Within the Walls: Where Reconciliation Begins

The following article will appear in the next edition of "Connections", the newsletter of my diocese, the Diocese of Southern Ohio.

Surrounded by the ashen grey fortress walls, I could feel in my bones the endless pain of my ancestors. The room, with virtually impenetrable meter-thick masonry and an arched roof with only a tiny window near the top, was the male slave dungeon in Cape Coast Castle, the largest trading fort for human chattel on the coast of West Africa. It is almost certain that some of my own ancestors – my very flesh and blood passed through that room just a few centuries ago, never to see their homes or families again.

Immediately above that dungeon sat another small room - the Anglican chapel. Used by the staff and families of the fort, it housed an Anglican priest, daily prayer and weekly Eucharist. Historians tell us that the slaves below could hear the English hymns of the worshippers above, and the worshippers could hear the desperate horrifying cries of the tortured captives below. And there I stood, the descendant of African slaves and a seventh-generation Episcopalian, (whose Anglican heritage goes back to the plantations of South Carolina before the Civil War) dedicating himself to a life of ministry in this Church.

Daily in this Christian life, we are confronted with the stark realities, images and reports of the extreme violence and suffering caused by our own human sin. So frequently in our country, our church and even our diocese, we have grappled with these issues of reconciliation – so often around ever-changing events but incessantly stagnant lines of division. How does our love of Christ compel us to repent of our sins, forgive, seek forgiveness, and share Christ’s love with one another? How do we live with the sins of those who came before us, and the past injustices that we cannot erase? How do we carry on a tradition in which we have sometimes found ourselves inattentive or even contributing to the suffering of others? How are we to atone and oppose the degradation not only in the past but in the very world in which we live?

Entrance to the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center

For the last several months, I have had the great honor to serve as a missionary at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church the Joel Nafuma Refugee Centre in Rome, Italy. As the morass over Islamic refugees exploded onto the global scene, I have had the pleasure to work with some of those same Middle-Eastern migrants every single day. I continue to hear their stories of perilously fleeing heinous atrocities to seek survival and a better life. Having been in both Paris and Istanbul shortly before brutal attacks recently rocked those two great cities, I have witnessed the often disheartening reactions of the public as fears of terrorism have raised anxieties and provoked hateful rhetoric across the globe. I have looked into the eyes of hundreds of peace-loving Muslim refugees, wondering why so many in the west confuse them for the same radical terrorists from whom they are fleeing.

And as our Anglican Communion faces its ongoing struggles with unity and reconciliation, I followed the recent developments from the Anglican Centre in Rome – a world-renowned meeting place for ecumenical and inter-Anglican dialogue. There and elsewhere, I have had the honor of speaking recently with more than a half-dozen primates about their hopes for our global fellowship, praying with them for the grace to walk together in the love of Christ.

If these experiences have taught me anything, it is that reconciliation cannot take place at a distance. It requires us to pick up and go there – to look our fellow children of God in the eye. It requires us to grapple doggedly with the complex crevices and tangled layers of our identities, and to overturn the weighty dust-covered stones that hide our past transgressions. It requires us to venture to uncomfortable places within ourselves and one-another, resisting the urge to protect ourselves with the feeble armor of defensiveness. This is not an easy task, but it is one which the Gospel constantly implores us to undertake.

Photo courtesy of the Catholic Herald.
I was there in the congregation watching.

Last week, I was blessed to take part in the annual Papal service of prayer for Christian Unity. For the first time in recent memory, Pope Francis not only invited ecumenical clergy to be present, but he even had two ecumenical guests – including Anglican Archbishop David Moxon – stand side-by-side with him to bless the congregation together.

While there remain so many divisions that continue ceaselessly to separate us from one another, this is where the seeds of reconciliation are nurtured. This is where the centuries-old wounds of hatred and even violence begin to be healed. In gestures large and small, from the heights of power to the average parishioner in a small local chapel, we are all called to the work of reconciliation. Yet our chapels can be of no use unless we begin by showing up – and standing together in the dungeon of our transgressions.

The Communion - Part 3

From the beginning of my assignment to be serve as a missionary in Rome, I have had three primary tasks in serving here - (1) serve refugees at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, (2) participate in every part of parish ministry at St. Paul's Within the Walls, and (3) engage in inter-Anglican, ecumenical, and interfaith dialogue, particularly at the Anglican Centre in Rome. Particularly throughout January 2016, amidst the critical Primates' Meeting in Canterbury and the annual celebration of Christian Unity Week, the third of my mission tasks has garnered significant attention. For this reason, my blog posts in the month of January will particularly focus on building relationships across various lines of faith and culture. 

