From Columbus, Ohio #3

Wednesday was a long day. The day began with a eucharist in Spanish and English at 9.30am and was followed by staffing the seminary booth in the Exhibit Hall. Several of us attended a hearing on Baptism as Full Initiation with presentations by Lee Mitchell, John Westerhoff and others over lunch. There was a seminary reception from 5.30-6.30pm and the day finished with hearing statements on resolutions A160, A161, A162, A163 from 7.30-10pm in the Hyatt Ballroom. For a transcript of most of the 65+ statements of two minutes or under, see Fr. Kennedy's blog sent from the floor of the ballroom as speakers were speaking.

Larry King Live at 9pm Eastern Time tonight (Thursday) has an exclusive interview with Bishop Gene Robinson who was one of the speakers last night.

Perhaps indeed what we are watching is a struggle between two different definitions of what it means to be Anglican. Bishop Sauls describes it thus:-

The constitutional issue we face is between two competing visions of what it means to be an Anglican. One vision has its roots in the English Reformation, particularly something known as the Elizabethan Settlement with its key principles of (1) common prayer as the broadly inclusive framework of unity holding together a diversity of doctrinal belief on even fundamental issues and (2) local leadership of the local church. This vision of Anglicanism seems to me particularly well-suited for a world endangered by rising and intolerant fundamentalism, coping with globalization, and struggling with an ever-increasing rate of significant change and its resultant discomfort.

The alternative vision sees our roots in the English Reformation as fatally flawed. Dean Paul Zahl of the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry states, “This whole crisis has revealed a very serious deficiency in the character of Anglicanism. It’s a severe deficiency in Anglicanism because there isn’t really a church teaching in the same way there is in the Church of Rome…. I would say there is a constitutional weakness, which this crisis has revealed, which may in fact prove to be the death of the Anglican project—the death, at least in formal terms, of Anglican Christianity. We’ve always said that we’ve had this great insight, and I used to think that we did” (New Yorker, p. 63).

Its interesting to ask who has a stake in this struggle: not many women and minorities judging by people who spoke last night.

From Columbus Ohio #2

Windsor Report hearings are moving through committee deliberations and at 7.30 tonight there's a public hearing on the Windsor Report in the Hyatt Regency Ballroom which I am planning to attend as part of the general public.

Walking by the State House this morning, I saw the very moving AFSC exhibit of boots commemorating the Iraqi and US dead (2497 soldiers and God known how many Iraqi civilians). To see the laid out boots and shoes brings the dead home.

From Columbus, Ohio #1

General Convention is taking place in Columbus, Ohio for the next several days which is where I'll be. Amongst other things including responses to the Windsor Report, Ruth Gledhill of the London Times (now publishing in the US for $1.00 daily) opines that a topic will be a debate over whether ECUSA will "repent" our actions in consecrating an openly gay bishop. I am looking forward to great liturgy and preaching of the word and to hearing from Anglicans around the world. On my taxi ride from the airport, the Somali driver enlightened me with up to date information from Mogadishu and Nairobi (where his family now lives given the present state of Somalia). He announced that we were neighbours (since I was born in Kenya).

Talk at the Smithsonian

Last week, I was in Washington DC staying with friends and speaking once at a gathering of clergy women at the Cathedral School and at the Smithsonian Resident Associates program on Saturday June 3rd from 9-1pm. The Smithsonian program was a panel with Profs Carol Meyers of Duke and Elizabeth Johnson of Fordham. Each of us gave separate talks on Miriam, Mary and Mary Magdalene followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with the audience.

It was a wonderful occasion for cross-disciplinary discussion and interfaith reflections some of which we got into after the presentations. Elizabeth Johnson, for example, proposed that traits of Mary are attributed to the Holy Spirit by Protestants. Carol Meyers argued that the term "coming/going out" describes the action of women musicians celebrating miraculous events such as deliverance at the Red Sea (Miriam), celebrating David's victory after killing the Philistines (I Sam 18:6), and Mary Magdalene who went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord" (John 20:18).

The Smithsonian specifically asked that we make power point presentations with handouts. Mine used music and images from the Biblia Pauperum to show the expansion of dialogue between Jesus and MM at the tomb in John 20 by incorporating material from the Song of Songs. Since the technical people could not get either Carol Meyers or my power point presentations to work at the outset, we reversed the order of presentations to finish with material from the Hebrew Bible. By 11.00am order was restored and Carol presented. I was reduced to using handouts alone although they did manage to play my music. It was hard to concentrate on content and points of dialogue when worrying about delivery.

All of this goes to show that having plan B is essential and that plan B must not mentally be second best. Perhaps practising a day ahead is optimal. I did appreciate the simplicity of Elizabeth's lecture and handout presentation :)

What Jesus Meant according to Gary Wills

A good review of Gary Wills' book, What Jesus Meant, by Stephen Prothero is in Book World of the Washington Post May 28-June 3rd 2006. Julian and I went along to a lunch at NYPL last April at which Gary Wills spoke on his book and fielded questions from a packed auditorium.

According to Wills, Jesus was not a social reformer. His kingdom "is not of this world." Jesus came "to instill a religion of the heart, with only himself as the place where we encounter the Father." In the reign of heaven, "love is everything." But this love "is not a dreamy, sentimental, gushy thing. It is radical love, exigent, searing, terrifying." Yet it would appear to be domesticated love without teeth since it is apolitical and pacific. How can Jesus or followers of Jesus speak truth to power about civil rights or slavery?

