Newspaper Columns by The Rev. Canon Bill Lewellis
I'm an Episcopalian
Not a Member of any Organized Religion
By Bill Lewellis
"I'm not a member of any organized religion, " someone once quipped. "I'm an Episcopalian!" I'm allowed to say that because I am an Episcopalian
I apologize in advance if anyone considers this reflection too sectarian. I don't intend it as such. I trust that those who read this might find a few parallel lines that lead also to your own experience in your own churches.
The Episcopal Church in the United States is one of nearly 40 independent, national churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In the tradition of the Church of England, we are involved in a 400-year experiment of being at once Catholic and reformed, high and low, doctrinal and pastoral, apostolic and contemporary, rooted and winged. We don't yet know that it will work.
In our contemporary context, the experiment means that folks in the Episcopal Church should be able to pray in the same pew even if one carries a National Rifle Association card while the other is a radical pacifist (I suppose one can be both), if one calls himself pro-life while the other calls herself pro choice, if one is an advocate for traditionalist values while the other is an advocate for the blessing of same-sex unions, if one understands his relationship with God through the lens of salvation while the other does so through the lens of Incarnation.
The solution of Queen Elizabeth I, centuries ago, was to focus on common worship rather than trying to determine and judge what every person believes.
That is possible, in my opinion, only if we steer clear of the common presumption that a church must be a "confessing" church, where the criterion for determining whether someone is "in" or "out" is whether they believe this or that.
The general reality today, I think, is that many presume a church must be a "confessing" church. As long as we begin with that presumption, we will focus on and be anxious to the depths of our souls about all the issues, beliefs and non-beliefs that can tear a church apart. And if that is where we begin, every question we ask will be the wrong question, i.e., an irrelevant question that we, nevertheless, will think goes to the heart of the matter... until we finally shout at the other person in our pew: DO YOU BELIEVE THIS OR NOT? IF YOU DON'T, YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE.
The deeper reality, of course, is what determines whether or not we are Christian. Only to our peril, I think, can the criterion be belief. Faith and worship, yes, and a lifestyle that witnesses to our deep faith in God through Jesus Christ and our love for one another, but not belief. Perhaps we need most of all to focus on being windows for one another into the heart of God's love and mercy and forgiveness, of God's loving embrace, God reaching out to all of us sinners through the outstretched arms of Jesus Christ.
This is a little messy, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described the Anglican Communion, but might we not also say most enduring and deep relationships are messy? Even the derivation of the word, religion, is not about statements but about relationships.
Bill Lewellis, Communication Minister/Editor, Diocese of Bethlehem 333 Wyandotte Street, Bethlehem, PA 18015 -- 610-691-5655 x229
Be attentive. Be intelligent. Be reasonable. Be responsible. Be in love. And, if necessary, change. --Bernard Lonergan
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