Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Re-Thinking Priesthood for the Sake of Mission, the Present and the Future

Paul writes – Further to yesterday’s post, another few thoughts on priesthood in the Anglican Church – particularly as it relates to tikanga pakeha (of which I am most familiar) in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

As I see it, there are a few leadership, structural and resource challenges that need to be faced if our missional identity in this land is to be engaged more creatively and contextually. My comments will really only be “bullet points” – thoughts I’ll come back to in terms of my own thinking and reflection, but I thought I’d share them. Others might have different insights and draw on different experiences. For me this remains a work-in-progress:

• The role of priest needs to be re-engaged through a missional lens, as much (and maybe more so!) as it needs to be engaged through the lenses of sacrament and liturgy, pastoral care, Anglican tradition etc.
• The existing path to ordination is predominantly focused on the parochial or parish model. Candidates for potential ordination (whether stipendiary or non-stipendiary) need to be active in a parish church context and require the support of that parish as part of their application for consideration.
• The gender and demographic mix of the majority of Anglican congregations is reflected in those offering themselves for selection. This raises real issues particularly with regards to demographics, and especially the reality that missing demographic groupings (broadly speaking – those under 45 years of age) are seldom represented. This has all kinds of implications for how we engage a changed context and demographic groups with often no church background or interest in church in the traditional sense.
• In the discernment process it needs to be remembered that past behaviors, leadership styles, passion, focus of energy etc are invariably (but not always) good predictors of future behaviour etc. While modification might be possible, "a leopard doesn't largely change it spots" - especially true the older and more set in their ways a person is. 
• Models of ministry need to be reconsidered, e.g. consider an associate priest/missioner supported and enabled by a more traditional (but engaged) priest in a typical parish context. It's hard energy-sapping work leading change and it most definitely requires a team who share the dream.
• As a corollary, because these demographic groups are missing, possible candidates who sense a possible call to ordination aren’t able to both test (and discern) or explore that sense of call; whether it amounts to anything or not.
• If these younger demographics aren’t attending a traditional established Anglican church now – whether evangelical, Anglo-Catholic or whatever – it’s not likely they’ll conceive of any possible call to priesthood as a call to a traditional / aged parish context; especially given their peer-group are significantly under-represented if indeed they are present at all. They could conceive of that if they felt a commitment to a (potentially renovated and renewed) parochial model and had skills and experience as change-agents able to help congregations discern the future of God amongst them and beyond the life of their congregation.
• Another corollary. If the occasional younger person is attracted to the possibility of ordination and a call to a traditional parish, they would more than likely typically feel comfortable in that context and as a consequence largely maintain the status-quo, rather than initiate and direct the hard work of re-imagining the context and the possibilities for contextual ministry and local mission. Youth isn't always a predictor of a missional engagement or the skills to transition a congregation.

Priests: Their Role and Calling – Some Thoughts by William Stringfellow

Paul writes – On of the privileges I’ve had recently has been part of a process for journeying with and helping potential candidates for Anglican priesthood to discern the ways in which God might be inviting them to serve in that capacity within the laos or “people of God”. William Stringfellow was not an Episcopal priest, but like me, he was a so-called “lay person”, one committed to deep (some might say “radical”) theological reflection and to being in the world for the sake of God and God’s purposes and activity in God’s world. He was deeply committed to the implications of the incarnation for a church that was called to be paradoxically both in the world and yet also apart from the world by virtue of it’s priestly calling to be God’s people for the sake of the world. 

“…The Biblical description of the Church as the Body of Christ living in the midst of the traffic and turmoil and conflict of the world on behalf of the world. The Biblical image of the Church is, to be sure, that of a stranger and alien in the world, despised by the nation, but the Biblical image of the Church is never one of an innocuous, isolationist religious society cut off from the actual affairs of [people] and nations in the World…” (Stringfellow p.19 – see title below)

With thoughts of priesthood in my mind, and in ongoing reflections on my recent experience, alluded to above, I was struck by the following quote attributed to William Stringfellow and derived from the third book by William Stringfellow which I added to my library a good number of years back – A Private and a Public Faith.  

