Ramblings of Daniel Ross-Jones
Archive for February, 2009
Signs of promise, signs of defeat
Feb 20th
Yesterday the ELCA publicly released its proposed statement on human sexuality today, along with a series of resolutions (“enabling actions”) based on its standings. While a vast improvement from its original, it still, in my opinion, has a long way to go.
One of the hardest things to accept, though, is that the church that left me no other option but to leave — yet I still wrestle with in love — still won’t take a definitive position and instead is willing to compromise the integrity, value and God-breathed nature of an entire group of people in the name of a futile attempt at preserving a false sense of unity and uniformity.
Let me establish one thing here: division in the church is painful. It is painful to Jesus Christ, our head. It is painful to a world already shattered and fractioned, seeking a place of solace and refuge. It is painful to churchgoers who take seriously the fundamental truths of the Christian faith and see no reason for “frivilous disagreements” of non-fundamentals. But, I will dare propose, occasionally division is inevitable and the space it creates allows for creative growth, Spirit-led innovation, and the future possibility of reunification.
The final thing I love about the UCC is our ability to wrestle together over life’s tough questions. Our structure allows for difference of opinion. Our theology has developed in such a way that dissent is (generally) not a communion-shattering event. Following yesterday’s announcement, one of the organizations around the ELCA dedicated to a conservative, traditional Lutheran witness in the United States slammed the church for failing to recognize the ‘movement,’ if you will, of voters in states that have “[upheld] traditional marriage better than church leaders.” Likewise, an organizaion committed to an inclusive, progressive momentum issued a stark critique of the church for not providing enough resources for the local option they are proposing.
The ELCA doesn’t have the flexibility in their structure for such division. (I’d like to point out that the church leaders there would tell you they do, but the fact of the matter is they don’t.) The calling and leadership system doesn’t allow for congregations to search for qualified, rostered ministers on their own without going through synodical offices. That means conservative congregations in liberal synods might not be able to call conservative ministers, and are instead subject to the wishes of the synodical office. The reverse is also true. Even a local option like has been proposed doesn’t really solve the problem. People on both sides feel hurt, not listened to, unrepresented.
And so the continual decline of the church presses on. In efforts to prevent large-scale schism, individuals and groups leave the ELCA — sometimes for other denominations or independent churches, but all-too-often in a feeling of abuse and defeat they leave the organized church altogether.
I am convinced that the ELCA will look significantly different following the Churchwide Assembly this summer in Minneapolis. I do believe a large-scale exodus will result. There simply are no remaining options without a complete reestablishment of the denominational structure. Certain caucus groups affiliated with the church already have the resources — monetary, people, publishing and theological/educational — to break en masse and establish another Lutheran body in the United States. And while this will create immediate pain, confusion, and frustration, when the dust settles I do believe that both groups will be the better for it — because it will provide a safe space for people as they continue to wrestle within their own, local settings, and perhaps in the future allow for reunification in a positive setting that allows for the growth and development of all God’s children.
UCC Series: We Play Well With Others
Feb 15th
One of the things that attracted me most to the UCC was its diversity of thought within the denomination, and its deep and abiding partnership with other traditions both inside and outside the Christian faith.
In other countries like ours, the 20th Century included a number of united and uniting church movements. The United Church in Canada included the vast majority of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches in that country — and there was even talk and preparation for the Anglicans to join in. The Uniting Church in Australia has a similar story. The United States, though, never fully realized the movement. That’s OK. We’ve still got room in the UCC even for those who cling to their own labels and definitions.
Some challenge us because we have no prerequisite acquiescence to a set theology or creed. But how wonderful it is to join together with those who do! We are able to teach and learn from each other as we are on the great pilgrimage of faith. On Sunday mornings, one is bound to find as many theological outlooks as there are individuals in the pews. But we are not a group of individuals, instead we join together to fully engage and employ our God-given intelligence to attempt to understand God better, to more fully be about God’s work in our lives and in the life of the world around us through our discipleship. In a community like ours, how can we help ourselves from reaching out across sectarian lines?
So, yeah. We play well with others. Its a really neat thing.
UCC Series: We’re a Creative Bunch
Feb 8th
Read the first installment of this series.
One of the things that I love about the UCC, and that I think we do exceptionally well in comparison to the other mainline denominations, is we’re creative. Now before the Lutherans start litigating about their creative forces, and the Presbyterians start pontificating about their artistic following, let me remind you I’m not here to start a war. This isn’t an all-or-nothing summarization. But you’ve got to admit, the UCC is creative.
Our structure breeds creativity. Worship is not standardized among the congregations in our church; you’re free to use (or avoid) the UCC Book of Worship… or the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, or the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, or the Evangelical Lutheran Worship, or Joe’s Book of Pub Rules, or Sally’s Order for School Playgrounds.