On January 15, 2016, the Primates of the Anglican Communion released this statement following their recent meeting in Canterbury. The following day, several of the primates including the Archbishop of Canterbury held a press conference to report on the meeting and its results.

 Immediately, a whirlwind of statements, commentaries, Facebook posts, tweets, and arguments of all sorts virtually flew from the desks of diocesan bishops clergy and Anglican watchers of all sorts. Coming down on every possible perspective, this flood of supplementary statements merely added to the worldwide crush of news reports from the secular media and all forms of gossip and rumor-spreading across the globe. To my reading, the vast majority of the commentary has been disappointingly salacious, inflammatory, knee-jerk and either uninformed of the structures of Anglicanism or so vitriolic as to be unfit for the Body of Christ, the Church.

At the Anglican Centre, Rome, with Archbishops David Moxon (New Zealand) and Philip Freier (Australia)
along with artist Leftaris Olympios and Episcopal seminarian Tommie Watkins.

Only a few of the reports and reactions in the wake of the Primate’s meeting truly merit consultation and reflection for the sake of sober, informed and Christ-like discourse across the communion. Every Anglican should read the original statement from the Primates here. Likewise, Every Episcopalian needs to read the brief report from the Episcopal News Service and especially Presiding Bishop Curry's six-minute video message from Canterbury following the Primate’s meeting. Episcopalians would also be wise to read the statements of their respective local diocesan bishops, which can probably be found on your diocesan websites, such as this one from my bishop, +Tom Breidenthal of Southern Ohio. Finally, the most regaled of the reaction blog posts is this one from the Very Rev. Andrew McGowan, dean of my own Berkeley Divinity School. McGowan’s brief reflection was even highly recommended to me personally by Archbishop Phillip Freier of Australia, who was one of the 38 primates present at the meeting.

In the spirit of adding constructively to the global conversation, I offer here a few reflections of my own:

(1)  In the first paragraph of their statement, the Primates expressed their unanimous desire to “walk together” – to remain in Communion with one another. This was far from a foregone conclusion going into the meeting, and in large part it is extraordinarily good news. Even in the midst of massive and fundamental disagreements about the direction in which Christ calls us to walk, I am gratified by the Primates’ desire for the churches to at least discern that will of God together. The Anglican Communion has not broken apart, but remains one family, even in the midst of considerable dysfunction.

(2) The Primates consequently unanimously affirm what is in fact an empirical truth, albeit one that is difficult for Episcopalians to hear – in voting to allow clergy to perform same-sex-marriages, the Episcopal Church did change a fundamental aspect of its doctrine of marriage without serious consultation of the rest of the Anglican Communion before moving forward. Regardless of one’s opinion of same-sex marriage in general, it is factually true that the Episcopal Church was the first member church of the Anglican Communion to make this particular step. It is not clear, however, what kind of “consultation” the other primates would have wanted or expected, especially because each member church (e.g. the Episcopal Church USA, the Church of England, the Province of West Africa, the Church of Australia, etc) is completely autonomous. We are not an Anglican federation or a republic but instead we are a confederation of individual national/multinational provinces that generally get to make their own rules. There is no “pope” and nothing on the worldwide Anglican scale like a Congress or a ruling legislative body. There is no mechanism by which any member Church, including the Episcopal Church can truly judge, decide on, force, or veto the doctrines of other Churches. So what kind of consultation is in order? In any group decision, somebody simply has to be first. Somebody had to be the first to ordain women (see Frances Li Tim Oi), and now women can be ordained in provinces across the globe. Somebody had to make the first official steps as a Church apart from Roman Catholicism in order for our Communion to exist at all. Issues of justice, of civil rights and equality are simply not to be submitted to committees or legislatures for approval, but to be acted upon boldly and intrepidly.

