"The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning."
- Geoffrey Fisher, 99th Archbishop of Canterbury
Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, martyred for Christ in 156
"O happy fault! If we weren't sinners and didn't need pardon more than bread, we'd have no way of knowing how deep God's love is."
- Louis Evely
"Avoid, like the plague, a clergyman who is also a businessman."
- St. Jerome
"Slander is worse than cannibalism."
- St. John Chrysostom
"Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."
- Jaroslav Pelikan
"The Jesus of Suburbia is a lie."
- Green Day
"It's true romance is dead I shot it in the chest and in the head"
- Fall Out Boy
"Don't just adore the Eucharist, enact it."
- William Cavanaugh
"If you can be talked out of your faith, you probably should be."
- Roger Ward
"Don't ever deny someone the luxury of being human or broken. That is not a luxury you yourself can afford to lose."
- Sarah Cunningham
"It is better that the United States be liquidated than that she survive by war."
- Dorothy Day
"Wherever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian Church. With its recovery will come unexpected power."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Alright, these days I usually wouldn't bother to comment on something this silly, but it might be a teachable moment. Take note of the graphic I found on the website (Alan got a direct mailing!) of a local Lexington congregation. You're seeing it right, that's a triple offer of "traditional, contemporary, and emerging" worship services. Chuckle with me.
I will admit that many folks are claiming to be "emerging" Christians and have some pretty contradictory values. But I maintain that "emergence" is a theological current, not a worship style. The description on the website is that of a "post-modern" worship service, experiential and all of that. There's nothing "emerging" about it, unless maybe they're praying the office or doing lectio divino or centering prayer, etc.
But "experiential, participatory, image-rich" and "connected" all speak of post-modern marketing, and aren't "emergent" as far as I'm concerned. And nor should you think so, which is why I'm bothering to write this. I'll say what I have before:
Liturgy in my little corner of "the emerging church" is not what it is in order for us to have a warm experience; rather, there's a theology behind it. We're are seeking to delve deep into the ancient faith of the church catholic, sitting with the ancient divines, praying the office, and committing to one another as the Body of Christ.
"Post-modernity" and whatever pop-religionists consider it to be is barely on our radar screen. I am not saying these folks are bad or that what they're doing is wrong, or that it's bad to be "pomo" (I'm not interested in those questions); merely that there's a difference between the two.it's simply inaccurate and unfair that other Christians would lump our community with theirs just because of some confused words.
If I may be but a little flippant, some people are using candles and incense and celebrating the Eucharist because it's cool. Others have been doing it because we've been doing it for two thousand years.
End rant. But feel free to take me further on this, or check out my similar essays:
yes, on one level it is pretty naff and irritating. it does little (if anything) to describe the fine detail of what i look for in a worship experience, or what I've been involved in creating with others.
but, as one-dimensional as this graphic is, it might have a purpose in so far as it communicates a basic idea. the problem is the graphic only works if we unpack the sociological sybolism there. it does't work if we try to then load that up with a theology.
this is where I think you are onto something in critique-ing the whole language of "post-modern" worship, because all too often people who want to play game collapse sociological anaysis into theological forms, in ways that are not only simplistic, but also a-historical.
anyway, just some thoughts, i will probably blog on this one in a few days.
Kyle Potter, MTh (Oxon)
Catechist for Adult Formation,
Saint Patrick's Church
Missioner to Georgetown, Kentucky
Anglican Mission in the Americas E-mail me
Library Technician for Research Assistance & Cataloging
Department Liaison for Religion, Philosophy, Sociology & Theatre
Instructor of Christian Theology
Ensor LRC, Georgetown College
"The Church claims to be the most comprehensive human society there is - the new human race in embryo. And it claims this because of its belief that it is established not by any human process grounded in and limited by events, cultures and so on, but by God's activity." - Rowan Williams
7 Comments:
thanks - i just blogged it and asked some questions
what is in the emerging cup . . and is it chai?
funny, the way you described emerging would be the way I would describe my Anglo-Catholic liturgy.
Rick, you've found me out. That's how I'd describe your Anglo-Catholic liturgy, too.
Moreover, I advocate the ecclesiology and the sacramental life that come with it.
But you've pegged it. A rose by any other name...
Thanks for the link and the comment, Andrew.
yes, on one level it is pretty naff and irritating. it does little (if anything) to describe the fine detail of what i look for in a worship experience, or what I've been involved in creating with others.
but, as one-dimensional as this graphic is, it might have a purpose in so far as it communicates a basic idea. the problem is the graphic only works if we unpack the sociological sybolism there. it does't work if we try to then load that up with a theology.
this is where I think you are onto something in critique-ing the whole language of "post-modern" worship, because all too often people who want to play game collapse sociological anaysis into theological forms, in ways that are not only simplistic, but also a-historical.
anyway, just some thoughts, i will probably blog on this one in a few days.
Now who could argue with that? ;0)
oh come on kyle, you knew the secret was going to get out that the emergent church was a north pacific brand name :)
Yeah. I'm so trendy, I can barely walk!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home