We end the year with an old favorite. You can see the audio-visual meditation, here. (Scroll down beneath the archived Advent calendars.) Make sure you have your sound on.
Candlemas
By Denise Levertov
With certitude,
Simeon opened
ancient arms
to infant light.
Decades
before the cross, the tomb
and the new life,
he knew
new life.
What depth
of faith he drew on,
turning illumined
towards deep night.
The penultimate poem in our Christmas series. Look for the last one on Dec. 31.
The Journey of the Magi
By T. S. Eliot
'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
Some comentary of this poem, often said to trace Eliot's journey to faith can be found here and here.
Our friend Bowie Snodgrass, content manager for episcopalchurch.org has three pieces of news.
1) We’re on YouTube!
www.youtube.com/TECtube
So far, we’ve posted 13 videos, including: ‘Jefferts Schori's Convention address following her election’ and our *newest addition* ‘Presiding Bishop Nominee Jefferts Schori’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifdrSgFJ_sA (answering the question: “What are the priorities for the new Presiding Bishop?” Recorded May 1, 2006)
2) Who is Jesus to You?
www.episcopalchurch.org/visitors_24527_ENG_HTM.htm
Responses from the Jesus Survey we did a few months back (many thanks to those of you who posted it!)
Additional pages culled from the survey results to be posted in 07.
3) Small Membership Churches BLOG
smallepiscopalchurch.blogspot.com
Maintained by the Rev. Suzanne E. Watson (Episcopal Church Center staff)
The Washington Post will be webcasting President Gerald R. Ford's funeral on Tuesday from Washington National Cathedral. Guest commentators include Alexander Baumgarten, international policy analyst with the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations, and John Johnson, domestic policy analyst in the same office.
They will be online beginning at about 9:15 on Tuesday when President Ford’s body is scheduled to be taken from the Capitol to the Cathedral. The funeral begins at 10:30 a. m.
Alex is a parishioner at St. Paul's, K Street and John is a parishioner at St. Thomas', Dupont Circle.
Funeral services in two parish churches and Washington National Cathedral will reflect President Gerald R. Ford's faith tradition as an Episcopalian active in lay ministry.
Ford's volunteer accomplishments, including work for the 1990 completion of the National Cathedral, were praised by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in a December 27 statement recognizing his "care-filled ministry." The statement's full text is available here.
Ford and his wife, Betty, also shared in fundraising initiatives for Episcopal Relief and Development, formerly the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief. The former President joined in saluting Mrs. Ford when she addressed the 1985 meeting of the General Convention in Anaheim, California, also attended by Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie.
The Fords have been active member of several congregations. During their 1974-1977 White House tenure they often attended St. John's, Lafayette Square, known as the "Church of the Presidents."
ENS has the story.
The Rev. Robert Certain, rector of the Ford family's church in California will preach at the funeral. He had recently announced his retirement. You can read some of his writings here and here. His General Convention blog is here.
Continuing to observe the Octave of Christmas with poetry:
The Work of Christmas
by Howard Thurman
"When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart."
— The Mood of Christmas, 23
(There's more at Spirituality and Practice.)
Oh, and the January issue of our diocesan newspaper, Washington Window, is now online.
Announcement is a very different word than annunciation. The connotations of the first are workaday, bureaucratic, while the connotations of the second are grand, even--in the poem excerpted below--sacred. Yet Denise Levertov wants us to undersand that the distinction obscures rather than illuminates. God is forever annunciating His presence, offering to be born in each of our lives. We may not get the angel, but we get the invitation.
from Annunciation
by Densire Levertov
Aren’t there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.
More often
those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.
You can find the whole poem here. Or in The Stream and the Sapphire.
(Thanks to the New York and New Jersey dioceses of the Orthodox Church in America.)
Statement of the Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane, Bishop of Washington, on the death of President Gerald R. Ford
Early this morning I was awakened with the news that President Gerald R. Ford had died in California after several years of deteriorating health.
The former President, a faithful Episcopalian, was a man known for his great integrity and his firm belief in God. He never sought the Presidency, yet when it was thrust upon him he led wisely, guiding our nation well during a time of high inflation, fuel shortages, and the complex foreign policy challenges presented by the Cold War. A kind man who worked hard at building bridges and shaping consensus, he will be remembered for his dignity, his humility and his devotion to healing a divided nation.
On behalf of the Diocese of Washington I extend our prayers to his wife, Betty and his family during this time of sadness, and I ask God’s blessing upon our former President as he enters the land of light and joy where there is no more sorrow or pain, but only life everlasting.
The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane
Bishop of Washington
December 27, 2006
Maybe you got a gift certificate to Borders' or Amazon for Christmas. Maybe you got a book you didn't want. Read this poem by Mary Karr, and then, if you like her work as much as I (and many others) do, buy Sinners Welcome, her new collection .
Descending Theology: Christ Human
Such a short voyage for a god,
and you arrived in animal form so as not
to scorch us with your glory.
Your mask was an infant’s head on a limp stalk,
sticky eyes smeared blind,
limbs rendered useless in swaddle.
You came among beasts
as one, came into our care or its lack, came crying
as we all do, because our human frame
is a crucifix, each skeletos borne a lifetime.
Any wanting soul lain
prostrate on a floor to receive a pouring of sunlight
might—if still enough,
feel your cross buried in the flesh.
One has only to surrender,
you preached, open both arms to the inner,
the ever-present hold,
out-reaching every want. It’s in the form
embedded, love adamant as bone
In a breath, we can bloom and almost be you.
Mary Karr
from Sinners Welcome
(thanks to the People of the Book blog.)
Glad tidings from various sources:
The Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas sermon.
Bishop John Bryson Chane's Christmas sermon.
Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III's Christmas sermon.
All the windows are now open on our online Advent calendar, and we've saved the best for last. Window 25 opens on a magnificent creche made entirely of driftwood pulled from the Gulf of Mexico.
As the accompanying text says:
"This lovely driftwood nativity was created by Mildred Hanson of Gasque, Alabama. Mildred came across an unusual, small knotted and dented piece of driftwood while walking on a beach and thought it resembled Mother Mary, with her hands lifted in prayer, looking down at Jesus in the manger. Over many years she collected other interesting little pieces of driftwood in the hopes that she could build the manger scene with Mary and her family. The shape of the driftwood dictated the posture of each figure. Mildred interfered little with the forms. Diluted acrylic paint, brushed on in thin coats, reveals the unifying flow of the driftwood grain from figure to figure. Imperfections in the wood are not “corrected” but allowed to stand proud."
