St. Thomas’ Parish at Dupont Circle
Archive for September, 2008
The Celtic & Benedictine Roots of Anglican Hospitality
Sep 30th
For at least a century, if not two, before the Roman Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity by making it the official religion of the Empire, Christianity had been growing and thriving in what we now know as the British Isles. This Celtic strand of Christianity that was in place probably by the 2nd century A.D. and certainly no later than the Council of Nicea in 325 C.E. where emissaries from Britain were on the official roster of attendees. The decidedly more legalistic and hierarchical approach characteristic of the Church centered in Rome (thus ‘Roman’ Catholicism) was an overlay on top of this prior Celtic tradition.
Three qualities of this Celtic Christianity are worth noting, for it was the only way to be Christian in Britain for at least 500 years, and did not cease to be practiced for 500 more:
- It was centered not in the life of the world to come but in the midst of the rhythms and seasons of the natural world. Thus it came to have a profound respect for the goodness of the created order as opposed to the fallenness of humanity in need of redemption out of the un-spiritual context of the world and into the spiritually purified heavenly realm. The Druids who met St. Patrick when he arrived in Ireland were Celts; and Patrick had to adapt to their nature-centered spirituality, most famously by adopting the 3-leafed clover as a symbol of the Trinity.
- Celtic spirituality was not defined by obedience to the Roman law or the hierarchies of royalty, the state, or its masculine military powers. Rather Celtic Christianity was egalitarian in its approach, with a central place for women and a profound respect for the body, not just the mind and spirit.
- The Celtic community of the church was not defined by the authority and oversight of a Bishop or by church-teaching and law, but by the monastic Abbot who led by example, teaching, and spiritual practice.
The destiny of this Celtic tradition became clear at the Synod of Whitby in the 7th century when the church in Britain accepted the Roman date for Easter and the authority of the Bishop rather than the Abbot in ordering the communal life of the church.
It is one of the greatest ironies of Christian history that when 16th century protesters broke with the authority of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, they made their anger known by destroying the monastic communities of Britain and Ireland and Scotland. For these Protestants, monasteries were viewed as an expression of ‘Papist tendencies,’ and they were not at all aware that the life and order of monastic communities had once been the radical alternative to Bishop-centered Christianity in the Roman Church. Thus in destroying the monasteries, the Protestant Reformation insured that Celtic Christianity would be driven underground for the next 500 years, only to re-emerge in the twentieth century with the rediscovery of Celtic spiritual and liturgical practices.
One of the chief embodiments of Celtic-style monastic practice is the Rule of St. Benedict from the 6th century, 100 years before Whitby. Anglicans have long had a special fondness for Benedict’s Rule, not least because of it’s non-legalistic, egalitarian approach to Christian community, led by an Abbot as spiritual teacher and guide as well as exemplar of healthy Christian leadership in the vital community of the Church.
It is from Benedict that much of the language and style of “radical hospitality” came into Anglicanism, as monks were admonished in Benedict’s Rule to open their door to every stranger, expecting to see Christ in each face that appeared. The Celtic style of Benedict’s monasticism still has much to teach us not just about civility to one another in a divided and contentious age, but about the radicality of belief in Christ at all, who came into the world as a stranger, and always was most welcoming to those who knew from the experiences of their own lives what it was like to stand outside the door, knocking, only to have no one let them in.
Vital Congregations as Communities of Practice
Sep 29th
by Wayne Whitson FloydWhat is a vital congregation? Is it simply a community of fervent conviction and shared belief about who we are, where we came from, why we’re here, and the direction the world is going? Or is congregational vitality to be measured by the emotional intensity of worship and songas evidence of God’s Spirit at work?
In my experience, vital congregations are more than a collection of individuals drawn together by similar personal experiences and needs that in turn are expressed through common beliefs or by similar styles of religious life. Vital congregations are communities of practice, where we immerse ourselves in those “patterns of communal action,” that in Craig Dykstra’s words “create openings in our lives where the grace, mercy and presence of God may be made known to us.”1
Far from being a recent innovation, “spiritual practice” is actually one of the oldest ways to describe the formation and nurture of God’s people for faithful living. Sabbath-keeping, for example, is according to the Hebrew Scriptures a practice that helps us to pattern the rhythms of our own lives on the creative rhythms of God at work in the world. Or in the Celtic church of pre-Roman Christianity in England, the practice of leadership by monastic abbots occurred not only through teaching, but even more importantly by means of personal example of the spiritual practices of the monastery. Here monks practiced the habitus, or habits, of life and worship that kept alive the vitality of the Christian way of life during what would be a long, dark age.
