Who are the theologians?

I have come to realize over the past several years why I am Anglican. By its nature Anglicanism is Catholic (as in Roman Catholic) and Protestant. It is a faith describes and uncertain and ambiguous by its detractors and as willing to live with uncertainty and ambiguity by its proponents. One thing was always stressed to me as I learned about the faith: no one claimed to have all the answers and all the Truth. I also learned that I needed to be a theologian. Fredrica Harris Thompsett wrote We are Theologians in 1994 to address the need for the laity to have and be theologians and to nourish their own spirituality.

I will quote segments from her book, now in reprint, over the next weeks.


Chapter 1. Gods Work and Ours.
A Voyage of Discovery

"What does it mean to be Christian today? .........Questions proliferate when we set out to discover our mission. What is our mission as members of a local congregation, as participants in a Christian denomination, as part of Christianity worldwide? What do we believe about the nature and purpose of the church? What is our theology, our doctrine about membership in a church? What images of the church inspire us, and what images oppress us? What hopes do we have for the mission, the ethical character, of the church in a new decade, indeed, of all Christians in a new millennium?"

These are hard questions. If we were to go to a seminary the term that would be applied is ecclesiology. This is the formal theological term for understanding the nature of the church. Whether you have thought about it or not, if you are a Christian you have your own ecclesiology. Thompsett goes on to discuss that the above questions are all things that the laity must answer for themselves. We must not identify the church with what the ordained do. She refers to it as a "clerical reservation" that only the ordained can understand.

Thompsett is a historian. At this point she stresses the need to remember: remember our stories, remember the stories in the Bible are the stories of a people, not a few chosen leaders. Our collective memory becomes crucial.

I welcome your comments.

The next segment will be "Standing the Bible on Its Feet"

We can't run

A MESSAGE FROM FATHER GEHLSEN:

As we journey through the Easter Season, we await the Ascension of Jesus.  He is in preparation for leaving the earth and turning his ministry over to his apostles and disciple.  For these followers this was a very scary set of circumstances.

They had already experienced Jesus leaving them through his death.  They ran as most of us would when someone dear to us is dead.  We are sorrowful and sad, so you can imagine what they felt when they saw him after the resurrection.  Now they have go through it again, only to have Jesus physically leave and no longer be in their presence

What they had difficulty with was knowing that Jesus wasn't leaving them.  He gave them the tools, authority and power to carry on.  Their minuscule faith lead them to believe they were again alone.

Doesn't this sound familiar, even to the point of running away from our call to ministry.  We may say, "We are to busy;" Let someone else more qualified do it;" "I really don't want any part of it!"  We really can't run. We have to face the call and act on it as Jesus is with us in risen form to give us the tools and means to bring his death and resurrection event to all those we come in contact with.

God bless you!

Fr. Tom