My other favorites were windows 5, 7 and 23.
There has been news today, as readers of The New York Times know, but we will discuss it at another time.
Merry Christmas.
Bishop John Bryson Chane will appear on Good Morning America on Christmas morning, as he has for the last three or four years. The show airs on ABC stations between 7 and 9 a. m.
After the show, our local ABC station will carry the 9 a. m. Eucharist live from Washington National Cathedral. That broadcast is also available in some other television markets. Check with local stations. In addition, the Cathedral is webcasting many of its services today and tomorrow.
In his interview with GMA anchor Robin Roberts (It looks live, but was actually taped last week.), the bishop mentions his recent trip to Iran. You can learn more about the trip by reading the column he wrote for the January issue of our diocesan newspaper, Washington Window. Just click on the "continue reading" tab.
The Burning Babe
by Robert Southwell, SJ
As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,
Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;
Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.
“Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”
With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.
(Thanks again, to the Poetry Foundation.)
If, like most who frequent this blog, you are an Episcopalian or Anglican, then it is worth knowing that our spiritual forebears tortured and killed the man who wrote this poem. Worth knowing because, at the distance that time provides it is often possible to realize that God speaks with eloquence and power from both sides of the theological divides that separate faiths and nations, through Thomas Cranmers and Robert Southwells alike. John Donne lampooned Ignatius Loyola, yet his Divine Poems (scroll down a bit) could not have been written were he unfamiliar with Ignatius' method of meditating on the Scriptures.
My prayer this Christmas is that those on both sides of the divide in our disputatious Communion will continue to be true to what they believe that God is calling them to say, and that we may realize the fruits of honest Christian disagreement.
(For thoughts in a somewhat similar vein, see this essay by Marshall Scott.)
I will be posting more poetry in the coming week, but I am taking a break from Anglican news. If you want to keep up with newspaper reports, however, I'd recommend keeping an eye on both The Washington Post and The New York Times.
I realize that I am out of liturgical season here, but the end of Frank Capra's Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life (which we watched tonight) always reminds me of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. As George Bailey's friends come forward in joyful procession with the contributions will save him from prison, I am reminded of all the leftovers from that scanty meal that Jesus offered to the multitude. It was in giving himself away that George Bailey became, in his brother Harry's words, "the richest man in town."
Please visit our Web site and listen to the Princeton Singers' renditions of In the Bleak Midwinter and Once in Royal David's City.
I don't know whether these two songs are distinctively Anglican, but I think of them that way, probably because neither figured in my Christmas memories until I joined the Episcopal Church nine years ago. Both are now favorites, perhaps because I remember how much I enjoyed trying to master the tenor part of In the Bleak Midwinter in the dark, chilly choir at my old parish, Church of the Ascenion in Silver Spring. The service at Ascension once began with a child singing the first verse of Once in Royal David's City a cappella. Both of my sons had the opportunity to sing that verse, and I can recall those moments with proud-parent clarity.
If you are looking for someplace to worship this weekend, please visit the Find a Church page of our Web site, or of the Episcopal Church Web site.
We are still working on getting those carols I promised up on our home page. Meanwhile,
A Penitent Considers Another Coming of Mary
by Gwendolyn Brooks
For Reverend Theodore Richardson
If Mary came would Mary
Forgive, as Mothers may,
And sad and second Saviour
Furnish us today?
She would not shake her head and leave
This military air,
But ratify a modern hay,
And put her Baby there.
Mary would not punish men—
If Mary came again.
Thanks to the Poetry Foundation.
I was hoping to keep Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion politics off the blog for the holiday season, but the Archbishop of Canterbury has wrtiten a letter to the Primates that you will want to have a look at. It is below the continue reading tab.
UPDATE: Tobias and Jake have commentary. Update again: Sarah Dylan Breuer has a different take on all of this. And do have a look at what the Mad Priest has to say.
Merry Christmas. We hope to have a few carols, sung by the fabulous Princeton Singers, available on our web site by this evening.
If you are looking for someplace to worship this Christmas, please visit the site, and use our Find a Church function.
And don't forget to open the last few windows in our online Advent calendar.
(The blog will be in moderation mode during much of the holidays, so don't be alarmed if comments don't appear immediately.)
None of it from me.
Stephen Bates has writen a funny piece for the Church of England Newspaper about some predictions made by English religion writers abouthte coming year. Some of the names will be unfamiliar to American readers, but some will be quite familiar indeed.
Andrew Gerns has been blogging most admirably of late, and I'd like to call attention to this entry, which provides more evidence of the citizens of Falls Church's discomfort with the Nigerian church in their midst, and to thank him for pointing out this bit of wisdom from Barbara Crafton of Geranium Farm fame.
An Advent offering
On the Mystery of the Incarnation
By Denise Levertov
It's when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.
Thanks to JourneywithJesus.net. If you are looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for a thoughtful, spiritually-minded person, consider Levertov's The Stream and the Sapphire.
In a letter to the new Nigerian congregations in the United States, Archbishop Akinola seems to be trying to say the right things. But his comments about revising the most objectionable provisions of the draconian bill he has been supporting are vague and ring hollow, coming as they do at a politically expedient time. His attempt to blame the harshness of this legislation on Muslims, while continuing to support it himself, is deeply troubling.
If the archbishop disassociates himself and his Church from the bill, people will stop criticizing him for supporting it. But he hasn't done so.
In a separate letter, Bishop Minns also takes pains to dispell notions that his Church is anti-gay. Okay, if it helps cut through the fog, let's put that phrase aside for the moment.
Minns' Church is supporting a bill that has been roundly criticized by 16 international human rights organizations and 60 members of the European parliament. Even the U. S. State Department has expressed its concern. These groups have no pooch in the great Anglican Communion dogfight. They are just calling it the way they see it. And what they see is a repressive piece of legislation supported by a Christian Church.
And the victims of this repression will be either gay people, or their allies.
Better?
(Father Jake is on this, too. And he's got links to Akinola's two previous statements of support for the legislation, neither of which say anything about softening its rough edges. Here's Matt Thompson's take.)