(3) The Primates make clear the displeasure of the majority of their members with TEC’s move forward toward full acceptance of same-sex marriage. As a “consequence” of TEC’s decision (not a “sanction” or a “punishment” the Archbishop of Canterbury later clearly articulated), the Primates express their desire to exclude TEC members from voting on certain ecumenical committees for three years. Admittedly this is at first glance a harsh-sounding punishment & I was personally rather angry when I first read the decision. However, upon further analysis, I see far more reason for at least some level of satisfaction. Contrary to popular conception, TEC has indeed not been "suspended" from the Anglican Communion, (not that the Primates have authority to "suspend" any province anyway). And although the "consequences" levied on TEC may sound grievous, in some ways they amount to "a strongly worded letter, a strong talking to and a slap on the wrist" as I've characterized it recently. The recommended (and not even officially mandated) withdrawals of Episcopal representatives from ecumenical, interfaith & doctrine-related boards directly effects roughly only five people in the entire Episcopal Church! Two of those people, Bishop Ian Douglas of Connecticut and House of Deputies President Gay Clark Jennings have written about it in their own respective letters. Although most Episcopalians fail to realize it, TEC representatives were removed from the same boards in 2010 and allowed back in 2012. Nonetheless, during that time the Episcopal Church continued to thrive and the missing representatives (while their perspectives were missed and could have benefitted their committees heartily) did not result in major effects across the Episcopal and Anglican worlds. We got through it just fine before, and we'll get through just fine again. 

(4) Finally, dear friends, we continue to have a very bright future looking forward. Personally, I am deeply honored to be a member of a church that is willing to go to the mat to protect my rights as an LGBT person and the rights of millions like me across the globe. We are so blessed also to have the support of our beloved siblings in the Churches of Canada and Brazil, along with so many others across our worldwide Communion. And I cannot possibly say enough about the incredible, wise, Godly leadership of my friend and Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry. In the wake of the decision, some have made the reactionary suggestion that TEC withdraw or suspend its financial support in the provinces that have most opposed TEC's position in the Anglican Communion. This is an unwise and un-Christlike move to be sure, and would result in only increased animosity rather than increased fellowship and Communion across the great boundaries with which we continue to struggle. Instead, we are called to love more deeply, more strongly than ever before, calling on the help of the Holy Spirit at all times. When our three-year suspension is over, I know that TEC will not have changed its mind on being a prophetic and inclusive church, nor will the more conservative provinces change their mind on supporting theological orthodoxy as they see it. That is ok. With God's help we will move forward together into a world we cannot yet see.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely

more than we can ask or imagine:  Glory to him from

generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus

for ever and ever.  Amen.   Ephesians 3:20,21

(

The Communion - Part 2

From the beginning of my assignment to be serve as a missionary in Rome, I have had three primary tasks in serving here - (1) serve refugees at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, (2) participate in every part of parish ministry at St. Paul's Within the Walls, and (3) engage in inter-Anglican, ecumenical, and interfaith dialogue, particularly at the Anglican Centre in Rome. Particularly throughout January 2016, amidst the critical Primates' Meeting in Canterbury and the annual celebration of Christian Unity Week, the third of my mission tasks has garnered significant attention. For this reason, my blog posts in the month of January will particularly focus on building relationships across various lines of faith and culture. 

In my last post, I wrote about the Primates' Meeting in Canterbury this week and the enormous need to pray for these leaders in their work and discussions this week. Remarkably, this essential moment in the life of our worldwide Church has affected not only the high-level reaches of powerful archbishops, but even down to everyday parishes all around the world. No less, even this lowly non-ordained missionary intern has seen the footprints of the Primate's Meeting on the ground in my very own parish community.

Meeting the Primates
Over the past roughly eighteen months, I have had the extraordinary pleasure of holding conversation with several current and former primates about the state of our Communion. Having spoken with them variously about the state of our Anglican world, my prayers for them have been not just general, but also deeply personal.

Primates Nathaniel Uematsu (Japan), Suheil Dawanin (Jerusalem & Middle East) and fmr. Primate Katharine Jefferts Schori (TEC USA)

Meeting with Primates Michael Curry (TEC USA), Daniel Torto (West Africa) and fmr. Primate David Moxon (New Zealand)

(Incidentally, Archbishop Welby visited the JNRC two years ago, albeit before I arrived in Rome)

GOE's & the Crosier

Last week I wrote something about the sources and solutions for the recent conflicts within our worldwide Anglican Family (although I can't share it with you just yet). As some of you know, last week I along with dozens of Episcopalians in ordination processes in the Episcopal Church undertook the General ordination exams - no less than 21 hours of testing over three days and six 1000-word essays on various aspects of church ministry. Among those essays, we were required by one prompt to discuss periods of conflict in the Anglican Communion (including the recent conflicts over homosexuality) and in another to explain how we would handle a same-sex couple seeking to be married in our parish. Surely the administrators wanted us to keep abreast of the most up-to-date issues in the Anglican world!