“…For those ordained by the church for the priesthood, this means that their office and ministry are located at the interstices of the Body of Christ and of the congregations that represent that Body visibly and notoriously in the world. The ministry of the priesthood is a ministry to the members of the Body in their relations to each other, relation’s consequent to their incredibly diversified ministry within the world. The ministry of the priesthood is one directed to the most sophisticated life of the church, the church, that is, gathered as a congregation in worship, assembled for the exposition and exhibition of the Word of God. This is the ministry addressed to the care and nurture of the members of the Body of Christ for the sake of their several, various, and common uses in the world. This is the ministry serving those people who come out of the world now and then to worship God together and encompass and include in their intercession to God the cares of the world as they know it and are involved in it. This is the ministry of confession in which the task and witness of each member of the Body is heard and related to that of all other members of the Body who are now or who have ever been or, indeed, who are yet to be. This is the ministry that cares for and conserves the tradition of the church—that is, the continuity and integrity of the Christian mission ever since Pentecost. This is the ministry devoted to the health and holiness of the Body of Christ in the world…” (Text boldened by me to highlight that this quote is as equally about mission as it is about priesthood). 

Stringfellow’s comments are not all there is to say about the calling and role of priests, but it’s an important part, sadly too often neglected. Thanks to Len Hjalmarson for reminding me of this book (and why it’s important whether for those considering ordination, for those already ordained, and for the whole people of God), and the article (excerpted from the book) from which the quote on priesthood (above) is taken. Len outlines the kind of thinking and the directions that thinking might go in as a follow up to a comment he left one of my recent posts. 

The Straightforward Radical Logic of Buddhism’s Original Formulations

Paul writes – Buddhism texts often find their way into my reading – whether theological, biblical, missiological, spirituality or philosophical. I’ve always understood Buddhism as a “philosophy” rather than a “religion” and so I was therefore struck by a recent post by Adam Miller in which he lightly interacted with a book by Stephen Batchelor – Confession of a Buddhist Atheist.

“...Batchelor’s thesis is that the four noble truths – originally anti-mythological, pragmatic, and phenomenological – were almost immediately re-embedded by the Buddha’s followers into the more familiar and comfortable mythological framework of Hinduism in a way that conceals the straightforward but radical logic of the original formulation. 

Batchelor’s claim is that where the Buddha originally presented four noble “tasks,” this version presents four noble “truths” (i.e., claims or dogmas; hence the nominalization). 

Does Christianity's joyful proclamation announce an ultimate cosmic redemption from suffering? Or does Jesus announce a way to engage in the ongoing cultivation of a human redemption of suffering...?” 

I was particularly struck by the emphasis on practical “tasks”. Buddhism, like Christianity, as a “way” of being in the world, as a practically orientated journey, not simply or just a rational series of beliefs that one assents too.  Yes, theology and doctrines are the language and vocabulary of faith, but it seems to me Christianity is always more than its vocabulary and mental assent to a belief check-list. It’s more than orthodoxy, and it’s never less than the orthopraxy it embodies and the transformative work of orthopathy that animates, deepens and enriches it.

I shall look forward to reading the book when I can get a copy. Out of interest Mark Vernon has a review of the book here. You can hear Batchelor here.  

You can read Miller’s whole post here. 

A Wake-Up Call to the Anglican Church in 21st Century New Zealand...?

Paul writes – I can’t say I disagree with very much in sections 2 & 3 (in particular) of New Zealander (Anglican Bishop) Richard Randerson’s May 2010 publication Engagement 21: A Wake-Up Call to the 21^st Century Church in Mission. 

In fact, as someone on the outside of the inside, and in terms of the commentary around research on “church participation”, clergy formation; skills for ministry; the need for local initiative or diocesan leadership; clergy selection; aging clergy, the importance of chaplaincies; ministry of the (so-called) laity; standards of preaching; how scripture is engaged with; ecclesiastical superstructure (and lots more besides), I can’t say I disagree with any of it. Indeed I find my own concerns, frustrations, disappointments, and to some degree – dreams – given voice on every single page.

I also find expressions of why I also fear that the “wake-up call” – which to be fair has been sounding for many years now – will not actually be heard in any meaningful or indeed radical way, such that the needed change happens. Randerson adds his voice to the many who are already saying very clearly, and mostly with their feet, that mission-shaped and systemic change needs to happen within the Anglican province of New Zealand, and with a degree of urgency that has often been lacking. Will his voice make a difference? I’m not sure, but I hope so! 

Equally importantly, Randerson also gives reason for hope in the biggest section of his publication, section 5, to which he’s given the title Green Shoots in Ministry. These are very brief accounts of fragile green shoots appearing in many diverse contexts – as Randerson’s publication testifies – and this is to be celebrated. I could see very few examples of new church plants (or so-called "Fresh Expressions") or creative attempts at multi-congregational experiments. 