Update: Matt has a more serious second post on the letters. It begins:
"I am stunned by the PR corner Bishop Minns and Archbishop Akinola have put themselves in. They both know that Akinola can't back down on this legislation. It would make him look weak, and it would further his embarrassment among his Nigerian co-religionists about the consecration of Bishop Robinson (Diocese of New Hampshire).
But if they stay where they are, they have to weather the increasing hail of bad press Truro and The Falls Church have received after their votes to leave for the rather sordid "civil rights" pasture of the Church of Nigeria."
and later:
"From a purely PR perspective, there are only three ways through this pickle. One, ignore the bad press and push on as usual, stopping every once in a while to shift the weight of the growing burden of bad public perception that CANA carries as it moves to Nigeria. Two, have Bishop Minns publicly denounce the legislation, saying that it should never have been endorsed by Akinola in the first place. I do not believe that Minns will do this, but it's an option. Three, have Archbishop Akinola withdraw his endorsement, or modify it.
There is no middle path here, even though they seem to want it both ways. "
If you are a fan of the O Antiphons, and would appreciate links to more recordings visit Topmost Apple.
Last October, Calvary Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, led by Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, reached a settlement in a lawsuit in which the parish charged, in essence, that the diocese was unlawfully attempting to appropiate the property of the Episcopal Church.
The settlement upheld "current church law that parish and diocesan property belong to the denomination," wrote Steve Levin of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Calvary believes that recent activities by the diocese, including its decision to withdraw from Province III of the Episcopal Church, its withholding of money from the Episcopal Church, and its request for Alternative Primatial Oversight, violate the settlement agreement, and so, on Tuesday, the parish filed a petition "asking the Court of Common Pleas [to] enforce what we believe to be the correct reading of the Stipulation and Order entered October 14, 2005."
Calvary has requested an expedited discovery process to allow it to receive "equitable relief in advance of an international meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion scheduled for February 14-17, 2007 in Tanzania. On information and belief ... [that] Bishop Duncan and Primates of foreign countries are planning to use the occasion of the meeting... to promote Bishop Duncan's organiation and to implement actions directed at impairing the ability of Plaintiffs, TEC and TEC's constituents to maintain or recover their lawful interests in the Property."
Calvary is particularly interested in the November meeting in Falls Church, Va., attended by Duncan, various conservative Episcopal bishops and several African Primates. Citing Bishop John-David Schofield's presentation to his deaneries in the Diocese of San Joaquin, they argue that Duncan and others agreed at that meeting to "submit to the authority of certain foreign Primates."
This ENS story quotes the Rev. Rick Matters, who has opposed San Joaquin's moves toward session, as saying that Schofield told the deaneries that he signed a "pledge of allegiance" to six Anglican Communion bishops, including Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola and Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone.
If the use of the phrase "pledge of allegiance" can be authenticated, it could be important.
Calvary's press release is beneath the "continue reading" button. The petition is online at a link at the bottom of the release, but includes exhibits, so the file is 315 pages. I will link to the 16-page petition when it becomes available.
On Stand Firm in Faith, I came across this interesting passage in an article by the Rev. David Roseberry of Christ Church, Plano, which left the Episcopal Church a few months ago for much the same reasons that the Virginia churches just departed. Bishop Martyn Minns had arranged for him to have breakfast in London with Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria to learn more about Akinola's efforts to form a convocation of what he considers orthodox believers in the United States.
The phrase "39th province" refers to the notional jurisdiction that the Primates will create to provide an Anglican Communion home for American conservatives.
Roseberry writes:
"The CANA organization is without a clearly determined structure so far. There are early ideas now of ‘districts’, or clusters of congregations headed up by a regional bishop. CANA sees itself as one of the first building blocks of a new 39th Anglican Province that will lie within TEC boundaries.
I asked about the role of CANA in the formation of a 39th Province. He sees the need for a 39th Province but is unsure of the structure and form it should take. The primates will not (probably) be able to initiate such a structure soon, but if it gets a few hundred churches and a functioning college of bishops, the primates may bless it. But this is not something that will happen soon... not even before Lambeth. Whether or not Rowan or Lambeth will ever bless it remains to be seen, he feels."
(I learned something about the Primate’s Meetings. It is not a legislative body. They probably can’t vote into existence the kind of entity that some have been promising. They may respond to a reality or a ‘fact on the ground’. But, in my opinion, it is doubtful that Akinola will see a 39th Province before he retires in 24 months.)"
Two points:
1. The leader of the conservative movement in the Communion thinks it is unlikely that a new American province will be created any time soon, and isn't certain that the current Archbishop of Canterbury will ever bless such a development.
2. Roseberry, one of the key figures in the conservative movement within the United States, appears to be a bit behind the curve in his understanding of how the Communion governs itself. How could the rector of what we were regularly told was the largest Episcopal Church in the country not know that the Primates Meeting is not a legislative gathering? I think I will read future missives from his party about the true meaning of Anglicanism with a somewhat more critical eye.
The New York Times reports
"In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat to the nation’s traditional values.
Mr. Goode was referring to Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat and criminal defense lawyer who converted to Islam as a college student and was elected to the House in November. Mr. Ellison’s plan to use the Koran during his private swearing-in ceremony in January had outraged some Virginia voters, prompting Mr. Goode to issue a written response to them, a spokesman for Mr. Goode said."
It is Mr. Goode who is the real threat to America's traditional values, one of which is freedom of religion.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is the guest voice this week in the Washington Post's new Web-based feature On Faith. Have a look, but bring your asbestos underwear. Apparently a female bishop who supports gay rights is a bit of a stumbling block for some people.
Meanwhile, Newsweek has tabbed the PB as someone to watch in its current issue on up and coming leaders.
Update, The Nation has chimed in with Holy Homophobia by Richard Kim, and Ed Kilgore of the political blog New Donkey shares his views as well.
That stinging headline appeared on Howard Meyerson's column today in The Washington Post.
An excerpt regarding the decison by Bishop Martyn Minns and his followers to join forces with Archbishop Peter Akinola and the Church of Nigeria:
"Explaining the decision to leave the American church, Vicki Robb, a Fairfax parishioner and Alexandria public relations exec, told The Post's Bill Turque and Michelle Boorstein that the church's leftward drift has made it "kind of embarrassing when you tell people that you're Episcopal." It must be a relief to finally have an archbishop who doesn't pussyfoot around when gays threaten to dine in public.