As it happened, I was fortunate to take this exam online while sitting at the Anglican Centre in Rome, with the help of my dear friend Fr. Marcus Walker, the Centre's associate director.  (The Centre is essentially the embassy of the Anglican Communion to the Vatican as well as a place of theological research and inter-denominational conversation). The day after my testing ended, Marcus delightfully flew off to England, carrying the Crozier of St. Gregory (the bishop's staff given by Pope Gregory to St. Anselm of Canterbury, the ancient bishop from whom all Anglican bishops trace their ordination, in 597AD. We talked over the course of the week about the upcoming meeting and the exciting honor to cary this beautiful relic. The crozier sat in the room with the bishops during their meeting to remind them of their common heritage and unity.

the Rev's Marcus Walker & Robert McCulloch dutifully escort the Crosier of St. Gregory to Canterbury!

Once my exams were finished,  I was blessed to attend the weekly Eucharist service held at the Anglican Centre in Rome. Fr. Marcus preached a brilliant sermon about the need to pray for our primates and heal divisions in our Communion (I hope you will all take a moment to read it), followed by the moving responsoral prayer that I shared in the previous post. I hope you will continue to pray with me for all of the Primates and for every part of our Anglican Communion.

Fr. Marcus celebrating the Eucharist after preaching a brilliant sermon on Anglican unity.

On Wednesday evening (January 14th), I walked back home through the pouring rain from a restaurant where I had just spent the evening talking about Scripture and the Anglican Communion with Fr. Marcus, Fr. Austin (my supervisor & rector of St. Paul's), my good seminarian friend Tommie Watkins, and one of our parishioners. Suddenly my phone was abuzz with messages from other friends and relatives announcing that a statement had been released from the meeting in Canterbury. With a quick prayer, I clicked on the link and read through it's contents...

(In my next post, I'll reflect on the statement of the Primates and what it means for our Communion. Stay tuned!)

The Communion - Part 1

The Primates and choir in prayer on the first day of the meeting. (Bishop Curry is mid-way through the second row on the left). Photo Credit: Canterbury Cathedral

This Week, I've been thinking a lot about the future of the Anglican Communion. Doubtlessly this is because of the remarkable moment at which our global fellowship finds itself this week in particular. As some of you will already be aware, the thirty-eight primates (bishops leading national or multi-national provinces / groups of dioceses) of the Anglican Communion are meeting in Canterbury, England this week. Before them is a situation of extraordinary tension that has threatened for more than a decade to tear the entire Anglican Communion apart.

Driven largely by massive disagreements about homosexuality, theological doctrine, and church governance, several conservative provinces (primarily driven by the provinces of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and a few others) have threatened to break communion with the Episcopal Church USA, Anglican Church of Canada and other liberal provinces. Around the globe, a sense of anxiety hangs in the air for Anglicans and Episcopalians, as this meeting may bring about the formal breaking of ties that threatens to tear asunder the centuries-old network of sister churches.

 Photo Credit:
Canterbury Cathedral

Amidst this stark and unquestionably tense situation comes the new Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, the newest of the thirty-eight bishops. Entering his first Primate's Meeting (which generally occurs every three to five years), Curry will find himself largely at the center of the discussion and with a heavy task on his shoulders. Representing the largest of the progressive provinces, he will have perhaps a truly unenviable task before him.

A number of bishops who have assembled into a body called the Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) have stated in no uncertain terms that they believe the pro-LGBT stance of the Episcopal Church USA and the Church of Canada amount to little short of a heresy. Likewise, many in the Episcopal Church have said that the anti-LGBT zeal of the conservatives is similarly anathema to their understanding of a loving God. Bishop Curry may well find himself trying to convince his fellow primates that they can profess a common faith and religious tradition - Christianity and Anglicanism - without always sharing common beliefs on issues about which many Anglican Christians disagree extremely strongly. Quite rightly he and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Whelby (who will act as chairman of the Primate's Meeting) asked for our prayers going into this historic and highly pressurized gathering.

As this meeting continues, I ask each of you to pray with me collectively or alone in the words of this responsoral prayer, which the worldwide Anglican Communion Office has recommended for Anglicans all across the globe:

"Gracious Father, your Son came as Emmanuel:
 Be with the Primates now and always. 

