In 597 A.D., 1,400 years ago, a monk commissioned by Gregory the Great made his way to the land of Kent in lower Anglia to organize Christendom on an outpost island. There he found diverse cultures claiming an authentic experience of interpreting and living out the good news of Jesus Christ in the catholic and apostolic faith. On the advice of Gregory, Augustine was faced with blending the Celtic, Gallican, Roman and Anglican expressions of this faith into a cohesive community. His challenge has become an ageless one: If the church is going to respond effectively to present and future needs, it must be open to change.

Augustine had to wrestle with what change was to be made and how it should happen, as he noted in his correspondence with Gregory. Now, 1,400 years later, the spiritual heirs to Augustine's legacy are faced with the same challenge.

There was no doubt going into General Convention that many people had change on their mind. The focus of change was principally on issues of sexuality, doctrine and ministry. Some suggest these are the issues that the rank and file of the church are concerned about, but my experience in the grass roots is somewhat different.

Probably closer to the truth is the reason these issues keep dividing the church. It is because many of the same rotation of people attend General Convention. The same issues are hammered out time and again, by both traditionalists and revisionists, leaving the average person in the pew perplexed and hurt. This can go on only so long. The faithful person in the pew is left with six strategies from which to choose:

1. Schism - This is not new terrain to those most familiar with Anglicanism. While it appears viable in the heat of the moment, schism goes against the fundamental will of Christ for the body. Schismatic movements don't heal easily. Moreover, they tend to splinter into tiny shreds once the initial split occurs (as is evidenced in the Continuing Anglican movement).

2. Being prophetic - There is a rich and godly heritage in being the prophet. However, like the prophets of old, such activity is often not well received. Prophets in the church are great at denouncing what they see as injustice and abuse. Unfortunately, the tenor and tone become so strident that most people are turned off. It is a strategy used by traditionalist and revisionist alike. At one level it is admirable, as these prophets are deeply convicted and willing to suffer for those convictions. Unfortunately, there is a notion in the Episcopal Church that the greater the opposition to one's prophetic stance, the more correct that stance is. Prophets may be excellent to stir a conscience. However, they may not be the folks who are to be in church leadership, as such individuals have responsibility for the good of the whole.

3. Looking the other way - This strategy may already be in effect in many places, when it comes to some issues of human sexuality. It is done for the sake of Anglican agreeability. It suggests a type of institutional conformity via lip service but an individual or parochial independence to dissent and to do what is best in a particular situation.

On a parish or diocesan level, looking the other way is done in the name of pastoral sensitivity. The dilemma with this strategy is that the church violates some of its catholic sensibilities for the sake of being a church of local options, which some might say is another word for sect.

4. Lining up the witnesses- Some non-Anglican observers have suggested to me that part of the reason we have become so divisive and hell-bent on issues is that we are hard pressed as a domestic church to point to people of our tradition who have a dynamic witness of the gospel. Anglicanism has become an issues driven church as opposed to one with a witness that creates dialogue about issues. Through her witness, Dorothy Day made it easier for the Roman church to talk about social justice (as did Mother Teresa). There are such people in the life of the Communion and they need to be promoted, referred to and held up as models of the Anglican expression of the catholic faith. We must line up the people of faithful witness - The folks who are doing the work of the beatitudes, people who are witnessing to their faith by bringing the values of the gospel to the marketplace and the family.

5. Apathy - Most of the rank and file in the church from time to time camp out with this strategy. Most folks don't like conflict and think it should be avoided, especially in the church. There is already enough conflict in their lives. For them, the church is a place to pray and worship - the place to become energized in order to deal with the "changes and chances of this life."

The infighting and debates hurt and disgust many as they flee to the pew closest to the door. But silence and apathy do not work. Martin Niemoeller, in reflecting on the Nazi experience in Germany, says he never spoke out because he wasn't in one of the groups being persecuted. When his time came, he looked around for help and there was no one to help. Why? Because each group remained silent and uninvolved. This is a strategy that will not enliven the church, but will instead kill it.

6. Recovering Our Mythic Consciousness - Anglicanism, like all religious traditions, has a certain ethos, a certain mythic awareness, that lies at its core. Persons in and outside the church believe it to be a church of ambiguity. That is not the ethos that has its claim to Augustine's ministry of 1,400 years ago. This strategy is not the quick fix which is so desired these days. It is a strategy of scholarship and research whereby we raise up a ministry of theologians and teachers who understand the church's story and can see how it should shape and guide the future.

We are in need of catechetical theologians, systematic theologians who can develop a way of doing theology that honors scripture, reason and tradition as well as the variable of experience. We must echo the great minds of the past, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Augustine and Richard Hooker, who took the thought systems of their day and applied them to explain Christianity. We need not simply to quote and refer to these great thinkers but to emulate them by using the intellectual system of our day in explaining the faith and our tradition.

To base our catechetical, moral and systematic theology on the personal authority of individuals or a democratically elected group of individuals goes against the core value of mythic consciousness. It leads to relativism which creates a backlash of fundamentalism or dogmatism. We must reclaim the identity and vocation of being the Anglican tradition and how it is a particular celebration of the gospel.

On one hand, we need to develop thinkers who understand what is required for an intelligent and thoughtful dialogue, as opposed to the emotional outbursts that occur now. Moreover, the local clergy and lay leadership must instill this ethos in the faithful, many of whom think "The Exercises" is a quick fix diet plan as opposed to a path of life. We cannot expect the church to fulfill its vocation and identity unless large numbers of our people are compelled to take Anglican Christianity seriously, with their lips and their lives.

Calling for a promotion of Christian witness and reclaiming our particular identity and vocation are imperative. It will be difficult, requiring not-so-secret ingredients of patience, responsibility, compassion and diligence. Our strategies on all sides to date have been about winning (as indicated in the recent passage of the canon making ordination of women to the priesthood mandatory).

Presiding Bishop-Elect Frank Griswold has quite a job ahead of him. I am sure he already is being given strategies and advice galore. I would urge him to consider strategies 4 and 6 above as priorities. Moreover, I would hope he would consider two human role models. One is Augustine of Canterbury, who navigated difficult pastoral waters with such grace and faithfulness that the witness of the English church in the early middle ages was profound.

The other, a recent departed neighbor and brother of his, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, was committed to loving and respectful dialogue. I am certain Bishop Griswold knows the faithfulness of this servant of the church, and like Bernardin and Augustine, Bishop Griswold can be an instrument of repair and renewal in undertaking new strategies for the building up of Christ's Church. o

The Rev. Kevin Francis Donlon is rector of St. Mary's Church and School in Tampa, Fla.