The front page of our weekly parish bulletin proclaims our Mission Statement: “We are a people of God, followers of Jesus, open to the Spirit”, and the back page declares, “The service of the church into the world – begins again this week.” Rooted and grounded in the Triune God, we commit to a continuing mission to and presence in the world. I think this is a good place for us to be now, and ten years from now. Yet, I need to examine what we mean by our statement, and especially what we mean by “open.”
In one important sense, this openness signifies an advance within our parish, which has sometimes, partly because of our smallness and survival instinct, been inclined to keep to ourselves, with the occasional charitable outreach around Thanksgiving or Christmas. During the past few years, we have acquired a community presence, all the more remarkable considering our lack of a physical building to call our own. Our people are our presence. Our task when we do find a suitable property will be to hold on to this archetypal church, “a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” [IICor.5:1] Meanwhile, we are seen to exist and to serve, demonstrating that, in the words of our Newsletter editor, “We would like to have a contagious faith that will influence and encourage our entire community, one life at a time.”
But our web-page, after repeating the Mission Statement, attempts to welcome by assuring ourselves and others that “we are an inclusive community of open-minded, fun-loving, Christian families and individuals.” We use the word “community” in three different senses: the specific parish community, the local and global secular community, and the worldwide Christian community, especially but not exclusively the Anglican communion.
We need to take care that in opening one door, we do not allow another to blow shut. In our eagerness to be open-minded and fun-loving, are we in danger of rejecting our communal memory, theology and tradition? The Book of Common Prayer is still authorized for use throughout the Church. Yet we use it only one Sunday per month, at an early morning service – much better than never, as in some parishes, but not often enough. The Anglican liturgy is one of the living glories of world culture; we should nourish it, practise it and share it.
When we open our doors and arms to people who have been scorned by church and society, do we impatiently shut out those of our communion/community who continue to struggle with the implications of such openness in the light of Scriptural tradition? Do we let one issue or cause blow everything else off the table?
As we look towards 2019, let us open all our doors, taking time to find doorstops so that none slam shut, understanding that some of the gusts may be overpowering and that members of the Community will need to shelter and comfort one another. Let’s continue to go out, through the open doors, taking “the service of the church into the world”, engaging in the complicated and heartbreaking search for peace and social justice. Let’s be ever more “open-minded” and ready to explore communities beyond our cultural and spiritual borders. In the words of T.S. Eliot in “Little Gidding”: “We shall not cease from exploration.” But we must remain “a people of God, followers of Jesus, open to the Spirit,” a community with both a past and a future. So, as Eliot continues: “the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And to know the place for the first time.”
I recently read “Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future: Reflections of the Episcopal Church’s 2009 Convention from the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican Communion.” http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/7/28/ACNS4641 I re-read ”Statement of Anglican Primates of the Doctrine of God; Report of the Meeting of Primates of the Anglican Communion: Appendix II. “17 April 2002. http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2002/4/17/ACNS2960
