Emergent Sacramentalists

Was having a talk today with a friend online about the Independent Sacramental movement. The conversation was all over the board.

Then I said we needed to start our own indy jurisdiction and I first suggested that we do Eastern Rite, but then I realised that would be stupid because I’d want no rites reserved.

The problem is the name, of course. The initial idea of The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Lake Erie seemed ironically to say exactly what we wanted - sort of an Anti-jurisidiction, limited by a non-location. I might, in hind sight, want to add an Ethnicity to it just to poke even more fun: The White Anglo-Saxon Ex Protestant Orthodox Church of Lake Erie. We could be boring and exclusive all at once.

But then we played with some other ideas, weaving “emergent” into the mix, realising that the Indy Sacramentalists are the liturgical form of emergent church (in a lot of ways - the parallels hold). Really, the baseline isn’t a rite (Eastern, Western or even Danceing-Saints, old or new language, Taize, whatever). Ideally, I’d like a Church that looked like this OCA parish in Sacramento:

One could use that Church for Tridentine, BCP, Rite III or ER all just as easily. Move the furniture as you wish! Throw in a few chairs and you can have a Banquet Mass. It would need to be shaped by the community acting in faith.

So I suggested using the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral
which would seem to allow such a wide expression as we sought. Fellowship Of Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateralists (FOCLQ). That was a laugh: but my friend didn’t want the C-LQ to be “The thing” either.

I still like my Praxis idea, even though the conversation has never taken off. And I still love Revolution NYC, but for all their coolness, they’ve only once in all their years had a communion service which I find odd, given how much emphasis they place on hospitality. We both agreed that that was the thing.

And so, there, Sacramental and Emergent, where do you go…

Reading Group.

Hey, Buffaloans!

Anyone interested in reading V. Eller’s Christian Anarchy: Jesus’ Primacy Over the Powers in a group setting? Read a chapter, discuss, maybe in a coffee shop or cafe? The book is available free at the above link (thanks to the publishers) but it would be fun to read in a group, I think.

Contact me if you’re interested.

Status Report

I met with a Rabbi on Thursday who made it quite clear that conversion, per se, isn’t necessary for a Gentile. Unlike the Christians and the Muslims, the Jews don’t have sense of “evangelism”. We had a nice conversation and he suggested I read a book - now out of print - which I found on eBay that night for only $6, including postage! I promptly ordered it.

I was to go to services on Friday night but the entire week of resumes and interviews and general stress had left me in a place of not wanting to meet any strangers. So I stayed at the house until leaving to spend the weekend w/ Brodie.

After I passed the customs station on the Canadian side of the border, I turned on my iPod, plugged into the car stereo, and began listening to a podcast. On the way I listened to a Rabbi discuss last Saturday’s (2/16) Torah portion: Tetzaveh. Then I listened to a discussion of this week’s (2/23) portion, Ke Tisa. I listened to two more podcasts on the way home today, on the same two portions of the Torah.

I arrived home, in Buffalo, at a very different place from when I left.

To explain this, here are some sentences, ripped from their context, that all struck me at the same time during this weekend’s journey.

1) In studying Judaism I meet the warm, Semitic deity I expect (but do not find) in traditional Christianity as I have experienced it.
2) The commentaries (as explored by some Rabbis) theorise that God gave the Tabernacle to the Jews to help them with the problem expressed in the worship of the Golden Bull.
3) Without the Rabbinic Commentary you can read the (Hebrew) scriptures to point directly to Jesus on the Cross or to my Bar Mitzvah.
4) Before I read Why the Jews Rejected Jesus I thought the issue was that there was a common text between Jews and Christians about which they simply disagreed. - Nothing could be further from the Truth.
5) The past has a vote but not a veto.
6) Christianity is a religion of Creed. Judaism is a religion of Deed.