When congregations attend to becoming communities of spiritual practice, we learn that faithful living is more than going out and doing what people are taught on Sunday. Rather, during every day of our lives, faithful people are who they are today, because they have long practiced faithful virtues as members of intentional communities of faith.
Becoming an intentional community of spiritual practice involves the reinvigoration of what are really quite traditional ways of faithful life in community. Diana Butler Bass, in her work The Practicing Congregation, categorizes these practices in four broad areas: worship, prayer, moral formation, and life together. In her book Christianity for the Rest of Us, she lists ten spiritual practices that she sees at work in vital congregations today: Hospitality, Discernment, Healing, Contemplation, Testimony, Diversity, Justice, Worship, Reflection, and Beauty. These sorts of practices endure over time and across cultures. What changes are the specific activities by which specific groups of believers embody these practices in different times and places. Spiritual practices are what Yale theologian Paul Holmer once described as “the grammar of faith” in his book of the same name: they give shape and form and meaningful order to the infinite challenges and potentials of life in community as the church.
In my own work with churches and their everyday leaders, I have found that those communities of faith who long to become more vital congregations might well begin by focusing on several essential ways of being intentional communities of practice.
Fundamental to all faithful life in community is the Practice of Discernment, by which I mean discovering who we are in God’s sight—that our primary vocational calling is simply to be the creatures we have been created to be—in relationship, in community, celebrating the goodness of God’s creation. If we are to be able to discern what we are being called to do as God’s people, we must begin by discerning who God has created us to be—our spiritual identities. The desired outcome of the practice of discernment is a renewed appreciation of the lifelong process of spiritual formation through which “who we are” and “what we are called to do” come ever closer together in practices of faithful living.
Intimately connected to the practice of discernment is the central spiritual Practice of Story-Telling. The stories we tell about ourselves and about God have the capacity to shape—or to inhibit—the people we can become and the lives we can lead. Each of us has a way of telling our personal stories that not only expresses who we are willing to say we are in the present, but also influences the shape of who we are capable of becoming tomorrow. For example, when we tell our story as one of challenge and triumph we see different possibilities open to us than when we tell what Alban Senior Consultant Larry Peers describes as “a problem saturated story” of an insurmountable series of failures and frustrations.
In large measure we are the stories we are capable of telling about ourselves. Or put another way, “the stories we tell” tend to become “the reality we are capable of living.” If this is true about the practice of telling our personal stories, it is even more crucial for the practice of telling the stories of God—the Practice of Proclamation. Should it be any surprise that when our stories tell of a God who is perpetually angry and vengeful, our daily life with family, at work, and among fellow parishioners will be different than when we encounter God as full of compassion and slow to anger, and one whose grace is shown in loving us just as we are, however much more we still need to become?
These stories open up, or close off, the very Practice of Hospitality that we envision for congregational life. Are we merely tolerant of those who are strangers or different from us? Or do we attempt to be inclusive? Or can we go further to risk “radical hospitality,”—moving from mere inclusion to what theologian Miroslav Volf calls “embrace,” or what Adelle Frank at the Church of the Bretheren describes as “intentional vulnerability,” which is what Benedictine Sister Joan Chittester means, I think, when she speaks of living “without clenched fists”?
One spiritual practice, as we see, always leads to another, in this case hospitality turning out to be the twin of the Practice of Service. In what my own parish calls “prophetic hospitality,” we not only expect to be changed by those who invite themselves through our doors, but we also have begun to understand that an essential part of this change is our common calling to go with our new neighbors and friends back out of those same doors to participate together in God’s redemptive transformation of the world.
So Discernment has led us to Story-Telling, and then to Proclamation, and on to Radical Hospitality and now to Transformative Service. But it does not end there. Service requires the Practice of Stewardship, which depends on the Practice of Generosity. The more we live out our congregational life as intentional communities of practice, the more vital our congregations become, and the broader the range of spiritual practices we discover ourselves to be called to, and capable of, together becoming agents of the Reign of God.
1. See www.practicingourfaith.org/prct_what_are_practices.html
Copyright © 2008, the Alban Institute. All rights reserved. We encourage you to share Alban Weekly articles with your congregation. We gladly allow permission to reprint articles from the Alban Weekly for one-time use by congregations and their leaders when the material is offered free of charge. All we ask is that you write to us at weekly@alban.org and let us know how Alban Weekly is making an impact in your congregation. If you would like to use any other Alban material, or if your intended use of Alban Weekly does not fall within this scope, please submit our reprint permission request form.
_______________________________________
FEATURED RESOURCES
The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church
by Diana Butler Bass
Historian and researcher Diana Butler Bass argues against the conventional wisdom regarding “mainline decline.” She sees encouraging signs that mainline Protestant churches are finding a new vitality intentionally grounded in Christian practices as they lay thegroundwork for a new type of congregation.
