church

As if to emphasize the fact that the laity are really beside the point in the view of the Pope Benedict XVI hierarchy, it appears that there will be no
lay ministers serving at the Masses he is celebrating in Yankee Stadium and in Washington DC.

And just as an aside, who celebrates Mass in Yankee Stadium, of all places? That’s an unholy place, if there ever was one, especially for a born-and-raised boy from Boston who still remembers Bucky Dent hitting a home run that foiled the chances of the Red Sox back in the days when we could not fathom an actual World Series victory. Sigh. [UPDATE: on further review, it turns out that Dent homerun took place in Fenway Park. Perhaps Yankee Stadium ain’t so bad.]

Anyhow …

God is a God of order, and chaos is the enemy. It’s often taught in churches. The primary referent often used is the beginning of Genesis, where God is seen as overcoming the power of chaos by stepping in and establishing boundaries. The stories are those that portray an ancient culture trying to find stability in life amidst the uncontrollable power of nature. The boundaries are divine, and the antagonist is thusly controlled. And so it is, by the ordering power of God, that the darker side of creation (namely chaos) is subject to the enlightening structure of the Word.

I’m not fond of that theology. When I look at life, I see the divine in both order and chaos. In my mind, order is the power of stability and meaning. We talk about tradition as that which anchors us. We talk about our “stories” as those things which give us our identities. There is a solidification that comes with order. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes we need a certain amount of grounding. But sometimes it’s bad. Order gone awry leads to a status quo of oppression, exclusivism, rigidity, and ultimately a form of “death.”

A new registrant at CrossLeft is a deacon in the Universal Anglican Church. This group of "Universally Affirming Congregations" began in 2003 and has a presence in several states: California, Delaware, Florida, Missouri, and Wisconsin, plus Ontario, Canada. They are not part of the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion.

One thing that struck me right away on the UAC home page (http://www.uanglican.org) was a picture of this deacon and his presiding bishop at the anti-racism protest in Jena LA in September. Way to go!

We've had a brief go-round in the "What do you believe in that makes you Christian" topic on the 8 principles of the Center for Progressive Christianity. And I've presented the 10 key values of the Greens. Take a look at the UAC's statements of beliefs: how close do they come to yours? Are they a workable model for a "Progressive Christianity" statement?

Perhaps "deaconmac" can tell us more?

Below are a couple of statements from the UAC home page. More on their beliefs are at http://www.uanglican.org/UACClergyandtheirwritings/Beliefs.dsp

-- What is the Universal Anglican Church?

Today at my church's service, we celebrated the veterans in our congregation. In the 8 o'clock service that I attended, we had veterans from World War II to the last Gulf War and we have a member who is serving right now in Afganistan. St. Thomas has many older members, and I had a chance to talk to a few of them after the service. We talked about Ken Burn's World War II series, and how that series really articulated how war should be talked about, from the ground level. One old person talked about how most of the veterans kept quiet about their experiences after they no longer had to fight, and that it was good to have documentaries like Ken Burn's War, because it's too easy to glorify war and to get caught up in that sort of rah-rah type patriotism. A woman who served in World War II told me that she really hoped that the soldiers come home from Iraq and Afganistan soon.

Prophetic messages delivered by prophet-like people make us squirm.

We don't like "in your face" challenges, especially when they call us to task, suggest that we change and/or do things in a completely different way.

Recently, a note from SoJo mail, the list serve for Sojourners magazine and community, shared this quote with everyone:

"There is no dearth of Christian service today. But because much of it is service without prophetic compassion, it is powerless to bring about a radical change in individuals and society." Vishal Mangalwadi, quoted in "Cry Freedom", by Charles Ringma.