Reconciliation Perspectives, Workbook Offered by Seminary Dean
Episcopal News Service. October 13, 2005 [101305-1-A]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Gospel is, at its essence, a message and promise of reconciliation, Bishop Steven Charleston told a gathering October 4 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chatham, New Jersey.
"This is not rocket science," Charleston said. "This is Gospel science, bringing people together to love each other."
After General Convention 2003, Charleston, the dean and president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and former bishop of Alaska, wrote "Good News: A Congregational Resource for Reconciliation." The workbook, he said, is part of an "active effort to bring Episcopalians together."
"This is an appeal to common sense and to the truth of the Gospel," Charleston said, adding that the book is "easy to read, easy to use and cheap" (see ordering information below).
Reconciliation, Charleston warned, is not the same as resolution. The Gospel "accepts the reality of change, conflict and challenge as being ongoing in the life of any faith community," he wrote in the introduction to the workbook.
Reconciliation "requires us to hold some things in tension when we'd be more comfortable not doing that," Charleston told those gathered in Chatham.
Charleston argued that the Gospel's call to reconciliation is especially needed in an ever-more polarized world in which society's fractures and fissures run along religious lines. "We are divided in fear from one another," Charleston said
"And it's not just between Christian and Muslim," he added. "If we were to take Muslims out of the equation, I could still give the same talk."
He spoke of the divisions within Christianity that go beyond denominational differences. He drew a contrast between at least two interpretations of the Gospel's call. On the one hand, there are people who would take the Gospel to those who have not heard it and would use the Gospel as the basis for working for social justice. These people envision the Gospel as being interpreted and live out differently in different contexts, he said. Others would use the Gospel as a litmus test of personal salvation and as the basis of creating a monolithic society in which everyone must believe the same thing in the same way.
Christians have always argued with each, Charleston said. It began the day the disciples were arguing about whom among them was the greatest. Jesus knew that we mortals would always argue with each other and struggle with his message, Charleston said. Because of these traits, Jesus gave the world two agents of reconciliation: the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist.
Charleston said the Eucharist was Jesus' way of showing us how to live in community with each other. Jesus brought together Roman centurions, Jews, Samaritans, tax collectors and women. He made them eat together. Jesus kept teaching them that "you cannot escape the circle of love . ... you cannot judge others out the door," he said.
"The way reconciliation occurs is when we stop demonizing each other," he said. "And it's hard to demonize each other on a full stomach, especially if you are sitting next to them."
Charleston argued that Anglicanism's historic claim of the via media, the middle way, uniquely positions the Anglican Communion to help society move beyond religious divisions at what he called "the turning point of history for this century."
While we profess to believe in a God who acts in history, Charleston said, we tend to think all of God's actions happened in the past. He said he disagrees. The Anglican Communion was not the result of King Henry the Eighth’s desires or of nation building or colonialism. God created the notion of the Anglican Communion just for this moment, he said.
"We were nurtured and shepherded to this time and this place in history for a reason," he said.
Anglicanism can longer be known as simply a "polite religion with decent worship and a sense of style."
"It is time for us to take center stage because we have a message that is absolutely essential for the world," he said.
Part of the message ought to be that we are not ashamed of the struggles in the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. Charleston called these struggles "our God-given right."
"That is our glory," he said.
"This is not the moment to hang our heads. This is our moment to shine. This is why we were created," he said.
Anglicans has always believed in the ambiguity of life and in our call to think creatively with God, Charleston said. "And now we are in jeopardy of throwing it all away and for what?"
Many in the Communion want to impose a conformity which Charleston argues Anglicans have seen from other denominations serves only to demoralize believers.
If Anglicans can reconcile over our differences and live with radical inclusiveness and diversity, we can give the world "the hope that is it possible to live in a way that is fear-free," he said.
Anglicans can create a "fear-free zone in a broken world" and should be proud to proclaim by word and example Jesus' promise of "Fear not, for low I am with you even to the end of the age," Charleston said.
"If we in the Anglican Communion cannot achieve that in this century, who will?" he asked.
Remember and be true to the believers and martyrs of the early church, Charleston said, recalling how those who preached the Good News despite the risks of prison and death. "And we should whine and we should be embarrassed by what is happening in the Episcopal Church and we should worry that some people are taking their checkbooks and leaving?" he asked.
Preserving Anglican unity and using it as an example of living out the Gospel "is the hardest job we will ever do. It may kill us," Charleston said. Jesus told his disciples that they would have to lose their lives to follow him, Charleston added.
Charleston does not believe that it is ultimately God's plan to have the Anglican Communion break apart, but, he said, "I frankly don't care if there's only two or three of us left" as long as we have stood up and preached reconciliation.
("Good News: A Congregational Resource for Reconciliation" is available for $5 per copy from Episcopal Divinity School, 99 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138; 617-868-3450; www.eds.edu.)