Traveling Together: A Guide for Disciple-Forming Congregations
by Jeffrey D. Jones
Anyone concerned for the life and ministry of the church, who has a sense that things are not what they might be, and who is seeking a new understanding of congregational life and mission will find hope and help in the pages of this book. Jeff Jones maps out the factors facing congregations in this postmodern, post-Christendom world and shows congregational leaders how to embrace the best parts of their church’srich heritage and reclaim it for a new day.
Tell It Like It Is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony
by Lillian Daniel
Lillian Daniel shares how her congregation reappropriated the practice of testimony one Lenten season, a practice that would eventually revitalize their worship and transform their congregational culture. Tell It Like It Is features the testimonies worshipers heard and reflections from both those who spoke and those who listened to these stories about God at work in the world.
Alban Weekly, 2008-09-22
Number 217
The Church as Episcopalians See It
Sep 28th
To talk about ‘the church’ for Episcopalians always means the people, not a building. The Church is all those who are gathered at God’s invitation through their baptism, participation in Eucharist ,or participation in other services of Word and Sacrament.
For Episcopalians, it is our baptism that makes us full members of the Body of Christ, the Church, whether we arrive as infants or adults.
The church is referred to in the Greek in which the New Testament was written as the laos tou theou, "the people of God" — the laity. That’s why at St. Thomas’s all are invited to Christ’s table for the Eucharist each Sunday; and it’s the reason you see even small children being brought to receive Holy Eucharist by their parents. It is God’s invitation, not our qualifications or merit, that makes it appropriate to receive the Holy Eucharist.
From among the laity the church lifts up certain individuals as called to special ministries that are ordered and governed by the church — ordained ministries, we call them. In the Episcopal Church there are thus four orders of ministry. The first is the laity, the people of God; from these are raised up bishops, priests, and deacons to carry out the specific ministries of the church.
Our growth as Christians doesn’t depend for Episcopalians on one particular and final moment of conversion. Rather, we think of growth in faith to be a lifelong process of formation — the image of God in which we were created "takes form" in us over time through the process of spiritual growth and maturity.
While Episcopalians characteristically put more emphasis on reason than emotion, we still have a tendency to respect the mystery of both God and human existence, thus shying away from rushing too quickly to judgments of certainty about our theological beliefs. Likewise Episcopalians value beauty in art and music and architecture, resisting the austerity of some forms of Protestantism, even while often valuing simplicity rather than high ornamentation in music or architecture.
Episcopalians place a far greater emphasis on hospitality rather than purity when deciding who is in or outside of the church. We would rather err at leaving the door open too wide for people to respond to God’s invitation, rather than erring at narrowing the gate according to our own standards of purity and acceptability.
The fact that we worship using a Book of Common Prayer is just one indication of our emphasizing community as the context for even individual experiences of the spiritual life. The most important moment in our community life is the Holy Eucharist. In this and other forms of worship together, we understand our beliefs about God, ourselves, and the world to be shaped and formed. Our praying shapes believing, rather than depending on right forms of believing as a prerequisite to responding to God’s invitation of grace and life.
So come and worship with us, and discover St. Thomas’ Parish at Dupont Circle as a faithful place to find and be found by God.
Confirmation Preparation at St. Thomas’ Parish
Sep 28th
Preparation is underway for those wishing to be confirmed, received into the Episcopal Church, or to reaffirm their baptismal vows. In the Diocese of Washington, there are confirmation services in the autumn and the spring. The next confirmation service is Saturday, November 1, 2008, 10 a.m. – 12 noon at Washington National Cathedral.
For information call Wayne Floyd (202.445.8521) or email him at wfloyd@alban.org or contact the Parish Office at info@stthomasdc.org.
Baptism: The sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.
Confirmation: The rite in which we express a mature commitment to Christ, and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop.
Reception: Baptized persons who have been members of another Christian fellowship and who wish to be affiliated with the Episcopal Church may make a public affirmation of their faith and commitment to the responsibilities of their baptism in the presence of a bishop. The bishop lays hands on each candidate for reception and says, "We recognize you as a member of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, and we receive you into the fellowship of this Communion" (BCP, p. 418). Candidates for reception normally have made a mature commitment in another Christian fellowship.
Reaffirmation: The BCP refers to those persons already baptized who are presented to the bishop in the context of a service of Baptism or Confirmation to reaffirm their baptismal vows. These might be persons returning to the church after a period of unbelief or those who have entered a new level of spiritual life.
Confirmation Preparation Starts This Sunday
Sep 18th
Whether you’re relatively new to St. Thomas’ Parish at Dupont Circle, or you’ve been here a while, would you like to make a public commitment to your participation in the ongoing life of this community?