However, more seeds need to be planted, and more work needs to be done to nourish, protect and mature   new life in these “green zones”.  More creativity, imagination and experimentation need to happen within and around the edges of what Alan Roxburgh calls “red zone” (local) congregational contexts (see diagram to right). 

I could go on, and I have done many times over the years, so in this instance I simply commend Randerson’s new publication, trust that God is at work, and hold onto the hope that more and more of our so-called “dying” Anglican congregations will have the courage to face imaginatively and prayerfully into their experiences of death in the sure hope of the resurrection, and in the fact that spring follows winter.

With courage, eyes to see, and ears to hear, may they come to discern that the future of God is among them, as are God’s invitations to missional renewal and change for the sake of those who have left the building, those who have never been members of a church, for their grandchildren (and great grandchildren), and for the sake of the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ extending of it for the sake of all of creation.

Information on how to order can be found by opening the PDF document below. You’ll find a new story on the launch of the book here.  For an exciting ‘story’ on a denomintation (not Anglican) / state taking up the challenge see this recent post by Steve Taylor. 

Download Engagement 21 - Flyer 

Learning from Grace

"...What groups like Grace [in London] grasp is that though some people are turned off by organised religion, they still feel basically Christian: what they want is a new, disorganised style of religion, a postmodern shook-up version, full of irreverence and irony, and arty events. They want a new style of sacramentalism, that isn’t steeped in authority. Now that the internet’s here to stay, it’s difficult to accept hierarchy any more — religion must become open-source.

 

For the moment, the pioneers tread carefully — the stylistic reinvention of an ancient religion is a slow and difficult process, with huge pitfalls — but my hunch is that we should watch this space. God reconfigures his church in mysterious ways..."

 

This quote is taken by a recent column written by Theo Hobson. Thanks to Jonny Baker, a member if Grace, for directing me to it.

“William Stringfellow’s Sacramental Vision”.

Paul writes - The title of today’s post is also the title of a brilliant 2004 paper by Wendy Dackson – William Stringfellow’s Sacramental Vision. I highly recommend it. Stringfellow continues to gift many of us the vocabulary to name both our experiences and concerns.  Dackson’s abstract reads: 

“William Stringfellow (1929–85) was an Episcopal layman, attorney and social activist. Although much has been written about him since his death, most of it is in the form of personal testimony. Examinations of various doctrinal areas of his theological writings are unusual. Therefore, this article examines Stringfellow's idea of sacramental reality and grounds it in the worship of the Church and Christian engagement with the world. The concluding comments offer a justification for seeing this vision as one of enduring importance for faith and action in a post-Christian society.”

While on the subject of Stringfellow’s sacramental vision, I’d like to draw you attention to a four-part (so far) post by Jason Goroncy. He’s reviewing Stringfellow’s Imposters of God.In particular Jason opens his series by highlighting a section of Stringfellow’s preface to the aforementioned book: 

“…William Stringfellow’s Imposters of God begins with this insight: 

Nothing seems more bewildering to a person outside the Church about those inside the Church than the contrast between how Christians behave in society and what Christians do in the sanctuary.

This contrast is not, I suspect, just taken for granted by outsiders as evidence of the hypocrisy of professed Christians. It is not simply that Christians do not practice what is preached and neglect to authenticate worship by witness. The non-churchmen is, I suggest, much more bewildered by the difficulty of discerning either connection or consistency between social action and liturgical event. The two apparently represent not only distinguishable but altogether separate realms: the former deals with ethics, the latter with aesthetics; the first is empirical, the second theatrical; the one is mundane, the other quaint. For the stranger to the Church, to whom the churchman appears to act in the marketplace much the same as everybody else, the straightforward and cogent explanation is that these peculiar sanctuary activities are sentimentally significant—as habit, tradition or superstition—but otherwise irrelevant, superfluous and ineffectual.

More or less secretly, or at least quietly, legions of church people suffer this same sort of bewilderment. If these people sense any relationship between practical life and sacramental experience, it is tenuous, illusive and visceral: a felt connection, a matter not readily elucidated, a spooky thing. On occasion, when a priest or preacher goes forth from the sanctuary to affirm in the world what is celebrated at the altar, he is usually ridiculed for meddling in affairs outside his vocation. Or when, in the midst of worship, a pastor ventures to be articulate about the relationship between ethics and sacraments, his effort is apt to be regarded as an intrusion defiling the congregation’s ears. (pp. xxi–xxii)…” (highlights, mine – Paul) 

Stringfellow well names a reality anyone with any degree of discernment and the perspective of a so-called “outsider” would pick up if they sat in the back row of a church gathering over the course of 4-consecutive Sunday’s. There is a massive disconnect between sanctuary and the world outside the sanctuary; between the gathered experience of the people of God and their dispersed and diverse everyday contexts. 

