From Episcopal Life:<\/p>\n
In reality, globalization has been an active historical force since at least the 15th century when growing numbers of European merchants, military, and missionaries began making voyages to the earth’s ends. But trade with distant people and the intrusiveness of new religious ideas really belong to much earlier times. The Acts of the Apostles, considered as travel literature for a moment, reflect many of the tensions facing the contemporary global church. In the century after Christ’s death, his followers around the Mediterranean literal compiled various oral traditions about Jesus as Messiah and prayerfully applied them in their own widely diverse settings. Understandably, sharp disputes arose, both among Christians, and with enthusiasts for Greek, Roman, Jewish and other religious expressions. Globalization is never friction free.<\/p>\n
Fast forward now to the present. The deeper causes of current tensions originate less in talk about sex than in unresolved frictions in the postcolonial encounter. Until now, the model of inter-Anglican relations has been an export-import one. The United Kingdom and North America were major exporters of their versions of Christianity; Africa, Asia, and Latin America were the willing importers. As such, the latter were expected to reject much of what had been important in traditional religions, such as ancestor veneration, and unilaterally adopt western dress, culture, and religions. One example of this incongruous process: I once entered an isolated small Vietnamese church and was greeted by the local priest who showed us the church’s prized possession, a large 19th century plaster statue of the Joan of Arc, arrayed with sword, shield, and full body armor.<\/p>\n
New times demand new approaches.<\/p>\n