FROM OUR RECTOR

October 2007

The Rev. Richard G. Elliott

rge3@ec.rr.com

From the Rector: 

As I write this the House of Bishops is meeting in New Orleans.  It is a regular biennial meeting, but one that is particularly charged because of the controversies echoing in the life of the church today.  As I  have surveyed the news coming out on this meeting, I have found very little that is helpful.  It’s important to remember that most of the folks doing the reporting are either not familiar with the workings of the church, or they are partisans of one side or the other.  It is also good to remember that the news media exist, not to inform us, but to capture our attention so that we can see the ads.

Beyond this the upsets in the life of the larger church have become more convoluted, and less Christian, as time has gone on.  This is no longer a dispute about differing views of human sexuality and the gospel.  It has become a donnybrook about power and control, and it has already lead to de facto schism with people inside and outside of the American church setting up their own fiefdoms. 

While this may generate a bit of uneasiness, let me share a couple of ideas.  First, to paraphrase Tip O’Neill, “All churches are
local.”  While we are part of a national church, which is part of a larger international body of churches, the church lives its life on the local level.  Our call is to be faithful where we are.  As one of the leading lights of the Oxford movement, John Keble, said, “If the Church of England were to fail altogether yet it would be found in my parish.”

Second, it is important to remember that hierarchies often have an inflated sense of their own importance.  Any one bishop or group of bishops is only a transitory expression of the episcopate.  While they hold the office of bishop in the church they are not the church.  To listen to some folks speak today, you would think their motto was l’Eglise cest moi.  The church has always been and always will be greater than its institutional expression.

We will certainly hear much out of this meeting.  It will not be the last and there will be other meetings and other headlines in the paper, but this Sunday (and every Sunday) you will hear the gospel preached, classes will be taught, and old friends and strangers will be welcomed with what we hope is Christ’s hospitality.