You can read Jason’s posts: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. 

A Couple of Quotes from James Alison

“…Every generation of Catholics, is seems, has to work its way through its own ecclesiolatry – its idolatrous attachment to false forms of power and belonging in the Church – in order to discover the truth of the ecclesial sign which is intrinsic to how God is saving us in Christ. How do we learn from, rather than merely be scandalized by, the size of the ever more visible gap between the ecclesiastical structure and the ecclesiastical body...?” James Alison.

“...When people tell me that they find Mass boring, I want to say to them: it's supposed to be boring, or at least seriously underwhelming. It's a long-term education in becoming un-excited, since only that will enable us to dwell in a quiet bliss which doesn't abstract from our present or our surroundings or our neighbor, but which increases our attention, our presence, and our appreciation for what is around us...” James Alison.

Jason Clark and Ecclesiology as a Rival Ascetic of Desire

Paul writes – Friend, Jason Clark provides an outline of where he’s at, and what he’s trying to do with what to me looks like a very complex PhD. As I will have previously said, I can easily get lost in the philosophical arguments that build towards, and argue for/against a particular thesis, HOWEVER, while persevering with that part of a thesis / book (stretching my own thinking), I’m always drawn to the practical implications and possibilities, which hopefully there are. In Jason’s case, having read or being reasonably familiar with a good number of his ‘conversation’ partners, I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops his third line of thinking – his “ecclesial move” and what he describes as the “theological nub” of his thesis:

“…[T]hirdly I am wanting to make an ecclesial move, and to provide an account of ecclesiology as a rival ascetic of desire.  I’ll begin this with Graham Ward using his appropriation of Baurdillard to introduce poesis and how identity creation takes place within religion in consumer culture. Wards poesis leads me into Vincent Miller and the theological nub of my thesis.  The ‘double movement’ that I think I have identified, in terms of it’s phenomena, has a theological discussion centered around it in the work of Bernd Wannenwetsch, William Cavanaugh, Reinhard Hütter, Daniel Bell, Vincent Miller, Stephen Long etc.  Within their work I will highlight three key tropes/foci, where:

1. The market is a form of ascetic practice, disciplining our bodies and inducting us with habits and practices in contrast with ecclesial practices.
2. The market then sets up patterns of desire through these ascetic practices in contrast to the church in its ecclesial forms and worship and orients us around desire.
3. That comes together in embodiment and social relationship, and individually around desire, of how the market makes a false form of universal communion…”

This above section of Jason's outline resonates with a theme I introduced (from a very different perspective), without all the academic rigour, important nuances, qualifiers, ground clearing and foundation work that Jason has been / will be doing for his PhD. While the specific quote (below) is not included in my article, I’m trying to engage this profound insight expressed by Symeon the New Theologian (949 – 1022) in his prayer to the Holy Spirit:

“…You who have become yourself desire in me, who have made me desire you…” (You can read the full prayer here). 

You can read Jason’s full post here. All the very best for the thesis Jason. I look forward to reading the final copy. 

William Stringfellow and his Homosexuality

Paul writes – While not definitive (by his own admission) Jason Goroncy has written a very useful post on William Stringfellow and his homosexuality. Included in that post are also links to three very useful posts on homosexuality by Ray Anderson. While I struggled to get my head around what he was saying and the practical implications it nonetheless offers some interesting ways of framing the questions theologically, and read in conjunction with the likes of James Alison, Rowan William’s The Body’s Grace (likewise linked from Jason’s post for those of you who haven’t read it) Kenneth Leech (indirectly and in relation to HIV – his essay “’The Carnality of Grace’: Sexuality,Spirituality & Pastoral Ministry) and Gareth Moore O.P.