The alliance of the Fairfax Phobics with Archbishop Restaurant Monitor is just the latest chapter in the global revolt against modernity and equality and, more specifically, in the formation of the Orthodox International. The OI unites frequently fundamentalist believers of often opposed faiths in common fear and loathing of challenges to ancient tribal norms."
Meanwhile, The Economist has this:
The breakaway congregations are putting themselves up for adoption by Anglican archbishoprics in the developing world. One would-be parent is a Nigerian bishop, Peter Akinola, who runs the largest province in the Anglican communion, and who has pronounced views on homosexuality: he supports legislation that would make it illegal for gays to form associations, read gay literature or even eat together. There are also suitors from Rwanda, Uganda and Bolivia.
And on the Guardian's blog, comment is free, Bruce Bawer writes: For years now, antigay Episcopal leaders have been cultivating ties with people like that Nigerian bishop with an eye to eventually jumping ship. Now these two Virginia congregations have taken the plunge, placing themselves under the authority of Archbishop Peter Akinola, primate of the Church of Nigeria - a man who not only opposes gay bishops but enthusiastically supports a proposal by his nation's government to outlaw meetings of homosexuals. In doing so, these parishes - whose histories are wrapped up in the history of the founding of American democracy - have betrayed both their American and their Anglican roots.
For though they beat their breasts over their fealty to "traditional values," these secessionists have demonstrated quite dramatically that they don't know the first thing about Anglican tradition - which from the beginning has called on the faithful to focus on what brings them together, not on what divides them, and whose glory is not a book of discipline but a book of common prayer. They call themselves orthodox, but in an Anglican context they're anything but. They thunder that their denomination has been taken over by gays and their supporters; the fact is that third-world Anglicanism has largely fallen under the sway of reactionary demagogues who have left Anglican traditions and values far behind.
Episcopal News Service
December 19, 2006
In this season: light in the darkness
One in a series of occasional reflections from the Presiding Bishop
[ENS] Note to readers: With this posting, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori begins a series of occasional reflections for the people of the Episcopal Church. The reflections will also be available on the Presiding Bishop's web pages.
In this season: light in the darkness
For the People of the Episcopal Church
The Episcopal Church continues to focus on its mission of reconciling the world, particularly as it cares for the least, the lost, and the left out. We participate in God's mission to heal the world as we feed the hungry, house the homeless, educate children, heal the sick, and seek to change the systems that perpetuate injustice.
We also seek reconciliation with those within and beyond this church who differ from us theologically. While we regret the recently publicized departures of individuals from churches in Virginia and elsewhere in this Church, and the rejection of this Church's elected leadership by various bishops here and across the world, we continue to seek reconciliation.
God is not served by bickering, name-calling, and division. We recall Jesus' prayer in John's gospel, "that they may be one" and understand that to include the whole world -- those who agree and those who disagree, people of different faith traditions and none, and the poorest and most broken among us.
We will continue to engage in that mission of healing the world, whatever others may decide. In this season, we affirm the ancient dream of peace in our day, shalom, salaam, the peace of God which passes all understanding.
May the Prince of Peace shine in your hearts, and may that light bless the world.
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it"
(John 1:5).
Shalom,
Katharine
-- The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori is Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church.
Our diocese's ministry at the University Maryland is featured on the cover of this week's issue of The Living Church. (See the photo on their homepage.) The opening of the Episcopal Living Learning Center on the College Park campus was also covered in The Diamondback.
Three cheers for the Rev. Peter Antoci, the students at the U of M, parishioners at St. Andrew's College Park, and eveyone else who made the center possible.
Stephen Bates' column on the Guardian's blog is worth a look.
He says, in part:
Truro church and Falls church have made it quite clear that they have been disenchanted with the Episcopal church's liberal-leaning leadership for a long time, looking for an excuse to go. Virtually nothing could have persuaded them to stay. Although the proximate cause may have been the election three years ago of the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, the real causes lie in a fundamental disagreement over the nature of Anglicanism and a determination to wrest it from its broad and tolerant roots into a more evangelical, conservative direction.
The same thing is happening in England, where last week a faction of like-minded conservative evangelicals, with close ties to the US churches, presented a list of demands to Archbishop Rowan Williams, including a call for the right to appoint their own ministers without reference to their liberal diocesan bishops.
These groups have chosen homosexuality as a defining issue because they believe it is something that will unite and mobilise sympathisers in a way that other current issues in the church, such as women's ordination, have not been able to do. There is still a visceral distaste for the idea of homosexuality and the prejudice against it can be characterised not as bigotry but as something sanctioned by a few (and there are only a few) references in the Bible. Interestingly, the same mobilisation in defence of biblical orthodoxy does not seem to apply to other facts of life about which the Bible's authors were quite as adamant, pre-eminently divorce. Surely this can't be - can it? - because many more folk have experience of divorce in their families these days than of homosexuality, and that even some of the most outspoken evangelical leaders are themselves divorced.
I don't want to make too much of this story, but it seems to me that Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies, who is nobody's liberal, is experssing dissatisfaction with Archbishop Peter Akinola through a surrogate. Although, as I say, I may be making too much of this. (Hat tip to Simon Sarmiento.)
If I am right, however, it would seem to indicate that influential conservatives who want to let the covenant-making process run its course are now at odds with influential conservatives who are taking more precipitous steps.
The head of the Anglican Communion in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands yesterday said the Diocese does not support the decision of Virginia's two most prominent parishes to leave the Episcopal Church of the USA.
At the same time, Lord Bishop the Rt Revd Dr Alfred Reid chided Nigerian Bishop Peter Akinola for trying to create a rupture in the Church by accommodating the two Virginia churches.
"The Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands wishes to state that it is not a party to, nor does it support the action of the two congregations in the Diocese of Virginia, USA, which have voted to secede from the Episcopal Church of the USA over the issue of the ordination of Gene Robinson, a self-confessed homosexual, as bishop of New Hampshire," Bishop Reid said in a statement issued late yesterday afternoon.
"The Church does not agree with the action of the Archbishop of Nigeria - Peter Akinola - in seeking to create a schism within the global Anglican Communion by facilitating the two Virginia churches in their break away," Bishop Reid said.