Furthermore, Christian Education is equally diverse. And there’s a growing movement for bringing in the visul arts — probably because after centuries of whitewashed walls, we’re ready for some living color. And then there’s our national structure itself. Describing it as *creative* would be an understatement!
We’re a denomination leading the way for the use of technology in evangelism, mobilization and advocacy. Church House is twittering, facebooking and blogging. And for heaven’s sake, we’ve successfully replaced an image of suffering and death (the cross) as our church icon with a comma. A comma! It signifies not the end, but a continuation; not resolution, but open-ended freedom.
As a denomination committed to social justice, it makes sense that we breed creativity. Tough decisions require creative solutions. The UCC is definitely a place where the right brain need not check itself at the door.
On the wrong side of history
Feb 8th
A blog I frequent, “Real Live Preacher,” is written by a Baptist minister deep in the heart of Texas. His writings often compel me to reflect on my own life, and he gives me strength to keep on keeping on as I pursue my call toward ordination in a faith tradition that has far too many boxes and heartbreaking too few gray areas.
I encourage you to read his most recent post. Once again, he’s given me chills with his writing and moved me in such a way that I won’t be able to let go from this sacred space for a while. An excerpt:
How can joy and sorrow be melded together in such a powerful way? I could hear the voice of God speaking to me, straight and direct, but also with love.
“You look a little shook up, Gordon. It hurts, doesn’t it, when you see the faces of the people you have been so quick to condemn? And yet, is it not also wonderful to see my other children, your brothers and sisters?”
Go. Take a look. Leave comments on his blog to continue the conversation.
Critic by association
Feb 7th
“If you believe love should be uncritical, you may soon be thinking that I do not love this church. But my experience has been that to be a member of the United Church of Christ is, almost by definition, to be a critic of it. To be uncritical is to be the real oddball in this church. Perhaps to be uncritical is to be un-Christian”. -From “The United Church of Christ Tomorrow”, THEOLOGY AND IDENTITY: TRADITIONS, MOVEMENTS, AND POLITY IN THE UCC (Pilgrim Press: 1990), ed. Dan Johnson and Charles Hambrick-Stowe
I have a love-hate relationship with institutional church. For any of those people who know me even slightly well, they will attest to the convoluted paradigm that is my absolute devotion to structured religious practice within the covenantal church standing next to the uncompromising commitment to the institutional ideal — what should be, what could be, what ought to be instead of what presently is.
To be certain, I have faced my own personal series of dark nights where the church was little more than a cannon aimed in my direction. But the enduring power of the faithful assembled wouldn’t let me go. Time and again I come back to this place with all of its faults and failures, roll up my sleeves, and say to those around me, “Let’s get to God’s work among God’s people.”
Because of my commitment to that ideal, I couldn’t in good conscience remain in the faith tradition of my upbringing. As a confessional tradition, it takes its cues and inspiration from ancient statements of faith, 15th and 16th Century methods of interpretation and practice, and holds a certain suspicion to those models which emphasize freedom in the Gospel. I don’t say this to reject that community’s faith; far from it, there are myriad good and faithful people who work to build the Beloved Community on earth there, and I am shaped and molded by their tradition more than I can ever unravel. But in the end, my instinctive understanding of religious freedom for the sake of Jesus Christ led me down a different path of searching and discerning before I arrived in my home in the United Church of Christ.
I love the UCC. I love that I can walk into two local churches sitting next door to each other and receive a completely different message. I love that I can talk with two UCC members and receive eight different opinions. I love that I can be about faithful risk, challenging the structures which define us, while maintaining solidarity with those around the edges. I love that I can (even ought to) challenge church leadership yet stand side-by-side at the wonderful Table of Grace and receive heavenly food to sustain each of us.
I love the ideal of the UCC: a church rooted in no fewer than four Christian traditions in North America but affected by so many more, that celebrates its diversity in all of its forms while requiring uniformity of none.
There is much to celebrate in the UCC, but yet I am constantly reminded of where we fail. In our attempts of inclusion, we fail to name — and even sometimes reject outright — those who we are purposely or indirectly excluding. In our attempts of promoting religious freedom, we reject those who, in their freedom, subscribe to or promote a more conservative Christian faith. In our attempts of promoting diversity, we provide a narrow definition rather than subscribing to the comprehensive whole.
One of my requirements as I work toward ordination is to take a course on UCC History & Polity. I’m enrolled in that this semester and after one class period, I can speak with certainty that its going to be one of two classes that will pull me and stretch me in ways I can’t name now. Over the course of the next few postings here, I’m going to address first three things that are cause for celebration in our beloved church, followed by three things that hinder us in our work.
For those who are “church people,” especially who might be involved in the life of the UCC, I hope that you will join the conversation. For those who are “people of the world,” I hope you will also join the conversation and keep us grounded in the here-and-now of our work together. Finally, for those of you who can’t stand church talk, I hope you, too, will join the conversation and let us know what it is we have done to push you away.
We’ll see where this goes. I’m excited.