Here’s an excerpt from Jason’s post:

“...There are a minimal number of references in Stringfellow’s own work to the question of homosexuality. That Stringfellow says abundantly more about Jesus Christ than he does about himself is, I think, significant in itself. One place where Stringfellow does speak to the question of homosexuality is in his essay ‘Loneliness, Dread and Holiness’, published in The Christian Century on 10 October 1962. Significantly, the essay is a reflection on 2 Corinthians 12:8–9a, ‘Three times I besought the Lord about this that it should leave me; but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”’

In that essay, Stringfellow begins by recalling the loneliness which is ‘as intimate and as common to men as death’, and ‘the void [which] may be mere boredom’, and then proceeds to note all the places that exploit and profit from that transient loneliness and boredom ‘promising that time will be consumed for those who pay the price’ – whether it be a dance studio, a club, a bar, with ‘prostitutes or homosexuals or whatever one wants’  – even if it means relieving the loneliness in lust. ‘These are’, he writes:

‘establishments often populated by those who realize that loneliness is more than the burden of time and who are beguiled by another fiction: that loneliness can be conquered by erotic infatuation. Here are folk, whether men or women, whether looking for the same or the other sex, for whom seduction becomes a way of life, who insist on the importance of what meets the eye – physique, clothes, the appearance of youth. Here are the lonely whose search for a partner is so dangerous, so stimulating and so exhausting that the search itself provides an apparent escape from loneliness. But when a partner is found for an hour or a night or a transient affair, the search immediately resumes, becomes compulsive. And while erotic companionship seems more appealing – and more human – than resignation to boredom, while touching another may be more intimate and more honest than watching another, no one may really find his own identity in another, least of all in the body of another. Perhaps this is the most absurd fiction of them all: the notion that is present, primitively, in erotic partnerships but also very often in other relationships – between parents and children, in friendship, in marriage – that one’s own identity must be sought and can be found in another person’...” 

Also insightful is Michael Westmorland-White’s “comment” appended to Jason’s post.  

You can read Jason’s full post here.

The Insatiable Moon is about to Rise

Paul writes – 4-weeks from today The Insatiable Moon has its world premiere at the 2010 NZ Film Festival (in the Auckland programme). It’s been over seven-years in the making and the stories that could be told – the ups and downs – the successes, the huge disappointments, and the magical stories that have been woven through the whole experience. Now, on the 17^th July we finally get to see the complete film. Those who’ve invested the most in terms of effort, tears, and joy will see their dream given life on the big screen and with a largely paying audience. No doubt, as with the so-called "first cut" it will be another powerful and moving experience. It's a very special film. 

Here’s how the Auckland programme describes the film:

Director: Rosemary Riddell

Year: 2010

Running time: 100 mins

Censor Rating: M - Cert

Producers: Pip Piper, Mike Riddell, Rob Taylor
Screenplay: Mike Riddell
Photography: Thomas Burstyn
Editor: Paul Maxwell
Production designer: Brent Hargreaves
Costume designer: Chantelle Gerrard
Music: Neville Copland
In English and Mâori, with English subtitles
DigiBeta

With: Rawiri Paratene (Arthur), Sara Wiseman (Margaret), Ian Mune (Norm), Greg Johnson (Bob), Mick Innes (John), Jason Hoyte (Kevin), Sophie Hakaraia (Karen), Sarah Valentine (Penny), Don Linden (Wal), Lee Tuson (Pete), Rob McCulley (Sandy), Jimmy Vraniqi (Morrie), John Leigh (Brian), Bruce Phillips (Digby)

[Plus supporting cast: Sophie Fromont (Hannah), Alice Fromont (Kate), and a number of other fine actors – for the full cast go here]

World Premiere

Down and out in Ponsonby doesn’t have the ring about it that it had 30 years ago, but The Insatiable Moon  makes a colourful dramatic plea for the continued existence of halfway houses in a part of the city better known for curbside dining. A chance encounter between Sara Wiseman’s social worker and charismatic, barefooted self-proclaimed Second Son of God Arthur (Rawiri Paratene) entwines with the fate of the lodgers in a Ponsonby boarding house as real estate agents, TV current affairs, neighbourhood watch, health bureaucrats and a helpless vicar take sides around the underhand campaign to throw them out. Divine madness and down-to-earth compassion are at the heart of producer, and former Ponsonby minister, Mike Riddell’s script. Directed by his partner Rosemary Riddell, The Insatiable Moon’s splendid cast (including Ian Mune) endows the household of psychiatric patients and low-income tenants with individual gnarliness and touching esprit de corps 

Session Times – Tickets available via here.

Sat 17 Jul | 8:30pm | SKYCITY Theatre, Auckland. 

Mon 19 Jul | 1:15pm | SKYCITY Theatre, Auckland.