We have a sacred story. We are called to out narrate the world. Yet we must also understand that we undertake this work with a particular and unique perspective within the body of Christ and the catholic or universal witness which is Christianity.
You and I must reclaim our unique Episcopal witness. We must be at work inside and outside of our church helping individuals to understand a very unique narrative. We are Christians but we are specifically and unambiguously Anglicans and more precise still, we are uniquely Episcopalians.
Anglican is a term some Episcopalianish Americans throw around a lot. But they really do not know what it is to be Anglican because their foundational life experience and cultural lenses are anything but Anglican. Now, Episcopalian is something perhaps the good Bishop knows something about, except that word means literally anything today, and when something means anything, it means nothing.
1.,
Any engagement with what Bishop Doyle wrote? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?
[blockquote]The Episcopal Church has reported that in 1965, there were 880,000 children in our Sunday school programs.[/blockquote]So much for all the particular gifts Bishop Doyle claims for Episcopalians. When I was 10 years old, Sunday school attendance was 180,000 higher than TOTAL attendance on an average Sunday is today. That reflects all the mission work, the outreach, and the reconciliation done by TEC during my lifetime.
1. It’s lovely to see a bishop reaffirming so clearly the uniqueness of Christ.
2. The move from the uniqueness of Christ to the uniqueness of the Episcopal Church is weaker in that the particular combination of “excellences” don’t actually seem unique either singly or together. Secondly, and IMO more interestingly the narrative perhaps veers close to affirming the excellences of Christ’s Body as a kind of “brand identity”.
3. The practical conclusions draw exclusively on a model for entrepreneurial “innovation” which do seem to model the church as a “brand” or “business”. The narrative centrality of Christ seems to have been elided. I’m unsure what to make of this. Surely drawing on good practice from wherever it is to be found is wise. On the other hand, John Millbank’s little essay “Stale Expressions: The Management Shaped Church” might lead us at least to query whether such a model is in fact quite so “value neutral” as it seems.
The Adult Christian Formation Opportunity at Christ Episcopal Church Matagorda has prioritized the bullets from the Bishop’s list and we are working through them one at a time as a part of our exercises to be better able to share the faith.
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It is heartening to hear a current Episcopal Bishop declare the “uniqueness of Christ.” He was to the left theologically of the candidates for the Texas Bishopric, but my nascent opinions of him are positive.