Sentences 1 and 4 are mine, in dialogue with others. I’m talking there. 2 and 3 are recaptured from my audio memory - #2 from the podcasts this weekend and #3 from Michael Wex’s Born to Kvetch. Sentence 6 is a quote from Mordecai Kaplan and, amongh Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic sorts, I often here the reverse sentiment expressed. 6 came from an online course for which I registered. It ties back to a discussion a year ago this week about the difference between Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy. Most of these came up - in one form or another - in the conversation with the Rabbi as well as in other conversations I’ve had around the net with all sorts of people.

What came to me in the zen of driving was that, really, I am still deeply committed to following God in the way of Jesus. What I blogged back in December is still true:

Yeshua: Rabbi? Yes, who fully participated in the Rabbinic debates of his time. Messiah? I’m confused as I look more into what Jews thought of the text they had. God-in-the-the-flesh? Well now…

So much of the theology I understand, so much of the theology by which I see God, experience the word, deal with my neighbour, understand forgiveness, healing/salvation/wholeness (tikkun olam) is exactly incarnational. I can’t make the leap. If Jesus isn’t God in the Flesh, not only does Christianity not make sense, but so also does nothing else.

Judaism, Islam and Christianity all three have their true believers: people who somehow imagine the Sacred Text or Form of thier religion to have existed somehow, unchanged from all eternity. I’m told that Allah had a Koran in mind at the creation of the world. I’m told that the scrolls of the Torah sat in HaSham’s throne for eternity before they were given to Moses. I’m told that Jesus was alive on the Throne of Glory even as he died on the Cross and that the Gospel was planned from all eternity. But what comes to me, over and over, having looked at the claims and the reality, is that There is no way to get to a “pure” religion - if that means a religion some how crafted by God and handed whole cloth to man.

There may *be* such a path, but unless it shines with gold light for everyone to see, we’re not going to know what it is. Each of us is called to the Holy One in the voice designed to speak to us, in the voice we are designed to hear.

The next thing that came to me in the zen of driving, is the realisation that if what I believe to be true really is true… then I am a Christian - whatever that may mean - and that I must do that in a Christian community - whatever that may mean - rather than a Jewish one. I say that no matter how I might feel about the various points in the Nicene Creed. (There are times when I can’t get past the first paragraph without hedging my bets or crossing my fingers.) But what I *do* believe is in the deeds that Yeshua taught, some of which are Jewish, through and through, and some of which are elaborations on Judaism and some of which, finally, are Jesus (or his followers’ communities’) Jazz riffs on elemental truths.

From the Sh’ma we get to the Trinity - in round about ways.
From the Torah we get to the Sermon on the Mount.
From the Shabbat and Pessach Seders we get to the Communion Supper.
From the Hillel we get to the Greatest Commandment.
From Shammai we get to the teaching on Divorce.

Judaism has Rabbis - so does Christianity: for everyMaimonides there is a Gregory of Nazianzus; for every Shimon bar Yochai there was a Gregory of Nyssa; for every Rashi an Origen. For every one of Maimonides 13 Principles of Faith there is a point in the 12 sections of the Nicene Creed. It is, however, only at that point that Judaism and Christianity part company for even with these two “creeds” the two communities differ. The Jews debate the meaning of the 13 points and even deny their creedal necessity. Many Christians (even those who might debate the finer meanings of various points), however, insist that the Nicene Creed is sort of a checklist that defines one’s status as a Christian.

What Judaism does not have is the ability to make a final statement. What Christianity did not have until Constantine, was a desire to make such a statement: she has largely made a fetish of it. What Judaism does have is a conscious, overt debate and stylistic give-and-take between opposing schools of thought. What Christianity fails to name is her own give-and-take, being hung up on the claim that someone must be right and someone must be wrong.

Christianity - in her institutional forms (which Jesus would never recognise) attempts to close all discussion down.

Judaism - in her institutional forms (especially in the ones Jesus would recognise in our day as being descended from those of his day) attempts to keep discussion open.

