Sam Wells, formerly the Dean of Duke University Chapel and the current vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, responds to the failed legislation concerning women bishops.
Modern spiritual consciousness is predicated upon the fact that God is gone, and spiritual experience, for many of us, amounts mostly to an essential, deeply felt and necessary, but ultimately inchoate and transitory feeling of oneness or unity with existence. It is mystical and valuable, but distant. Christ, though, is a shard of glass in your gut. Christ is God crying I am here, and here not only in what exalts and completes and uplifts you, but here in what appalls, offends, and degrades you, here in what activates and exacerbates all that you would call not-God.
Naturally we may not ascribe to God anything nonsensical or irrational, or anything that contradicts his creation. But here we are not dealing with the irrational or contradictory, but precisely with the positive - with God’s creative power, embracing the whole of being. In that sense these two moments - the virgin birth and the real resurrection from the tomb - are cornerstones of faith. If God does not also have power over matter, then he simply is not God. But he does have this power, and through the conception and resurrection of Jesus Christ he has ushered in a new creation. So as the Creator he is also our Redeemer. Hence the conception and birth of Jesus from the Virgin Mary is a fundamental element of our faith and a radiant sign of hope.
All around us is the city of small sins, abounding in backways and retreats, but surely, sooner or later, the towering flame will rise from the harbour announcing that the reign of the cowards is over and a man is burning his ships.
Kevin White has an interesting analysis of the development in the use of microphones in Mass in the December 2012 First Things.
The seventeenth-century poet George Herbert coined the brilliant metaphor of prayer as reversed thunder. The microphone at Mass, one might say, goes some way to turning the metaphor into literal truth, to the detriment of its metaphoric force and charm. Acoustically, many Masses now have much in common with other contemporary events at which electronically projected voices fill the air, including political rallies, popular music concerts, sports events, movies in theaters, and travel in airports and subway stations. These events take place in cavernous, rumbling echo chambers in which crowds of people are subjected to unnaturally loud voices with a metallic timbre.
A microphone allows its user to impose his voice, and thereby his thought and personality, on many more people than an ancient orator could. Now a public speaker is anyone with a microphone. The amateur in front of a microphone is tempted to indulge the pleasure of broadcasting his thoughts and feelings, to the great amusement or annoyance of his audience. The more skillful speaker takes control of the microphone and the situation, using his amplified voice for other purposes. Popular singers and populist politicians have been masters of the microphone, expertly murmuring more loudly than anyone could ever shout.
Sam Wells, formerly the Dean of Duke University Chapel and the current vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, responds to the failed legislation concerning women bishops.
When I heard that the legislation on women bishops had failed by 6 votes I sat down and wept. I hadn’t allowed myself to imagine that this could happen. I couldn’t comprehend the church I love ceasing to become part of the solution and actively voting to become part of the problem.
People at St Martin-in-the-Fields and beyond feel dismayed, bewildered, even betrayed. We can’t recall a moment when we felt so aghast at where we’ve come to and what we’re doing. God the Holy Trinity is three persons without subordination and without discrimination; to imitate God, human life must be the same. Isn’t that too obvious to need saying? It seems not. If the church rejects the glorious and abundant gifts God is giving us – and then feels impoverished and fragile – whose fault is that?
What do we find to hold onto in such a wilderness moment? Perhaps three things.
One, the wilderness is where the people of God have time and again rediscovered who they are and who God is. Maybe that’s what we have to do now.
Two, if a thing’s worth having, it’s worth waiting for. We can only work and pray that next time round we’ll have a House of Laity in General Synod that’s more representative of the church at large; it could be that if a simpler piece of legislation eventually emerges it’ll be easier and better to work with in the long run.
Three – and here I speak to those who are too angry to think straight at the moment – if the church isn’t working right now, try the kingdom. Throw yourself into life among the least, the last, and the lost and rediscover the church there. St Martin-in-the-Fields is committed to making the church look and become more like God’s kingdom every day. Sometimes when we feel furious with or hurt by the church, the only thing to do is to reinvest in the kingdom. Maybe, today, in this moment of despair, that’s where hope lies.
Revd Dr Sam Wells
Vicar, St Martin-in-the-Fields
Naturally we may not ascribe to God anything nonsensical or irrational, or anything that contradicts his creation. But here we are not dealing with the irrational or contradictory, but precisely with the positive - with God’s creative power, embracing the whole of being. In that sense these two moments - the virgin birth and the real resurrection from the tomb - are cornerstones of faith. If God does not also have power over matter, then he simply is not God. But he does have this power, and through the conception and resurrection of Jesus Christ he has ushered in a new creation. So as the Creator he is also our Redeemer. Hence the conception and birth of Jesus from the Virgin Mary is a fundamental element of our faith and a radiant sign of hope.
It seems natural to me that only after Mary’s death could the mystery be made public and pass into the shared patrimony of early Christianity. At that point it could find its way into the evolving complex of Christological doctrine and be linked to the confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God - yet not in the manner of a story crafted from an idea, an idea reformulated as a fact, but vice versa: the event itself, a fact that was now in the public domain, became the object of reflection - understanding was sought. The overall picture of Jesus Christ shed light upon the event and conversely, through that event, the divine logic was more deeply grasped. The mystery of his origin illuminated what came later, and conversely the developed form of Christological faith helped to make sense of that origin. Thus did Christology develop.
Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, 54.
I definitely have religion major thoughts about this one…
Man is a relational being. And if his first, fundamental relationship is disturbed - his relationship with God - then nothing else can be truly in order. This is where the priority lies in Jesus’ message and ministry: before all else, he wants to point man toward the essence of his malady, and to show him - if you are not healed there, then however many good things you may find, you are not truly healed.
In short, critiques of Constantinianism, especially in the modern period, have lacked an ecclesiology and have operated with what John Milbank describes as the “liberal Protestant metanarrative,” according to which the church gradually sheds its external political encrustrations and is revealed as what in essence it always has been, something “purely religious.” One those premises, the critique of Constantinianism is preloaded; no matter how faithfully the church gives cultural form to its gospel, it is abandoning the “spiritual” message of Jesus.
There is a question whether faith can or is supposed to be emotionally satisfying. I must say that the thought of everyone lolling about in an emotionally satisfying faith is repugnant to me. I believe that we are ultimately directed Godward but that this journey is often impeded by emotion.