"Archbishop Akinola knows full well that the leadership of the worldwide Anglican Communion has been at pains to seek to deal in a holistic and timely manner with the issues raised ever since Robinson's ordination," Bishop Reid added.
Two days ago, Anglicans and Catholics began singing the "O Antiphons" during the liturgy of the hours.
Not familiar with the O Antiphons. Look here. And here is a nice article from Anglicans Online.
But my real reason for posting this item was to point you to this classic piece from the NPR archives.
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[ENS] The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia said December 18 that it has the agreement of people who voted December 17 to leave the Episcopal Church that they will not attempt to transfer church property to their ownership for 30 days.
In return, the diocese promised not to initiate any litigation concerning the departures for the same amount of time, according to a statement issued after Bishop Peter Lee, the diocese's Executive Board and Standing Committee met in an emergency joint session the afternoon of December 18.
"The Episcopal Church is going to be there in partnership with the Diocese of Virginia to help bring healing in any way that we can, and to continue to remind everybody that we are engaged in larger mission," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told ENS.
"If some people decide they need to go then our best recourse is to bless their journey and to remind people that the door will remain open and the porch light on," she said.
Eight of Virginia's 195 congregations announced December 17 that their members had voted to sever ties with the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church of Uganda or the Anglican Church of Nigeria by way of the Anglican District of Virginia, part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).
...to all of the Virginia coverage this morning.
Mark Harris has commentary, which includes this: I believe the people of the various congregations in Virginia that wish to vote on belonging or not belonging to the Episcopal Church have every business doing so, and that their vote, as a group, may also mean that a new congregation is being formed from membership of the old. I regret, and I suppose many of us do, that they wish to leave, but that is their wish. But the remnant, even if it is five or ten percent (in this case, say 200 people), still constitute the parish as a congregation in the Episcopal Church. Since the priest in charge of Truro Church and the Rector of The Falls Church have apparently cast their lot with the departing group, it seems to me the Diocese of Virginia will appoint interim clergy for the remaining Episcopalians and continue the work of those ministries within the Episcopal Church, the fight over the property not withstanding.
The members of Truro and the Falls Church have now declared that belonging to a church that permits gays and lesbians to become bishops is too great a tax on their conscience, while belonging to a church that believes gay people should be imprisoned for eating together in public is not.
I can suggest three reasons that Bishop Martyn Minns and his flock may have taken this decision. The first is naked bigotry. The second is a willingness to trade the human rights of innocent Africans for a more advantageous position in the battle for control of the Anglican Communion. The third is a profoundly distorted understanding of who Jesus was and what he taught.
I’d like to believe that the last of these reasons explains the majority of the votes, because I recognize that my own salvation may depend on God showing mercy to those of us who are sincere in our misapprehensions.
But, if Bishop Minns and his followers do, indeed, believe that gay Nigerians should be imprisoned for visiting a restaurant together, they need to inform us whether they believe gay Americans should be imprisoned for similar activities. And if they do not support the criminalization of such behavior in the United States, they need to explain why they favor--or, at the very least, acquiesce--in depriving Nigerians of rights that Americans enjoy.
Jim Naughton
Truro and the Falls Church have voted to leave the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Church of Nigeria.
Statement from the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia
Today a small number of congregations in the Diocese of Virginia announced that they have voted to separate from the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Church of Nigeria and Bishop Akinola. I am saddened by this development.
The leadership of the Diocese of Virginia has labored for three years to seek another course that would have maintained the integrity of the church and the spirit of inclusiveness that has been a hallmark of the Diocese and the Anglican Communion. The votes today have compromised these discussions and have created Nigerian congregations occupying Episcopal churches. This is not the future of the Episcopal Church envisioned by our
forebears.
I have called a special joint meeting Monday of the Executive Board and Standing Committee of the Diocese, with counsel, to consider the full range of pastoral, canonical and legal obligations of the Church and our responsibilities to those faithful Episcopalians in these congregations who do not choose to associate with the Church of Nigeria.
In the interim I have asked the leadership of these now Nigerian and Ugandan congregations occupying Episcopal churches to keep the spiritual needs of all concerned uppermost in their minds at this difficult moment in our Church history, especially continuing Episcopalians. I also have directed diocesan personnel to work with the leadership of the departing congregations and with those who wish to remain in the Episcopal Church to reach agreements for the shared use of the Church property for the purposes of worship and other needs until final disposition of the Church’s property can be settled.
I want to be clear on this point: Our polity maintains that all real and personal property is held in trust for The Episcopal Church and the Diocese. As stewards of this historic trust, we fully intend to assert the Church’s canonical and legal rights over these properties.
Today is indeed a sad day for the Church and for many in the Church. It is also a day of abundant hope that in our 400 years as Virginia’s oldest Christian community, the Episcopal Church in Virginia will continue to serve Christ faithfully by serving his people.
The key words in today's New York Times story about Truro and the Falls Church's impending decision to leave the Episcopal Church are these:
"In Virginia, the two large churches are voting on whether they want to report to the powerful archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, an outspoken opponent of homosexuality who supports legislation in his country that would make it illegal for gay men and lesbians to form organizations, read gay literature or eat together in a restaurant."
The members of these churches are about to declare to the world that they cannot live in a church that permits the ordination of an openly gay bishop, but they can happily accept the discipline of a church that believes gay people should be imprisoned for the crime of eating together in public. A distressingly large number of commenters on sites like Stand Firm and Titus One Nine have already made this declaration.
Perhaps I am naive to be appalled, but this no longer seems to be a debate about the proper role of gay and lesbians Christians in the Church, but about the moral legitimacy of rolling back human rights for minorities, in this case homosexuals, in a much wider ranging sort of way.
Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi apparently did not say what he meant in his recent letter to his people. Now his provincial secretary, The Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye, has "clarified" the situation. (Hat tip to Kendall.)
Orombi seems to be trying to extricate himself from the mess he made by offering unconvincing reasons for refusing to "sit" with our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori at the upcoming Primates meeting in February. But this time, he is even less convincing and appears even more desperate, for he has decided to fall back on a unique interpretation of the Primates statement from their meeting at Dromantine.
In that statement, the Primates said: “we request that the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada voluntarily withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference.”