To use to game theory as expressed in Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games, Christianity, as projected by her institutions (liberal and conservative) is best understood as a finite game. Judaism - at least as far as Rabbinic Debate is concerned, is an infinite game.

The rules of the finite game may not change; the rules of an infinite game must change.
Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.
Finite players are serious; infinite games are playful.
A finite player plays to be powerful; an infinite player plays with strength.
A finite player consumes time; an infinite player generates time.
The finite player aims for eternal life; the infinite player aims for eternal birth.
The choice is yours.

The issue is, at heart, to find a way to follow God in the way of Jesus that is aware (and honest) about growth, evolution and change and that seeks to further all three. In short, one seeks to find a way to Do Church as an Infinite Game.

Is it possible to read the scriptures - and all of our history - and to live, honestly, in relationship with those sources: and yet be in a different place?

I’m going to stop there, because, at the age of 43, I feel I’m on the verge of a Manifesto which is to be avoided, I think, at all costs.

How to do church

I Pray a lot
      A. pray without ceasing

      B. pray with others

II Decide you want to

III Get some others together who want to, too.
      A. Find a book.
            1. Christian Anarcy

      B. Invite locals to join you in reading.
            1. Post an ad on your local Craigslist
            2. Post an ad in your local Cool Paper
            3. Post an ad at your local cool coffee shop.

      C. Meet with the folks to read the book
            1. At the cool coffeeshop
            2. At your house

      D. meet weekly
            1. may have to start out monthly or so

IV Introduce the idea of praying together.
      A. Liturgical
            1. Seasons
            2. Times and days.
                  a. Prayers for the Domestic Church
                  b. Northumbrian Community
                        i. very easy
                        ii. modern translation
            3. Book of Common Prayer
                  a. Morning and Evening Prayer
                        i. very easy to navigate
                        ii. modern translation
            4. Compline
                  a. BCP
                  b. Benedictine
                        i. very easy to memorise
                        ii. needs modern translation
                  c. Breviary
                        i. not very easy at all
                        ii. needs modern translation

      B. Scriptural
            1. Synagogue
                  a. has no New Testament lections (drrr)
                        i. can use Messianic lectionary
                        ii. develop your own
                  b. try using this for a while
                        i. grow out from there
            2. Book of Common Prayer
                  a. has daily and weekly options.
                        i. can be confusing.
            3. Revised Common Lectionary
                  a. has only weekly options.
                        i. use this with the BCP daily option.
            4. Traditional RC Missal
                  a. has very few Old Testament readings.
                        i. use this with Synagogue rota
                        ii. develop your own
                  b. has only weekly options
                        i. has enough extras to make daily possible
                  c. has liturgical selections (psalm verses, etc)
                        i. appropriate to the readings
                        ii. easy to sing such items

V Develop a way to do communion together
      A. you are what you eat
            1. Try to do it weekly
            2. communion makes the church
                  a. not bible

      B. Didache
            1. share a meal
            2. anyone can use it
                  a. pretty much no one does now
            3. anyone can lead it
                  a. priesthood of all believers
                  b. Judaism
                        i. head of the house is priest in the home
                  c. Eastern Orthodox Christianity
                        i. head of the house is priest in the home
            4. short
                  a. easy to flesh out
                        i. songs
                        ii. liturgical plug-ins
                        iii. Bible readings
                        iv. sermon/meditation/talks
                        v. books
                        vi. discussion
                        vii. fellowship

Open Source (Eucharist - Pt 2)

I ended part one of this Rumination asking, “Is it useful for communities who consider themselves to be moving beyond older models to continue this model (of Ordained ministry and Apostolic Succession) or, if the goal is to move back to some older model (ie, the “Early Church”) how is that done?”

Over on Facebook, they added this application called “My Church”. (Props to +Rob for finding this.)

So… I’m adding it to my Facebook profile and it says “What church do you belong to?” Evidently it’s going to put the logo on my profile.

