Coburn Talks with Vache
Diocesan Press Service. April 30, 1973 [73110]
PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- The Rev. Dr. John B. Coburn, rector of St. James' Episcopal Church, New York City and president of the House of Deputies, General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, met here April 11th with Trinity's rector, the Rev. C. Charles Vache, an elected diocesan deputy to the 1973 General Convention to be held September 29th through October 11th in Louisville, Kentucky.
Vache expressed the issues and concerns of the Diocese of Southern Virginia in relation to the Episcopal Church in the United States, one being the effective transmission of the creative spirit of General Convention to the diocese.
Fourth Convocation brought Dr. Coburn here to Trinity for a Lenten series of meditations on contemporary prayer in which he shared excerpts from his new book, A Life to Live -- A Way to Pray. The event was open to men, women and youth of the diocese and their friends.
The essence of the Coburn-Vache discussion follows:
Father Vache: The Diocese of Southern Virginia is fulfilling its obligation even less so now than it has in past years, as evidenced by significant financial cut-backs, especially to the national church. Do you have any comment on this ?
Dr. Coburn: That is a trend in this diocese which is contrary to the trend of the national church, where the response has now, apparently, not only leveled off and bottomed off, but there has in the past year been an upswing in giving. The whole process that the Executive Council has gone through on the matter of the hearings and the going back to the grassroots and asking that the churches on the regional and diocesan level identify the issues that they feel are important to the program of the church -- all that has been publicized in The Episcopalian, with emphasis on evangelism, education, communication and renewal.
All of this, I think, has tended to bring about a sense of rapprochement between the national church and the dioceses on a deeper level than has been characteristic of the past, anyway. So, in terms of dollars, if the year 1973 turns out to be, as it apparently will be, a stronger year than 1972, then it would be my hope that we could go into Convention with some accession of strength and looking forward with a greater degree of hope and expectancy that the church might really become what it's really supposed to be: a body together, not riven. That means we have to support one another. And I don't think it's just a matter of dioceses supporting the national church; from one point of view the national church exists only for the sake of the dioceses. And there's some nice scriptural support that when we are members of one another, we rejoice when one rejoices; when we suffer, others suffer; and the more we can rejoice together, the better!
Father Vache: Do you see signs of spiritual renewal going on within the church?
Dr. Coburn: I don't think there is any question about it. I'm quite sure that the Spirit is moving amongst the people of the church and of our society, for that matter. It's not just a renewal in the Episcopal Church, but a sensitivity to those things that are unseen, but real and eternal, and people are searching to be in touch with those things in a way that certainly was not true five or ten years ago. And that takes forms of everything, I think, from a renewed sense of what the sacramental life is to a renewed sense of the Spirit in the Pentecostal movement. The Spirit seems to be no respector of traditional forms of churchmanship or even theologies. There is a movement of the Spirit on this personal level that takes different forms that are genuine and terribly encouraging. If only we can respond to the Spirit individually, as we know we ought to!
Father Vache: Do you think this will be evident at General Convention?
Dr. Coburn: The last two General Conventions, particularly at South Bend, have been a little turbulent. But, I must say that, even so, I believe there has been really a very genuine movement of the Spirit in those conventions, and people, on the whole, made decisions in accordance with what they believed the Spirit to demand of them -- this came towards the end after many expressions of opinions and prejudice had been made.
I think that there has been a very good spirit at General Conventions and I just hope that that is going to be more evident in Louisville. As you may know, there is going to be a change of format for the worship for the General Convention so that there will be daily services, a half hour each day, for all three houses to worship together, rather than have the individual houses worshiping separately. I think that the fact that this is being done now is indicative of the Spirit moving to bring us more and more together.
Father Vache: Well, I would agree with this from the fact that I went to Miami and St. Louis and Detroit, and they certainly were deadly, dull conventions; and, since Seattle and South Bend, there has been an entirely different spirit, and I think, a much more creative spirit at the conventions. Now, unfortunately, I don't think this has been carried into the dioceses and local churches. Do you think Grassroots is going to do this? How do you think this spirit can be accurately transmitted?
Dr. Coburn: I think that whatever the decisions arrived at at Convention, it is important to transmit them back to the diocese just as soon as possible, perhaps in accordance with the same principle that the church is undertaking as we approach the Convention.
If we do not establish a continuing face to face communication amongst the members of the church, particularly the national church and the diocesan church, misunderstandings will inevitably come up, so I hope that the Executive Council will take the initiative as soon as possible to assume responsibility for communicating the effects and the reasons; I think that will carry whatever the decisions are.
Father Vache: You have been dean of a seminary and then you taught in Harlem Street Academies for a year after that before you became rector of St. James'; these are some tremendous pulls you had in different directions. Could you give us a little bit of what effect this had on you? They should give you a well rounded look at the various facets of ministry with a breadth that few churchmen have.
Dr. Coburn: There are three things, I think, in those three events that I participated in that have meant a tremendous amount to me.
Of course, the community of the Episcopal Theological School and the insistence upon the necessity for the truth of the Gospel to be dealt with, wrestled with, on as deep a level as human beings are able to deal with it is the first one. So much of the Gospel is understood to be entirely a feeling matter of sensitivity and it's either eternally true -- the rock -- or, it's not. Therefore, that whole academic, intellectual real wrestling with the mystery of God is one aspect of the thing that is so important.
But if it is only academic, that is not enough, and the year of teaching in Harlem was an exposure to social ills on a level that I had never shared before -- not just racism, or poverty, or drugs, or dislocated families, or unemployment or crime, although all of those were involved -- but to be participating day after day with a small group, almost entirely black and absolutely dedicated young men and women, to provide knowledge for the young people of the central Harlem area -- that was a wonderfully emancipating and reaffirming experience for me -- to know that there were those who, themselves, had been brought up in the ghetto situation, had been able to move ahead in American society, and who were not going to do anything except to affirm the young people who belonged to them.
Now, so far as the middle class Episcopal church is concerned, the church is essentially a congregation of people who gather together to worship God and therefore I can't imagine the church without the parish as the very fundamental center to it. Have all the other structures, all the other official ministries, but when just the ordinary human beings who have an allegiance to the Episcopal Church worship together, and talk together and disagree together and try to serve one another in order that they may serve their community and the world. This congregational life is where the real vibrancy of the Christian life is, it seems to me.
I just consider myself very terribly fortunate to have had those three kinds of experiences!