(–Per the diocesan website, the Rt. Rev. Edward Lee is Assisting Bishop for Ordinations and Coordinator of Campus/Young Adult Ministries in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania).
Since 1976 when the current Book of Common Prayer restored the sacramental significance and centrality of Holy Baptism to the liturgical and ministerial life of The Episcopal Church, an interesting and exciting movement has been emerging and bubbling up in congregations and dioceses. Simply stated it’s called the “Ministry in Daily Life” movement. It has no formal national organization. Rather, it has local manifestations generated by people who are convinced that the Baptismal Covenant is the basis for intentional baptismal living and ministry every day of the week.
In the Diocese of Pennsylvania this movement has been spearheaded for over 20 years by the Center for Baptismal Living (CBL), a group of lay and clergy persons who have been committed to finding ways to raise the awareness of
both individuals and parishes to the question, what does it mean to be “sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever” (BCP, p. 308)? Or put another way, what does baptismal living look like Monday through Saturday after the Christian community has gathered on Sunday and exited to the dismissal, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”?
I read the blurb on the first page. Mulberry tree and birds eating the fruit and then pooping thereby spreading the seeds. People can spread the “mulberry seeds” just like birds. I really didn’t want to pursue that thought too far. But the piece ended in a plea for churches to not withhold their pledges to the diocese. The Bennison affair was never mentioned. I suppose it will be Bp Lee’s last missive for a while as Bennison resumes the helm?
I distrust any essay from an Episcopalian talking about the “baptismal covenant.” Reading this essay, revealed next to no content. I think that liberal Episcopalians focus on the “baptismal covenant” because there are so many in the pews haven’t moved past their infant baptism in terms of Christian walk. It is the lowest common denominator but also the only common denominator among Episcopalians and their multitudinous heresies.
“I’ve been baptized (TM).”
“I distrust any essay from an Episcopalian talking about the “baptismal covenant.†Me, too.
It would take a long time to straighten things out but I will note a couple of things that I routinely notice in the practical, weekly expressions of the faith in my diocese and clericus. (1) A severing of baptism from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus: reference to that which is the ground and goal of baptism is either not made, not affirmed, or if affirmed, only secondarily, (2) Little recognition that the baptismal covenant holds within itself that which explodes and expands it–namely, the injunction and promise to ‘follow in the apostles teaching–showing, again, the baptismal vows to lead us into true high country of covenant fellowship with God (the baptismal vows really, let’s be honest, function to promote the ideology of inclusiviity for the most part in their current habitual deployment). (3) They are often used in a way that is reductionist or minimalist, not leading to the fullness of the apostolic faith, and in a way that promotes the moralism that seems so regnant in TEC.
P.S. Note also the habitual displacement or occlusion of Jesus–risen, ascended and glorified, seated at the right hand of the Father–in the way we speak about baptismal covenant rather than commissioning Lord, in the way the language of ‘the body of Christ’ is overused (IMHO), and in the way some people talk of the church as being ‘the risen body of Christ’, again, with little time give to the resurrected Christ . An astonishing lack of confidence in the idea that the Lord remains Lord of himself and is a freely self presenting subject. Bring back Barth, warts and all!
I no longer read anythinkg with “Baptismal covenant” in the heading or subtitle. It’s as big a giveaway as an address beginning, “Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ.”