Mmm.

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Eucharist? - Pt1

I’m expecting 2 parts maybe more… an exploration of Eucharist and Ordination.

I visited the Circle of Mercy on Sunday. I went for two reasons: (1) I’ve never been to a UCC parish before and having read good things about them, I wanted to visit; (2) their worship sounded a LOT lit my time at St Gregory’s:

Our worship is participatory and experimental, making use of drama, poetry, and the visual arts, as well as testimonies of faith and litanies of confession and praise, celebrating the expansiveness of God. We intersperse silence and music, drawing from an eclectic array of traditions including African-American spirituals, Taize chants, ancient church hymns, Appalachian folk melodies, and the harmonies of places as distant as El Salvador, South Africa, and Scotland’s Iona Community… After the benediction, the feast around the table is extended as the room is transformed into a space to share a potluck meal. It’s always a lavish banquet, punctuated with energetic conversation. Around the meal table and the communion table, our life together is forged in gratitude and grace

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St Hildegard’s Community

Hmm. EpiscoMergent:

We have tried to imagine and live out one possibility of a baptismal ecclesiology in conversation with emerging theologies, including feminist liberation theology. We foster a deep inner life personally and in community; we also promote significant ministries in the world and bring the joy and struggle of the world into the liturgy of the Church.

(Props to Susan.)

Status

A few points of Personal Blog:

• I’ve decided that I can live with my doubts. What I do with them is another matter entirely.
• A recent discussion of Praxis-Asheville brought out a lot of accusatory comments about the oddities of the group, but no real dialogue. This was disappointing. Let me come clean: I made the whole thing up. Can we talk about it now?
• I wish I was one of the people who can get by without bothering about God and religion. But I’m not: nearly every step I take is God-haunted, every choice I make is Inshallah. Living one’s life making Apotropaic Choices is no way to be. What other way is there to live, though?
• I do well realise there is a middle ground between superstition and atheism.
• Donald referred most kindly to my “faithful heart”. If I were in love with God or Jesus or Allah or YHVH or Krishna or The Goddess or, hell, I don’t know: fill in your favourite deity or emanation here - if I were in love with The Holy the way I fall in love with a person, life wouldn’t be so superstitious. My heart may be faithful, but I don’t know how to live that.
• Just once I’d like to worship out of sheer joy of worship - and not because I have to (ie, because I’m afriad I’ll have an accident the next day on the scooter, or because Mom might die.)
• Saddest thing is, as wrong as all of this is, I know some will say this superstition is a good thing.
• Is there a way to integrate spirituality and life in a whole pattern of sacramental joy?
• Rich Traditions - Honest Questions - Shared Experience. I’ll go with that, but I also like this: A search for a more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating mode of living

On Tradition.

The is the last post in the Praxis conversation (as far as I know). It’s a long one: I tried to edit it to make sense of the conversation as it happened: there were four of us.

THe Praxis pastor asked me some questions about Orthodox practise (ie, about our praxis). Her responses to my replies - as well as the feed-in from other members of Praxis who were present for the discussion - led us more to a discussion of “the hard places” than to our traditions. I may not have been the best person for this discussion because, although I know the answers as I was taught them, the defence of these practices - as when compared to anyone else’s - is not only beyond me, but no longer my desire.

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Didache Question

I’m reposting this from the older pages because, as some have guessed, this post from December of last year is part of the “Praxis Conversation”. I can’t transfer the comments from that post over here in any simple step, so I’ve added the comments from over there as one long comment here - including the comment from the previous discussion that I had deleted. The conversation never got very far, but it was interesting.

ENCLOSED Below the cut are the prayers from the Didache for the bread and cup, arranged as close as I can remember as they were said at St Gregory of Nyssa Church - and noting our rubrics in doing so, again, as close as I can remember. Any reader from SGN or St Macrina’s correct me as needed! All: Take a look, I have some questions.

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