The secretary writes:
The actual words of the Primates' 2005 Communiqué from their meeting in Dromantine notwithstanding, our understanding of the decision of the Primates was captured in Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi's press release following that meeting: "In our Ireland meeting the Primates suspended the Episcopal Church of America and the Canadian Church until they repent." Therefore, to sit with the new Primate of ECUSA when they clearly have not repented is to surrender commitment and follow-through on a previous decision.
This clarification reminds me of that old George Carlin routine in which he is making fun of the expression “in your own words."
“In your own words?” Carlin says. “You mean you have your own words? I have to use the same words as everybody else.”
Archbishop Orombi, apparently has his very own words, and, as archbishop, I guess, he gets to define for himself what they mean.
As my younger son keeps reminding me, Christmas is drawing nearer. We have already opened two-thirds of the windows on our diocese's online Advent calendar. Today, in Window 16 you will see a brilliantly colored folk art creche from Portugal, but it is the giving opportunity that I really wanted to call your attention to.
Not long ago, a fire destroyed 400 shanties in the settlement of Dukathole, in the Diocese of the Highveld in South Africa, leaving more than 1000 children homeless. They are in desperate need of food, shelter and clothing. We are working with their bishop to help meet some of these needs. Pleae help us if you can.
After Truro and the Falls Church announce their decision to secede from the Episcopal Church tomorrow, much will be said about the laws regarding possession of church property. Many of the speakers won't have the faintest idea what they are talking about. As one of their number, I intend to stay out of that fray. I did want to call attention, however, to one small fact, which is that if leadership of the two churches felt certain that they would maintain the property, they would not have made an ill-advised bid to get a sympathetic state legislator to change state law to ensure the desired outcome.
The story began last February after a bill favorable to the departing congregations was already well advanced in the Virginia Senate. The Washington Post’s story began:
“RICHMOND, Feb. 1 -- A bill before the Virginia Senate has alarmed the Episcopal Church and other mainline Protestant denominations that are deeply torn over the ordination of gay ministers and the blessing of same-sex marriages because, they say, the measure would give local congregations unprecedented powers to break away from their national denominations.
Several major church groups on Tuesday urged lawmakers to reject the bill, which they said would entangle state government in church politics.”
The bill was introduced by Senator Bill Mims, a member of Holy Spirit in Ashburn.
The Post reported:
“Mims said the bill was not meant to target the Episcopal denomination or get involved in its internecine conflict. Though the laity in his own Episcopal congregation in Ashburn has discussed the issue, Mims said, there have been no official moves to split with the church.
He said the congregation, which objected to New Hampshire's gay bishop and has joined the opposition Network of Anglican Communion Parishes, did not request that he introduce the bill.
The Rev. Clancy Nixon, vicar of Church of the Holy Spirit, Mims's congregation, said he supports the measure.”
So, as it happens, did the American Anglican Council.
Fortunately, this was a bill so bad that it shriveled in sunlight. Newspapers around the region fell over themselves editorializing against it. The Post wrote:
"The bill is not explicitly directed at the Episcopalians, but it seems to respond directly to their current fight. And its result would be that conservative Virginia congregations could leave the Episcopal Church without becoming homeless.
Whether the Episcopal Church permits gay clergy is a matter for the church to decide, not the Virginia General Assembly. The First Amendment greatly restricts the power of government to interfere in questions of religious doctrine, and how a church allocates power and property between its central and regional authorities is a matter of canon law, not civil law. Consequently, courts have long deferred to the churches on such questions in the name of religious liberty. A bill that seeks to override churches' own rules on such matters is not likely to survive constitutional scrutiny -- nor should it. The General Assembly should not be taking sides in an argument among the faithful."
The Falls Church News Press was blunter, calling the bill "a blatant, self-serving attempt to cause the state legislature to weigh in on behalf of dissidents within the Episcopal Church opposed to the recent consecration of an openly-gay bishop."
The Hampton Roads Daily Press chimed in: "The bill comes from an unsavory source: a relentless, multi-front campaign to constrain the rights and protections of homosexuals. Does anyone believe that the General Assembly would be intervening if the decamping churches were in favor of gay rights?"
Mims withdrew the bill, the text of which is here. (Hat tip to Simon Sarmiento.)
As the Diocese of Virginia prepares to deal with the leadership of Truro, the Falls Church and the other breakaway congregations in its midst, it will be important to keep in mind how these folks play the game.
One gets the feeling from browsing through the Fall Church News Press that the congregation, which will likely announce its departure from the Episcopal Church tomorrow is not exactly well liked by its neighbors.
This is form the paper's lead editorial this week:
Rather than affirming a generosity of spirit and Good Samaritan compassion that can embrace and nurture a complex and multi-faceted humanity, in this case, the leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal have chosen to stand against the civil authority of the U.S. Constitution that promises equal rights for all, just as happened in all those pulpits that, in the past, denounced what they called the “un-Godly” acts of freeing slaves, ending segregation, or more recently, ending prohibitions on interracial marriage. Church folk experience such hate, emotionally, as a burning righteous indignation.
If this week’s vote results in the departure of Falls Church Episcopal from the Episcopal denomination, the church will go down in infamy as a regrettable and despised bastion of bigotry, prejudice and hatred.
This analysis characterizes what is happening at Truro and hte Falls Church as an "Old South" backlash"
In the churches voting to defect this week, two of their mantras pertain to “Jesus Christ as the sole path to salvation” and “Biblical inerrancy.” Their leaders assert the larger denomination has drifted too far from these tenants of the faith while, oh by the way, ordaining a gay bishop (the principal lightning rod motivating their defections).
A young friend was once under the sway of one of these churches, but ran into the problem of going off to college and cultivating his powers of independent thinking. He related to me a conversation he had with a minister at the church when he then started doubting this notion of “Biblical inerrancy.”
and:
Then the next question, it seems to me, would be, “Who gets to draw that line?” Ministers would say, of course, “God.” But in reality, few have ever claimed to see a big hand with perfect penmanship really pierce some cloud cover and lay it all out. In other words, it’s really a very human proposition, and as such, subject to very human frailties.
The same goes for the claim that “Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.”
Not only does this necessarily leave the vast majority of humanity for all of history doomed to Hell, it does also for all Christians who don’t live up to certain preachers’ definitions of sufficient faith. It leads to the same question: Who gets to decide what “Jesus as the only way” means?
Could it mean that emulating the spirit of one filled with compassion for the downtrodden and abused, who told parables that taught tolerance and acceptance of differences represents the “only way?” Not likely, not with these folks.
