As I write this, I’ve just returned from summer vacation. As you read this, we are just getting into September and the prospect of our program year starting up on September 16. It seems like an opportune moment to think a little bit about why we’re here and what it’s all for.
We are here, as I never tire of saying, because we have been called to share in God’s mission. Our purpose as a church is to join with Jesus in doing the work God sent Jesus to do, and which we are now sent in Jesus’ name to continue. In principle, every single thing we do as a church — every worship service, every music event, every fellowship meal, every Sunday school class, every committee meeting, every stewardship drive, every bit of programming, every bit of maintenance, every single thing — is meant in one way or another to further the mission of God in our world.
How can we tell whether the many different things we do as a church truly fit in the framework of mission? A congregation like ours that is involved in so many activities and engages its people and community in so many ways is hard to sum up in just one or two representative goals or objectives. How can we take stock of the many things we do and connect them with the central purpose of God’s mission?
One way of characterizing God’s mission that has been gaining attention in the last few years is a short list called the “Five Marks of Mission.” The Five Marks have been coming into increasing use throughout the Anglican Communion, and are often seen as a way of recognizing mutual value in provinces that differ sharply on matters of theology and discipline — the focus on mission can be a way of uniting people in good work even when they disagree on ideas or interpretations. The Five Marks have a lot in common with the Baptismal Covenant in our American Prayer Book, though they have been embraced by Anglicans far beyond our borders, whose Prayer Books do not include the Covenant in Baptism as we have it. This past summer, our General Convention passed a budget that was explicitly designed around the Five Marks, showing that they can provide a framework for us to “put our money where our mouth is” in the practical matters of doing God’s work. Bishop Powell has recommended the Five Marks to our diocese as a way of framing our ministries and activities. I think the Five Marks can be instructive for our reflecting on our mission at Trinity.
The Five Marks of Mission are these:
- To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
- To teach, baptize and nurture new believers
- To respond to human need by loving service
- To seek to transform unjust structures of society
- To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
Where these things are happening, the mission of God is being done.
In principle, every single thing we do at Trinity should reflect, to some degree, one or more of these marks of mission. Our Sunday morning services, for instance, proclaim Good News — not only in the reading of the Gospel and the preaching of the Word, but in the sacramental acting-out of Jesus’ death and resurrection in communion. Our Noon Lunch program responds to human need by loving service by providing food to hungry people; at the same time, it makes an effort to safeguard the integrity of creation by recycling. Those are some of the obvious ones. Perhaps more challenging, but no less important, is asking how, let us say, a Finance Committee meeting reflects the Five Marks, or filling a staff position, or cleaning the Parish House carpet, or providing space at the church for AA meetings, or developing a long-range property plan. All these things are part of the life of the church; and all these things can and do contribute to the mission of the church, characterized by these Five Marks.
What do you think? Where do you see the Five Marks of Mission reflected in what Trinity does and says? Let’s make a conversation out of this. At the bottom of the blog page there is a space for comments. I invite you — in fact, I urge you — to go to the comments and join the conversation. Where do you see the Five Marks embodied at Trinity? Is there some activity or ministry that you are involved in, where you think one or more of the Five Marks shine through very brightly? Do you think there is something we could do to make the Five Marks better reflected in our church life? Do you feel called in person to work for one or more of the Five Marks at Trinity or beyond? How would you characterize the mission of God at Trinity?
God is always and everywhere at work among us, furthering God’s mission of creating communion toward the New Creation. It is up to us to discern what God is doing among us, and then to join God in doing it. Conversation together, even conversation through the internet, is an important tool of discernment. Won’t you join me in discerning the marks of God’s mission at Trinity?
Peace,
Paul+
Yesterday the General Convention of the Episcopal Church approved a resolution allowing “provisional use” of a rite for the blessing of same-gender covenanted relationships. The measure was passed by the House of Bishops on Monday by a vote of 111-41, and by the House of Deputies on Tuesday by a vote-by-orders of 78 percent of the clergy and 76 percent of the laity. The rite will be available for use, with the local bishop’s permission, beginning on the First Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2012.
I believe the Convention did the right thing in authorizing this rite for use.
I know there will be a lot of people in the Church, and a lot of people here at Trinity Parish, who will not agree with me. It is part of the beauty and challenge of God’s gift of communion that we may disagree and yet remain in relationship with each other.
I believe the Convention did the right thing because I think the Holy Spirit may be doing a new thing among us, guiding us to see value and dignity and blessedness in relationships that our society used to think were unnatural and deviant and, well, wrong. Opening our eyes to see God at work where we had not expected it is something the Holy Spirit is traditionally believed to do, and I think the Spirit is doing it with us again. But we will never know if it’s the work of the Holy Spirit unless we try it, unless we live with it for a time and see if it bears the fruits of the Spirit that scripture promises will be borne. I believe that if we see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control made manifest in relationships right in front of us, and do not acknowledge that as the blessing of God, then we may in fact be in danger of denying God, even working against God — and I do not think that is something our Church ought to do. This is what I have called “the test of Gamaliel,” after the episode in Acts 5:38-39 when the Jewish Council is deciding whether or not to punish Peter and John for preaching in the name of Jesus, and a rabbi named Gamaliel counsels them that if this thing “is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them — in that case you may even be found fighting against God!” I believe we must apply the “test of Gamaliel” to this blessing rite by living with it for a time and seeing how it works, seeing how God may be at work in it.
Of course, “living with” this rite includes thinking critically about it, studying it, asking clear theological questions about what it really says and what we really believe is happening when we pray in this way. As your rector, I can say that I will not make use of this blessing rite at Trinity without first giving opportunity for the whole congregation to learn more about it, to ask questions of it, and to understand more clearly what it does and does not mean. I will not make use of this blessing rite at Trinity without first seeking the Vestry’s advice and guidance. The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, which prepared the text of the rite, has also prepared materials for studying the rite in congregations, and for preparing couples before praying the rite. I can assure you that no new thing will happen at Trinity in a vacuum, but only with due preparation. This, too, is part of living with the rite to discern the fruits of the Spirit it may bring among us.
The Church has blessed many kinds of relationships throughout its history. It has blessed relationships between men and women in marriage. It has blessed relationships between priests and congregations and between bishops and dioceses in ordination. It has blessed relationships between men and men, and women and women, in monastic communities. It has blessed relationships between parents and children in thanksgiving for the birth or adoption of a child. Fundamental to them all, the Church has for more than two thousand years blessed relationships between persons and Christ and God and each other in baptism. Each of these relationships has its own distinctive character, its own distinctive way of reflecting God’s triune love, its own distinctive mission for manifesting God’s love in the world, and its own distinctive rite for naming and blessing that mission. With the authorization of this new rite by General Convention, we open the door to discerning, naming, and blessing the triune love of God made manifest in a distinctive way in same-gender covenanted life-long relationships. And we must live with it for a time to discern its full truth.
In all humility, I acknowledge that we could be wrong. It may be that we come to know that this is not the work of the Holy Spirit among us. We may at some future time look back at this act of Convention and repent, and ask God’s forgiveness, and amend our lives. This, too, we can only discover by living into it.
But I, for one, do believe that this is the Spirit’s work, and that our Church has taken a courageous step to be open to where the Spirit is leading. May God guide us forward, in humility and generosity, in faithfulness and love, to discern all the ways in which God’s love is made truly manifest among us.
Peace be with you,
Paul+
