Schism (Once More) and Reconciliation

I am writing once more about schism in the Episcopal Church (see my first blog on this subject) because it has been on my mind, and because several of you have asked me to say more about it. Sometimes I feel like one of those biblical characters who receive an angel in the night, or a word in their dreams, or a message during the night watches, for I often receive/hear words, sentences, even paragraphs while I am sleeping. I know that might sound odd, but there it is. And last night I did have some nudges about this subject.

I recently saw a picture in the New York Times with all the bishops that will be trying to put together a new province of the Episcopal Church (or whatever they might call it) in this country. I also read that disaffected Anglo-Catholics and unhappy evangelicals and even some folks from the Reformed Episcopal Church (this offshoot happened in the last 19th century) will be attempting to form this new church. As I read this I felt—and this was a something that I related in my earlier piece—a great sense of sadness, but I also felt rather surprised. I know people in all three groups, have friends in all three groups, and it is hard for me to imagine how they are going to find a way to get together, to create something from scratch, and to forge ahead. The Anglo-Catholics left the church over the ordination of women and the new prayer book, but they did not, at least many of the ones I know, have any issue about ordaining gays. The evangelicals left the church over ordaining gays, but they have no problems with women’s ordination or the new prayer book. The Reformed Episcopal folks left 130 years ago because they felt that the church was becoming too Catholic. So, how these folks are, again, going to make a new church—well, I just don’t know. Right now they are coalescing around what they are against—and that is the Episcopal Church—but when they get over being against us, how are they going to create a church that can be for something, that can have a new mission and purpose. Being against things is easy, but it doesn’t have much staying power or much life.

There is nothing particularly noteworthy or insightful about any of the above words. And nothing in that above paragraph came to me early this morning. What did come to me is that here we are with all this brokenness, all these schisms and splits, during this time of year when we proclaim the birth of the One who came to heal all brokenness. Jesus came to heal the breach between God and us, between heaven and earth, and he came to teach us and show us that we are all children of God and brothers and sisters to each other. But here we are fighting and scraping and taking our toys (or our churches) and going off to build a new home only with those who agree with us.

The One who was born for us, who gave his life for us, who was raised from the dead for us, intends for his reconciling love to embrace all, to make peace with all. So, all our schisms and divisions are sin; all of them miss the mark; all of them fall short of God’s desire for us. And all schisms and divisions are naive. People attempt to build a perfect church, a pure church, a righteous church, a liturgically correct church, a biblical inerrant church, but have these people forgotten or are they in denial about who they are, who people are in general? We are all sinners and fools; we all make mistakes; we all are mottled; there are no pure and perfect saints.

In the early church the culture looked on the Christian community and said, “See how they love each other.” Now the culture looks on and thinks, “See how those Christians fight.” Our schisms and divisions undermine the mission of Christ to reconcile all of us to God and all of us to each other.

So, what do we do here at Palmer about all this? We pray. And, we continue to keep on keeping on right where we are with God’s mission of love for all in and from this holy and messy and real community we are blessed to be in together. At the manger, which is where we all are called to arrive, we are called to kneel, to adore, to give thanks, to lay down all that separates us from God and from other. Jesus was born into our midst to make us all family. As we go about that work together, we will find that Christmas is not a day, not a season, but our lives.