In fact, it’s hard to know what drives these people’s kind of religious intolerance more, fear or nasty personal bigotry. In the end, which it is it doesn’t really matter.
N. T. Wright is no friend of the Episcopal Church, or of gay Christians. His lengthy critique of the covenant recently released by the English evangelical group Reform can be read as a sign of the deep divisions on the Anglican Right between those who want to force provinces (and people) accepting of gay Christians out of the Communion immediately, and those who want to let the slowly unfolding covenat process do that job for them.
Yeah, I know, Wright keeps saying he is not on the right. I keep saying I am not bald, but it hasn't caused me to grow hair.
The Episcopal Public Policy Network offers a short form of Evening Prayer for Advent. A taste:
Leader: That God, whose Son Jesus Christ was born not in the palace of a king but in the throes of poverty, may hear the cries of the poor, hungry, and oppressed, and may move human hearts to hear their cries as well.
All: Lord, hear our prayer
Episcopal News Service also has new video of Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of South Africa discussing the Millenium Development Goals.
I've mentioned previously that the bishops of Tanzania released a letter this week saying that they would accept no more money from the unclean hands of the Episcopal Church.
The Rt. Rev. Mdimi Mhogolo, bishop of Central Tanganyika, who has a partnership with the Diocese of New York, which you can read about here, says: not so fast.
Dear friends in Christ Jesus
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus
You might have ready that the House of Bishops acting not on behalf of the whole Church but on their own have issued another statement regarding its relationship with ECUSA. Among other things, the statement shows that the communion between the Anglican Church of Tanzania and the Episcopal Church in the US is severely impaired and that no financial or human personnel support from ECUSA will be received by the Anglican Church of Tanzania. Put that way, the statement assumes that there is some communion that still exist between the two bodies of the Church of Christ.
DCT still remains in communion with ECUSA, maintaining our mutual respect for our cultural traditions and values. When one visits the other, he/she should not impose one's cultural understanding of Christianity on the other. There are so many Christian things that we share together than the things that divide us&.Our relationship with ECUSA institutions will continue as usual; and if DCT continues to work together with secular organizations and governments such as CARE INTERNATIONAL, OXFAM, governments of UK, Germany, Australia, and Japan in trying to realize the Millennium Development Goals, how much more will we enjoy working with our brothers and sisters from the US in doing together God's mission to the world?
We stand firm in our work for Christ with all those with good will in the Episcopal Church. No body has the right to tell us to do otherwise.
Peace and grace to you all
+Mdimi
Tobais has an eloquent entry on this issue here.
If Bishop Mdimi's name rings a bell, it may be because he was kind enough to write an article for me back in July giving his impressions of our General Convention.
The Primate of Uganda, the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi, has written to this people. The letter is beneath the "continue reading" button. He says, in part:
"I am writing with a heavy heart to share with you sad news about our beloved Anglican Communion. On Saturday, 4th November, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) enthroned as their Presiding Bishop a leader who has permitted the blessing of same-sex unions and who also denies that Jesus is the only way to the Father. Her name is the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori." (Emphasis mine.)
I am grateful that in the first paragraph of his lengthy missive, the archbishop relieves us of the burden of considering him either a fair or serious person. In the furthest reaches of the right wing blogopshere they have been trying for weeks to manufacture proof of Bishop Jefferts Schori's alleged heresies based almost entirely on a few sentences open to varying interpretations in a couple of newspaper reports.
In my view, those sentences prove nothing more than that Bishop Jefferts Schori's views on salvation are similar to those of the noted heretics John Paul II and Benedict XVI. But whether my view is correct or not, there is simply no way that a fair and serious person could make a definitive judgment on someone's theological views based on such paltry evidence. Bishop Orombi who has never met Bishop Jefferts Schori and never discussed her views with her has swallowed the allegations against her whole, and has made a number of momentous decisions (outlined in the letter) based on this paltry and disputed evidence.
"I have been in consultation with the other Primates and Archbishops of Africa and the Global South about this crisis in our beloved Anglican Communion," Orombi writes. "We have written to the Archbishop of Canterbury and informed him that we cannot sit together with Katharine Jefferts Schori at the upcoming Primates Meeting in February. We have also asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to invite an orthodox Bishop from the Anglican Communion Network in America to attend the Primates Meeting and represent the orthodox believers. We await his decision on these matters."
Readers of part two of "Following the Money" will recall that Archbishop Orombi and several likeminded Primates had originally vowed to make the above demands in 2003, when Frank Griswold was the presiding bishop. Bishop Robert Duncan's notes from that meeting surfaced in a court case, and are online here.
There's nothing new here, but as commenters on several other blogs have suggested, the release of Orombi's letter, coupled with the statement of the Tanzanian bishops, the release of Reform's new covenant in England and the impending seccession of seven or eight parishes from the Diocese of Virginia suggest that anti-gay forces in the Communion have decided that the time to make their long awaited move has come.
I will be interested to see what they will do if Rowan Williams calls their bluff. And I hope we get to find out.
There is good conversation on this issue at Thinking Anglicans and Preludium. Meanwhile, Father Jake asks whether it is time for liberals "to throw off the defensive isolationism that many within the Communion have attempted to use as cover, and respond with a united front".
This just in from the Anglican Communion News Service:
From the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion
'In response to a number of queries, and following consultation with The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion has issued the following statement (emphasis mine):
"The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) is, to my knowledge, a "mission" of the Church of Nigeria. It is not a branch of the Anglican Communionas such but an organsation which relates to a single province of the Anglican Communion. CANA has not petitioned the Anglican Consultative Council for any official status within the Communion's structures, nor has the Archbishop of Canterbury indicated any support for its establishment." '
The Revd Canon Kenneth Kearon
We've discussed previously, the dubious claim by Mary Springmann, vestry registrar at Truro, that CANA was "an authentic part of the Anglican Communion and acknowledged by the Primates and by Archbishop of Canterbury." That claim has now been refuted.
The release gives rise to other questions, though. If CANA is a creature of a single province of the Communion, is Martyn Minns, former rector of Truro and now a bishop in the Church of Nigeria, a bishop of the Anglican Communion or just of the Church of Nigeria? And if, as expected, the people of Truro and The Falls Church vote to become part of CANA, have they, in effect, left the Anglican Communion? I can imagine this being argued both ways, and as it is early in the morning, I am not going to enter that argument yet myself.