Wills' has been accused of having Anglican sympathies by his fellow Roman Catholics especially in light of his earlier book, Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit? In What Jesus Meant, Wills opines that Jesus meant for women to be ordained, for clergy to be married, and he recognizes that in Jesus' time there was no hierarchy--no priests, bishops and certainly no Pope. Doubtless, Wills is reinscribing separation of church and state. Jesus isn't a Democrat or a conservative Republican.

The trouble with this approach is that it makes no sense of the ways in which Christians (including those on the right and left today) have understood Jesus to speak truth to power. It makes no sense of the context of nonviolent retaliation as Matthew describes it on Jesus' lips in the Sermon on the Mount. Further, the context of Jesus' death makes no sense unless he is seen as a political threat as Mark's gospel makes clear in its account of the crucifixion. The most that can be said about Wills' book is that it shows that contemporary Roman Catholic interpretations of Jesus by Republicans are by no means monolithic.

Summer Greek 2006

This summer, at the request of a student (and keeping in mind others who have wanted to take Greek but found it impossible after they missed it in their first year), I agreed to undertake a distance learning Introduction to Greek course for 2 credits.

Using ivisit, an audio video chat program, students can participate live by logging in or access the recorded files of each chapter at their leisure. We have just finished prepositions. Its a fascinating learning experience :)

DaVinci Code Movie Review

Having been taken by the New York Post to see the movie in the company of other religious types (a Sister of Mercy, a Roman Catholic Priest and a person on the street), here's my review. Its affected by several conversations with other people who saw it on opening day.

The movie has a breathless quality as we follow Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and Sophie Neveu (Audry Tatou) from the Louvre to the French residence of Sir Leigh Teabing (Sir Ian McKellan) to an airport in Kent, to London and Westminister Abbey (actually Lincoln Cathedral) and finally to Rossyln Chapel just south of Edinburgh.

Flashbacks show Langdon (a professor of symbology?) lecturing on symbols at Harvard, doing a book signing for a book on feminine symbols, and almost drowning in a well as a child. Sophie's own trauma of the car crash that claimed the lives of her entire family including her brother fail to show in what ritual she saw her grandfather take part. We do see unexplained masked figures in a circle. There are flashbacks to the Council of Nicea (looking like an agitated question time in the House of Commons) and people killing each other from the early days of Christianity.

As anyone who has read the book knows, Langdon and Neveu race across Europe in the company of Teabing (a grail fanatic) to interpret codes left for them in various places by Sophie's grandfather having to do with a secret kept alive by members of the Priory of Sion, namely, that Jesus' bloodline, established through Mary Magdalene (the holy grail), lives in their descendent, Sophie herself. They are chased by a Parisian chief of police, an albino monk and a secret Roman Catholic enclave of Bishops, all members of Opus Dei, who torture and kill or simply shoot at any who might stop them from preventing the disclosure of this secret. We see the monk's murder of a sister at the church of Saint-Sulpice because she attempts to contact members of the Priory during his visit to the church. We see his self-flagellation and use of the celice on more than one occasion. Teabing murders his former butler. In the end, the chief of police realizes that he has been lied to and used by one of the Bishops and he turns on his former allies, freeing Langdon and Sophie for their last journey to Rosslyn.

Sr. D'Arienza (in the NY Post) noted the film's unrelieved brutality and compared it to "The Passion of the Christ" in this regard. I agree. Teabing, the chief of police, the monk, and Bishops of Opus Dei (how they are described in the film) are fanatics whether religious or not. Early Christianity is described as a series of power struggles and wars mirrored in the present. Mary Magdalene escapes from the crucifixion scene and flees to France to preserve her life and child. Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu look askance at the brutality on both sides.

I would like to think that religious traditions are open to intelligent debate and discussion about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and human sexuality but the only Christians in the movie are religious fanatics.

Scarlet Tanager in Central Park

Today's early birdwalk included sighting of a scarlet tanager (picture courtesy of Wild Bird Gallery) distinguished not only by its color but also location at the very top of a tall tree. Shortly afterward a red tailed hawk flew overhead which explains the tanager's hasty departure. Our group saw warblers including a Cape May warbler, Magnolia, Black and White, Yellow rumped, Chestnut sided warblers and also an American Redstart. Our guide saw an Indigo Bunting along with several warblers but I confess I did not. Sigh.

Some consensus exists among bird watchers that numbers are generally down this year, alas.

Visit to Princeton

On Friday I went to Princeton to see the Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel, Tom Breidenthal who used to teach at GTS. He's been Dean for five years and is thriving. After lunch, we were able to visit the University Chapel and walk part way down the nave although the Westminster Choir College of Rider University commencement was getting underway. Designed by Ralph Adams Cram in a style of Gothic revival, it is about as big as an abbey and very imposing.

Its good to get out of the city!

The Free Alaa Petition

Its easy to sign the Free Alaa petition--just click here. If anyone wants to know more about Alaa and who he is, Wikipedia has an article.

Spring Migration in Central Park

Today, Spring migration was evident in Central Park when we took our guided bird watching walk through the ramble from 7-9am. We saw a Northern Parula, a Chestnut-sided warbler, a Magnolia Warbler (most beautiful), a Black-and-White Warbler , a Yellow-Rumped warbler, a Nashville Warbler, a Black-Throated Blue Warbler, a Green Warbler, a Wilson's Warbler, a Tree swallow, a Northern Water Thrush, a Hermit Thrush, a Swamp sparrow, an Oven bird, a redstart, and a vireo. The piece de resistance was a sighting at Belvedere Castle atop the flag pole of a female red-tailed hawk, possibly Lola!

On our way home, a charming man turned towards us as we went by saying, "Look! A Tennessee Warbler!" If we'd stayed, we would have seen even more.