One of the candidates has commented. People on the convention floor have commented. I think there's really only One Interested Party that hasn't commented (on Titusonenine, that is).
Let us pray:
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who by thy Holy Spirit didst preside in the Councils of the blessed Apostles, and hast promised, through thy Son Jesus Christ, to be with thy Church to the end of the world; We beseech thee to be present with the Council of thy Church assembled in thy Name and Presence within the Diocese of Tennessee. Save them from all error, ignorance, pride, and prejudice; and of thy great mercy vouchsafe, we beseech thee, so to direct, sanctify, and govern them in their present work, by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, that the comfortable Gospel of Christ may be truly preached, truly received, and truly followed, in all places, to the breaking down the kingdom of sin; Satan, and death; till at length the whole of thy dispersed sheep, being gathered into one fold, shall become partakers of everlasting life; through the merits and death of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
6 comments:
As an outsider looking in, I have to say I am little shocked at the level of sheer anti-clericalism I see echoed any time step over to Titus 1:9.
Glad to know we Lutherans aren't the only ones.
Of course, it does beg the question of how this works out for a theology of the Episcopate. It seems that many Anglicans see their Bishops as mere "magic hands" and little more. AmI misreading the situation?
It's not a bad read. You probably are most drawn to the comments that the Diocese of TN doesn't need another pastor, which doesn't make much sense to me. The bishop is the chief pastor, after all.
But it comes from (1) an ongoing tradition of the more conservative being generally disappointed in bishops. It's hard to see the bishop as more than "magic hands" when they preach agnostic sermons or deny basic doctrines of the faith and (2) the strong connection of the Low Church with traditions that generally believe in congregational government.
But I think the problem is much older than our present divisions. Many clashes of churchmanship over the last centuries have brought it about. Some English Anglo-Catholics, for instance, have been described as "congregational," because of their general contempt for episcopal authority (or counsel). In other words, "where there is a bishop, there is the catholic church...unless he's an Evangelical or a Radical, then he can go...."
I think Caelius has a good graps of the matter, but I'll suggest that the matter stretches quite further back at least to the drama parodies of clergy in the Medieveal period. Part of the problem in my estimation is that we're still coming into a baptismal ecclesiology strong enough to understand the need for a variety of gifts and at the same time recognize that all of us have gifts for the community. Clericalism of many centuries has led to anti-clericalism of many centuries, and neither are healthy. And speaking personally, I'm always between a rock and a hard place on the matter. I have a healthy skepticism of clergy given the overreach I've seen, but I also have a partner and friends who are clergy, so I can't merely dismiss the other orders altogether.
I do look forward to a day when we honor the vocations of the lay order with as much pomp and circumstance as we give to the other three. Not to mention considering those God raises up from the side--prophets and the like.
Yes, we often forget that the High Middle Ages were strongly anti-clerical.
Thanks for this post, Caelius. In the rancor of this little fracas of ours, the one thing needful is precisely this: prayer. Would that we would act like a church.
Interesting historical perspective on the (very present) anti-clerical dimension of things. I'd add that, to me eyes, an interesting phenomenon is the way in which a certain fundamentalist discourse is relativizing what is distinctively Anglican about our theology and polity; the episcopate, priesthood, and sacraments are of secondary importance vis-a-vis the fundamental issues of purity, biblicism, and populism.
Um, 'to MY eyes'
Post a Comment