Archbishop of Canterbury and Wife Eileen Take Some Time Off -- in Chicago
Episcopal News Service. August 22, 2000 [2000-124]
David Skidmore, Communications Director for the Diocese of Chicago and Editor of Anglican Advance
(Anglican Advance/ENS) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has taken a liking to Chicago. For the second year in a row, Dr. Carey and his wife Eileen chose the Second City as their vacation getaway from the demanding schedule and constant scrutiny associated with the archbishop's role as spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion.
Unlike their first experience of the Chicago -- a five-day official visit in May 1996 -- the Careys arrived with little fanfare and a simple agenda: recreation and relaxation. Hosted by the Near North Side parish of St. Chrysostom's -- their hosts during their 1999 Chicago holiday -- the Careys spent their 12 days in Chicago, August 1-12, doing what most tourists do: shopping, visiting the museums and galleries, and sampling the restaurant scene.
Though leisure was the focus, Carey did make three public appearances: toasting the Queen Mother on her 100th birthday at a reception hosted by the British Consulate August 4 at Chicago's Navy Pier, preaching at the Sunday Eucharist at St. Chrysostom's August 6, and presenting the inaugural Gilchrist Lecture in Mission at St. Chrysostom's August 8. Sandwiched in were a dinner with William Persell, bishop of the Diocese of Chicago, and his wife Nancy, and a lunch with diocesan staff.
The respite came on the heels of an international evangelical conference in Amsterdam, organized by Billy Graham, who couldn't attend because of illness. Carey spoke on the importance of witnessing to the singular truth of Christ. "There must be no flinching from the 'scandal of particularity' that in this man, at a certain point in history, God spoke his final word," he said.
Echoes of that address also sounded in Carey's sermon on August 6 at St. Chrysostom's. Joined by Bishop Persell, who presided at the Eucharist, Carey began by noting his discomfort about preaching on the Feast of the Transfiguration. Not for any theological reason, he said, but because it coincided with the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Ten years ago on a visit to Japan, he and his wife met Bishop Joseph Noriaki Lida, bishop of Kyushu, the diocese that includes Nagasaki. The day the bomb exploded over Nagasaki, said Carey, Joseph, who was 16 at the time, was visiting his uncle who lived just a mile from the epicenter. Spared by an errand to a hillside garbage dump, Joseph recalled a searing white light and being flung to the ground by the bomb's shockwave. When he made his way back to the house site the building and his uncle were gone.
Asked by Carey how he could endure such suffering and not reject God, Joseph replied that the explosion had made him a man of peace. "I blamed no one for that bomb. It made me realize that war was a terrible thing and that Christ offered a better way."
For Joseph that day was a moment of transfiguration, a moment of being open to God's grace, said Carey, and one that Joseph built on through his ministry in the church. We should all expect moments of grace in our lives, moments which may not be as intense as Joseph's but just as real, he said. These moments of transfiguration -- a birth of a child, a spectacular sunset or the Sunday Eucharist -- are meant as springboards for mission, said Carey, and not as private reveries such as Peter, James and John attempted on seeing Christ transfigured on the mountain.
"They wanted to immortalize the moment, frame it, protect it, savor it, and keep it to themselves," said Carey. "That's the problem with all great experiences. If kept to themselves they freeze experience rather than liberate it."
Carey noted that poet William Blake contrasted the cistern with the fountain, and warned to "expect poison from the standing water." The church today, said Carey, "is full of cisterns." Our great moments of conversion as youth wilt and fade as we slog into middle age. "The water settles and those wonderful experiences are not put to use," he said. "And possibly, those experiences become anti-experiences which ward off new ideas or thwart new possibilities."
Complacency and insularity were also targeted by Carey in the Gilchrist lecture on mission. Named for the Rev. Charles Gilchrist, former director of the diocesan agency Cathedral Shelter, who died in June 1999, the lecture highlighted the recent founding of the Rev. Charles Gilchrist Fund for Outreach and Mission. Peter Wilmott, a parishioner of St. Chrysostom and longtime friend and former classmate of Gilchrist, donated $100,000 to the parish to launch the fund, the income from which will be used for creative outreach and mission projects throughout the Anglican Communion.
Carey noted the fund was an appropriate memorial to Gilchrist given his passion for urging the church toward community activism. "For him a faith that did not engage with life's problems was counterfeit, and church life that began and ended at the church door was simply playing at being church," he said.
Using music as a metaphor for faith expression, Carey observed that Christians in first world countries have trouble keying in to the music of other parts of the world. One reason may be that first world Christians are oppressed by their abundance and ease of life, he said, which presents a challenge to the church's mission. "What is the message of the church to those who are strong, to those without apparent need?" he asked. The answer, he said, has to be more than an invitation to Sunday services.
"Authentic Christianity surely includes church-going, but it is far richer than this. It is a way of life," said Carey. "Authentic Christianity is the joyful adventure of entering into the mission of God. It is the risk-filled challenge to take up our cross and follow Christ. It is a liturgy that still fills the hearts of many with song and celebration."
In response to these pressing needs, Carey has established an emergency relief fund for situations "where resources are needed now;" founded an Anglican Investment Agency with the assistance of philanthropists Sir John Templeton and John Beck; arranged support for orphans of deceased bishops; and encouraged companion relationships between rich and poor dioceses
The Episcopal Church is also making a major contribution through its Episcopal Relief and Development Fund (the former Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief), he said.
But it is not enough to simply bankroll relief and recovery. The church, said Carey, must also be a witness for justice.
"The mission of the church includes raising its voice when errors are made, when evil things are done in the name of humanity or prosperity or progress. She must equally speak up for others when the rich harmonies of life seem to deny others a voice," he said. That can prove difficult in America or other developed countries where prosperity and a cultural hegemony can seal citizens from knowing or caring about the rest of the world.
"Sometimes we price we pay for success is that we ignore those who do not succeed," said Carey. "It is vital, therefore, that the church -- both in this land and in other wealthy countries -- hear the cries of the poor and seek to stand with them."
Like the wealthy young man in the gospel parable, we are often reluctant to relinquish our comfort and security for the difficult and dangerous road of discipleship, he said. The challenge is in arriving at a balance of maintenance and mission.
"We realize that part of maintenance is presence, and that presence is part of mission. But we must guard constantly against complacency, and self-preservation, and we must be prepared to sacrifice the old and the comfortable in order to advance the Gospel."