicalism

Celtic-Spirituality

Diversity isn’t about uniformity – we’re not trying to find one way that suits everyone – the only thing that is uniform is God – and we offer a variety of ways people can come to Him. Because I love older liturgical forms, and a certain amount of austere literary beauty, I like the 8 a.m. Communion service; as I like sung services, I’ve been known to grab a coffee and go back for the 9.30 Mattins. I didn’t think I’d become a regular at the 10.30 sung Eucharist, but I like the diversity of people I meet there – though I don’t find the service itself touches me as the 8 a.m. one does – but I am impressed by the way it reaches the large number of people who come to it. Each of these services offers something to those who consider themselves ‘spiritual’.

It is easy (which is why I have done it) to poke gentle (or sometimes not so gentle) fun at ‘spirituality’, which indeed seems to be a way for some people to signal that they have a mystical side, but don’t want anyone to confuse them with one of those ‘religious’ nutjobs. But if that brings them into a Christian Church, then it is important we can speak to that feeling that there is more in the world than science and materialism can explain. One of my priests says he has found that such people often make the best converts, as they come to see that Christianity isn’t about what happens on Sunday in a building, but is much bigger than that, and that it offers the most comprehensive view of what life is given to us for.

In this treatment of diversity there is, of course, nothing new, it is what St Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 12-14 – except for the fact of women reading – but there we are, we are a very large part of the church, and what was unseemly in Paul’s day is not so in our own. One of the greatest strengths of our faith has been its ability to adapt itself (without changing the essentials) to different times, places and cultures. Some, of course, object to any form of expression of the faith which is not approved by their own particular tradition, and this can be a great obstacle to the Great Commission.

Back in 2010 the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, said that in the world today Christ was being put on trial again, and being judged because of the actions and words of the people who claim to be his followers. The world, he told a meeting in Edinburgh, is in desperate need of an example of reconciliation, of people who are willing and able to lay aside their differences, even considerable differences, for no obvious reason or personal gain, other than to show love to neighbour. The implied question was ‘is that us?’ If it isn’t, why is that? The Holy Spirit has not ceased working in this world of fallen sinners, and we have to work with Him. If we seem to have nothing to say to those who are not like us, or if what we say to those who are like us is unintelligible, it is not enough, not at all enough, to suppose that we should simply wait until they will come to us on our terms. Not only will they not come, but some of those who are here now will cease to come. The gospel is not our gospel that is to be translated from our language and experience to others for their benefit; rather, the gospel is that good news of Jesus Christ that all are privileged to hear, and the unity of what we hear overcomes the diversity of who we are. If it doesn’t, we might ask what it is we are doing wrong in our time, when in past times it did indeed overcome the differences between us?

Here, as in the off-line world, we have had our own difficulties, and even the idea of approving a different form of liturgy has led someone to talk in highly coloured terms about ‘debauching the liturgy’. No doubt when those Romans began demanding a text and a liturgy in their own language, there were those who wondered why they wanted to change what had been there from the beginning – the Greek and Syriac versions of the liturgy. But the faith survived and flourished – as it will because if we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we know it will be so. If however we respond to the pride and despair of our own egos, then it is best we go find a ‘safe space’ where we can stop thinking and bewail the evil of the times. But when were the times other than evil? We are an Easter people, and as John Paul II put it ‘alleluia is our song’.

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Diversity?

23 Monday May 2016

Posted by JessicaHoff in Anglicanism, Faith

≈ 75 Comments

Tags

Christianity, Diversity, Evangelicalism, Faith, love

unity-hands

In some circles you only have to mention the word and eyes will roll, but what of it? Whether we like it or not, our society is marked by a greater degree of diversity than that of our parents of grandparents. When I was a little girl in Wales my father was the only ‘European’ in the village, although there were some English ‘incomers’ and even some North Walians. There were three channels we could get on the TV – and then only with some effort; the telephone was fixed and you could get it only on a waiting list from the nationalised telephone company; and you could have any meal you wanted at the one restaurant in the nearby town as long as it consisted of meat and two ve. No doubt there were some homosexuals, but if there were, although it had been legal since 1968, no one was ‘out’. It was not atypical of the area. Last time I was there, there were many different types of places selling a variety of foods, you could get your mobile phone from at least two shops in town, and on any tariff you cared; and there was a ‘gay bar’, as well as a lot of Poles and some people of colour from I don’t know where. Diversity. Talking with some older people who had known my daddy, they weren’t much enamoured of the changes, but the changes weren’t going away – although it turned out two of the chapels had, and the Church of Wales church had about it a neglected air although it was, I was assured, still open.

As in my old hometown, diversity is a reality in modern life, and however little or much we like or dislike it, it isn’t going away. Moving from an isolated rural environment to Edinburgh, I am at times almost overwhelmed by the range of diversity on offer here – and I’d not be telling the truth if I didn’t say there were times when I just want to be back in an environment with which I am familiar, and where diversity amounts to taking the high or the low road to the next village. My congregations then were all white, mostly female, and wholly middle class; an environment I felt very much at home in, fitting all three categories. Here I find myself offering the kiss of peace to and this is just thinking on the last four Sundays) a female Nigerian student, a Scottish woman, an American tourist, a German tourist, a Malaysian student, a woman from the Hebrides, a Danish woman, and a couple of English students, as well as a Scotswoman who lives in the same tenement as I do. At coffee afterwards, I had a chance to ask what they were doing there, and the answers were interesting.

They’d look at our website and found it looked welcoming in terms of the language we used and what we said about ourselves. Some had come from other churches in the city because they’d heard ‘good things’ about us. One young woman said she’d heard we welcomed ‘people like me’. I didn’t need to ask what she meant. Sometimes I go to the 8 am Communion service, and there I find a congregation more like the ones I am used to – mainly white, mainly Scottish and mainly middle class – and mainly women. We don’t have coffee, but on the way out I speak to people, and the story is always the same – the 10.30 sung eucharist is a little too ‘lively’ for them, and they love the old Scottish prayer book – so they go to the early service, or to Mattins at 9.30. The same Church, two diverse congregations. I even manage to get to Evensong occasionally, and that’s an entirely different story, many students, many tourists, and quite a lot of people who go to it because they ‘like the peace and the calm’ and they don’t feel ‘left out’ because there is no Communion service – even though in practice we’d welcome them if they wanted to come. I have not yet managed Mattins myself, but am told that is yet another diverse group.

That is our way of dealing with the fact that diversity exists. We try to offer everyone something they might want in terms of style of worship – all directed to the same Holy Trinity. In this way, at least, we can be all things to all men. Some of the implications of this I shall come to presently.

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