I've been writing for several days about my favorite saint, the 16th-century Spanish Carmelite, Saint John of the Cross. Today is his feast day. Below is the best brief biography I've found. I have interspersed a few of my own comments in italic. The source of this bio is here.
There is also an excellent chronology of John's life and times here.
Born Juan de Yepes y Alvarez in Fontiveros, Spain, in 1542, John was the son of a wealthy silk merchant, Gonzalo de Yepes, and a poor weaver girl, Catalina Alvarez. The Yepes family disowned John's father for marrying beneath his station, and the young couple lived in hardship, following the trade of silk weaving. John was the youngest of three sons. Shortly after his birth, Gonzalo died after a long illness, and Catalina struggled heroically to provide for her sons, settling in Medina del Campo.
Other sources indicate that Catalina and her three sons trekked to seek help from Gonzalo's family after his death. One of John's uncles, a canon of a prominent Spanish cathedral turned them away. Another uncle took in John's oldest brother, Francisco, but treated him so badly that Catalina had to go and rescue him. John's brother Luis died just two years after his father.
Young John attended a school for poor children there, gaining a basic education and the opportunity to learn skills from local craftsmen. When he was 17, he began to work at the Plague Hospital de la Concepcion, and its founder offered to let him attend the Jesuit College, so long as he did not neglect his hospital duties. From 1559 to 1563, John studied with the Jesuits, learning Latin, Greek, and other subjects. He was offered the chance to study for the secular priesthood, which would have given him material security, but he felt God was calling him to Religious life. At age 20, he entered the Carmelite Order, being clothed with the habit on February 24, 1563, and taking the name Juan de Santo Matia (John of Saint Matthias). John did continue his studies, however, notably at the University of Salamanca, which was noted for its excellent professors of Thomist philosophy--an influence which is apparent throughout his writings. An outstanding scholar, John taught classes while still a student. He was ordained in 1597, and said his first Mass in Medina del Campo. During that trip, he first met Teresa of Avila, and she encouraged him to promote her reform among the men's Order.
In November, 1568, John and three other friars took up the observance of the primitive Carmelite Rule in a farmhouse near Duruelo. At that time, he changed his name in religion to Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross). The small band soon came to be known as *Discalced* (shoeless) Carmelites, because they went barefoot as a sign of their commitment to poverty. Their poverty was very real: the first house was barely more than one room, and the young community suffered many privations. When St. Teresa was ordered to return to the Convent of the Incarnation as its superior, she called upon John to assist her in renewing the large community, which had grown quite lax. Arriving there in 1572, he became the spiritual director of the nuns, including Teresa herself. For unknown reasons, the attitude of the original ("Calced") Carmelites began to change toward the reformers. Whereas they had initially acquiesced and even encouraged the movement, the Chapter of 1575 placed severe restrictions on it, they now forbade any further foundations and ordered Teresa to choose one monastery as her permanent residence and remain there.
Around this time, John drew a sketch of a vision he had of the crucified Christ. The sketch is not well-known, these days, but it inspired a famous painting by Dail, The Christ of Saint John of the Cross.
When in 1576 the Discalced Friars convened their own Chapter, the Calced moved to carry out the prohibitions of 1575. They arrested John and another friar and imprisoned him in a Calced monastery in Toledo in a windowless 6' x 10' room. Scourged and humiliated, he nonetheless refused to renounce the Reform. He passed the time in his cell composing the sublime lyric poems which form the basis of his mystical treatises. After some months, he managed to escape to the south of Spain, where he had been elected Prior of the monastery at El Calvario and appointed director of the nuns at Beas. In 1579, he became Rector of the new Discalced Carmelite college near the University of Baeza.
The story of John's escape rivals the Count of Monte Cristo. He asked for thread to mend his cloak and with the help of a jailer who was willing to look the other way, he was able to measure the distance from a nearby window to the cloister yard below. I am blanking on the details of how he made himself a rope (more likely garments tied together) to lower himself into the cloister yard, from where he climbed to safety.)
The Spiritual Canticle, which he composed in his head during his imprisonment is reproduced beneath the "continue reading" button.
In 1580, the Holy See granted the Discalced the right to erect their own Province, although complete independence from the Calced did not come until 1593.
During these "middle years" of John's life, he filled a variety of offices within the reformed Order, wrote the commentaries on his poems elucidating the mystical life, gave spiritual direction, and lived a life of deep union with God. Toward the end of his life, he disagreed with the new General, Nicholas Doria, about some changes in the Order. He was sent to the solitude of La Penuela in August, 1591 --in truth overjoyed to be relieved of administrative duties for the first time in years. But his peace was disturbed by news that a move was afoot to expel him from the Reform he had founded. His detractors tried to gather evidence against him to defame his character.
John fell ill after only a month at La Penuela, however. When urged to seek medical attention, he went to the monastery at Ubeda, where the Prior received him coldly, placed him in the worst cell in the house, and complained bitterly about the expense of caring for him. John grew worse, and, realizing his time was short, he called for the Prior to beg forgiveness for all the trouble he had caused him. Instead, the Prior, realizing John's holiness and his own hardheartedness, wept. John died as he had prayed to: without honors, without material comforts, and with great suffering.
He was 49. He was beatified in 1675, canonized in 1726, and declared a Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church in 1926.
My own devotion to John is rooted in my perception that he understood interior desolation--depression, if you will, but brought beauty out of his darkness; that he plumbed his interior landscape while remaining a vital public ministry, both as a reformer and spiritual director; and that he managed, with seemingly effortless grace, the treacherous intellectual task of maintaining a deep and rigorous commitment to Christianity while not making an idol of his own necessarily limited understanding of the infinite mystery that is God.
To learn more about John of the Cross, try this volume of Carmelite Studies from the Discalced Carmelites.
Other dailyepiscopalian entries on John are here, here and here.
Click "continue reading" to read The Spiritual Canticle.
I mentioned a few items ago that the British evangelical group Reform had presented the Archbishop of Canterbury with the draft of a covenant for the Church of England. You can read it here.
Since then, Mark Harris has weighed in on this issue twice. Tobias Haller has registered his objections, including this bit, which I endorse:
"[T]o suggest, as ++Rowan has in his own inscrutable way, that no action can properly be taken