This is what Episcopalians call ‘Confirmation’ — a worship service that ‘confirms’ your desire to live out your spiritual life within the Episcopal Church.
You’re not confirmed into a parish. In fact, confirmation symbolically places us first within the life of the whole church of Christ throughout the world, and then as Episcopalians within the family of the Diocese of Washington, and finally as committed to our life together as St. Thomas’ Parish.
The Fall Confirmation Service for our diocese is Saturday, November 1, 2008, from 10:00 a.m.-noon at Washington National Cathedral. To prepare you for Confirmation, six classes will be held on Sundays, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. following the Taize service on September 21 & 28 and October 5, 12, 19 and 26, led by Wayne Floyd.
A number of people already have indicated their plans to be present; if you would like to join us, just show up on Sunday! If you know ahead of time that you’ll be there, it would help in planning for you to email Wayne at wfloyd@alban.org or our Rector, Nancy Lee Jose, at nljose@verizon.net.
Sacramental Spirituality
Sep 18th
Sacrament: An outward sign of an inward and invisible grace.
Or as the Catholic writer and monk Thomas Merton once wrote: “All our salvation begins on the level of common and natural and ordinary things. (That is why the whole economy of the Sacraments, for instance, rests, in its material element, upon plain and ordinary things like bread and wine and water and salt and oil.) And so it was with me.” [Thomas Merton, The Seven Story Mountain]
Spirituality for Episcopalians begins with common things – women and men and children gathered, in some common place, at some common time, with common bread and wine to eat. And it is enough. This isn’t everything that can be said or done about the spiritual life – but it is sufficient. And it is what we share in common, again and again and again, much to the dismay of many of our Protestant sisters and brothers who can’t understand how we stay awake doing and saying the same things week after week, as if suffering from a collective repetition-compulsion disorder!
At our best, however, we are capable of finding in our common baptism into the mystery of the body of Christ — or simply in the community that gathers regularly around Christ’s table set with the Holy Eucharist — that diversity of gifts about which St. Paul wrote in his letters to the church at Corinth when he said: “There are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Cor. 12: 20-25).
However we choose, or are encouraged, to direct our spiritual quests as Episcopalians, it is sacramental spirituality, beginning again again “on the level of common and natural and ordinary things,” rooted in community — our ordinary lives intertwined with others, sharing together in a mutual need for hospitality and compassion. This “sacramental spirituality” is what binds us to the whole communion of saints from the time God of God’s calling of Abraham to the time of God’s calling of the church to the hospitality of the sacred meal of Holy Eucharist.
To be in community means to be welcomed and to open the doors and the table to the risk of someone else being welcomed who needs welcoming the most; to be in community means to know the grace and mercy of compassion, and to extend forgiveness and acceptance to persons in situations we can’t even really fathom. To be in authentic community at all is such a grace, pure gift, utter mystery. It is sacramental: the outward sign of an inward and invisible grace.
Why Darwin Still Matters … as Do Our Views of Him
Sep 17th
“Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still,” Rev. Malcolm Brown, director of missions and public affairs for the Church of England, wrote in an essay entitled “Good Religion Needs Good Science.”
“We try to practice the old virtues of ‘faith seeking understanding’ and hope that makes some amends.”
Brown’s amends include a much needed corrective that Sarah Palin, Pat Robertson and other Christian creationists might consider.
“Subsequent generations have built on Darwin’s work but have not significantly undermined his fundamental theory of natural selection. There is nothing here that contradicts Christian teaching. Jesus himself invited people to observe the world around them and to reason from what they saw to an understanding of the nature of God (Matthew 6: 25-33),” Brown wrote.
“The anti-evolutionary fervour in some corners of the churches may be a kind of proxy issue for other discontents; and, perhaps most of all, an indictment of the churches’ failure to tell their own story -
Jesus’s story – with conviction in a way which works with the grain of the world as God has revealed it to be, both through the Bible and in the work of scientists of Darwin’s calibre.”
Though Darwin is a hero to atheists, he was raised in the Anglican church, thought about becoming a clergyman, later attended a Unitarian church and described himself as an agnostic. “In my most extreme
fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God,” he wrote in 1879. “It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent Theist & an evolutionist.”
It has been noted in recent commentary on Palin’s nomination to run for Vice-President on the Republican ticket with John McCain that “As a candidate for governor, Sarah Palin called for teaching creationism alongside evolution in public schools. But after Alaska voters elected her, Palin, now Republican John McCain’s presidential running mate, kept her campaign pledge to not push the idea in the schools.
She’s in favor of teaching both creationism and evolution in the public schools. ‘Teach both,’ she said in a 2006 gubernatorial debate. … McCain believes the issue should be decided by individual school districts.”