Your Son had no place to lay his head;
Bless their homes and households while they are in Canterbury. 
Your Son called disciples; disputed with authorities; was always with the poor.
Give us grace to see his face in one another. 
Your Son was lifted up to draw all people to himself;
May the Primates, through being together, be the more ready to share your life with your world. 
Your Son gave his life as a ransom for many:
Strengthen us to take up our cross and follow him.
Your Son was raised in the power of your Spirit;
Inspire us to walk in his risen life. 
Your Son breathed the Spirit on his disciples
Breathe on us all your Spirit of forgiveness and healing.
Your Son commissioned the disciples to go into all the world:
Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory. "

Almighty God,

whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, 
and entered not into glory before he was crucified: 
Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, 
may find it none other than the way of life and peace; 
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, 
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 
one God, for ever and ever. 
Amen.

Epiphany

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany – the day on which we collectively pack away our Christmas decorations, and children across Italy joyously celebrate the coming of the Befana. It marks the end of the Christmas season and the start of a new season in which we remember Jesus’ growth and development from a gentle baby in a manger to the full-grown Christ. At Epiphany we recall the Three Kings’ long journey to present their famous gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child, as is depicted beautifully below the rose window at St. Paul’s. 

Yet as familiar as we are with the oft-repeated story, we all too often forget that it does not end with the three great monarchs holding their gifts before the Holy Family. In favor of remembering this lovely idyllic scene, we tend to forget that it is followed immediately by one of the worst tragedies in the entire New Testament.

Take a few minutes to read Matthew’s 2^nd chapter, and you will be reminded quickly of two greatly overlooked narratives in the Epiphany story: (1) the brutal slaughter of all the baby boys of Bethlehem (remembered by the Church as the Holy Innocents) at the hands of King Herod, and (2) the resulting flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, cementing Jesus’ little-acknowledged status as a refugee of religious & political violence.

Although we have just turned the page to a new calendar year, we do not have to think back very far to remember the brutal mass-murders of innocent people around the world, and the frequently resulting refugee crises that occupied much of our attention in 2015. As much as we may wish otherwise, these horrors will not simply disappear from our world with the ringing in of a new year. A dear friend of mine put it this way last week:

“On this, the day the Church remembers the slaughtered Holy Innocents, we MUST confront the fact that we are still slaughtering holy innocents.”

This painting, by artist Leftaris Olympios of Cyprus, depicts the journey of the Holy Family as refugees in Egypt. It is on display at the Anglican Centre in Rome to mark the Centre's 50th anniversary this year. The boats and desperate refugees in the background represent the modern refugee crisis in Europe and around the world.

Amidst the great joys that we have shared this holiday season, let us be ever cognizant also of the great injustices that continue to inhabit our world. At St. Paul’s, as we constantly remember the journey of the Magi in our architecture, so we remember always the victims and refugees of violence in the remarkable ministry of the JNRC. Let us pray this week these words borrowed from the BCP Collects for Epiphany and Holy Innocents:

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:

Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace.

Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Buon Anno a Tutti! Happy New Year to all!

Tanti Auguri! Buon Anno! (Cheers! Happy New Year!)

Happy New Year from me and (some of) my fabulous housemates, Julia, Maiga & Paola!

With those two greetings, I have had the joy of being welcomed and welcoming others into 2016. Paola and I cheerfully counted down the seconds just steps away from the Roman Forum, across the imminently beautiful Piazza Venezia. There's something so deeply meaningful about celebrating another year while standing literally amongst buildings that have survived nearly two millennia. Watching fireworks burst over the Colosseum and hundreds of people from all over the world happily celebrating together, I was so deeply struck by how many generations have greeted the years in that very same place, among the very same buildings. While so much has changed, such moments bring to mind the great arc of time and remind us that we are just tiny specs in the great history of this world. May this city and this Forum witness many more to come!

After some much-needed sleep and a day spent in relaxation & preparation for the coming days, I walked just five minutes to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Great St. Mary or St. Mary Major) . One of the four great basilicas in Rome, Maria Maggiore was hosting Pope Francis, who was there to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Perhaps even more extraordinary, he was also there to open the Porta Santa - the holy door of the Basilica ceremonially to welcome people to Rome for a very special Year of Mercy that he has declared. Standing among throngs of faithful souls, I had the great honor to hear the Pope preach a beautiful sermon in Italian about the need for mercy in this new year. For me, most special of all was at the end of the mass when he appeared at the back steps of the church (next to the Holy Door he had just opened) to say a special New Years blessing to the thousands gathered there to see him. My first time seeing the Pontiff, I am so truly blessed to begin 2016 in such a special and uniquely Roman way! Amen!