Ok, I know this is borderline blasphemous (or fully so, for some).  And, it is far easier to deconstruct than to construct – but on this first day of vacation I wonder why we really need bishops in the church and what it is, exactly, that they do (constructively, anyway), or should do – other than being some existential image of the church universal.  In 19 years of ordained life I’ve served under four bishops and the best seemed to simply follow the dictum: “first, do no harm.”

Perhaps it is the colossal failure of the episcopal office these past 40+ years.  Perhaps it is the abusive and corrosive overreach of the crusading riders of the purple shirt.  Perhaps it is the failure (thus far, anyway) to construct a unified North American Anglicanism bereft of organizational and positional protectionism.  Or, I might just be cranky and in need of a vacation.  However, when I read this article (linked below) this morning it had me humming along with Lennon . . . Imagine.  Of course, when I passed it along to a collegue he was worried about me “throwing out the baby with the bath water” – a disappointingly unimaginative rejoinder.

As an Anglican priest I understand (and assent to) the place of the historic episcopacy within Anglicanism. Equally, I recognize that the meltdown of Anglicanism in the West has been the product of all four orders of ministry.  Yet when I look at the damage inflicted by the episcopal order through incompetency, the instinct toward acts of institutional self-preservation and through acts of commission and omission, there are days (like today) when I wonder if the energy necessary to reform the church might be better spent with a wholesale reordering of the church.  So, on this first day of vacation, why is the historic episcopacy necessary and what should the remit of the office entail?

Here’s a snip from the aforementioned article:

This “apostolic succession” is the Ouija board theory of Christian communication – “Peter – are you there?” – and an absurd basis for any authority. It is nonetheless the only reason why bishops should exist in either gender, and the quarrel about female bishops ignores the fact that it’s the office itself that stinks. Serious-minded people who want to get on ecclesiastically presumably cross fingers behind backs when kneeling before a bishop while waiting for a dollop of heaven to drop down.

Greek and Russian Orthodox, Egyptian Copts, Armenians, German Lutherans, American Methodists, and Roman Catholics: all join the Anglicans in liking bishops. And the office’s antiquity can seem persuasive. Christianity may seem difficult and odd, but its churches have been around for ages, and the ubiquity of the bishop is something to hang on to in challenging times. There’s still, though, an obsessive quality about the Anglican attachment to episcopacy.

Here’s the rest.

to the next generation:

What do you think?

A few weeks ago, at Christendom College, Dr. Charles Rice, professor emeritus, Notre Dame Law School, gave the commencement address.  It was magnificent.  On a side note, our (St. Andrew’s) Financial Controller’s son was the Valedictorian at Christendom and his address followed Dr. Rice’s – how’d you like to do that?

Here a snip from Dr. Rice’s address:

So what can I tell you? This is a time of crises. The economy is a mess, the culture is a mess, the government is out of control. And, in the last three years, Notre Dame lost 21 football games. But this is a great time for us to be here, especially you graduates of this superbly Catholic college. This is so because the remedy for the general meltdown today is found only in Christ and in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Let’s talk bluntly about our situation and what you can do about it.

Here’s the rest.

We’re waist deep in planning for the next ministry year.  The past few weeks the staff has been working with a few vestry-members on a new template aimed at clarifying and measuring our objectives or, if we were in a different world, our “key bets” for the next year.  Being in this mode of thought, Greg Shore passed along to me a nice article, “How to Lead without a Title,” addressing elements necessary for success in leadership.  Here’s a snip:

I asked Robin which of the many strategies and tactics are most helpful to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Here’s how he responded:  Focus on five. “Over the past number of years I have studied the traits of people most consider geniuses. One of the things geniuses do is to develop an obsessive focus around a few things. Most businesspeople try to be all things to all people and as a result end up as members of the cult of mediocrity. The essence of mastery is being obsessively great around about five things.

“So, articulate the five things that need to happen between now and the last day of your career to feel you led a world-class career. Then every day, focus first on those five things. Small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results.”

Read the rest.

Archbishop Duncan gave a very good update on the ongoing development of the ACNA.  Included were comments on the Global South to South meeting, the meeting with the CofE Synod, the AMiA’s change of status within the ACNA, the upcoming ACNA provincial meeting and the development of two new ACNA diocese.  Very encouraging.

Church planting has been on my mind quite a bit these days.  In the course of thinking through the hows, whens, whys and wheres I ran across this Christianity Today interview with AMiA bishop Todd Hunter.  Todd’s ministry has been on my radar screen most of my life.  Having been heavily influenced by The Vineyard, Todd’s ministry in The Vineyard, especially as a church planter, was well known to me.  Through my work with Alpha USA I had the chance to work with Todd and get to know him.  He has blessed me more than he’ll ever know.

Here’s the interview:

TH:  Anybody today who wants to be a seeker and follow God in the way of Jesus is going to want a religion to practice. I’m wondering if Anglicanism and other streams grounded in spiritual practices aren’t going to be used by God in a way they have not been used since frontier America and Wesley.

America is going to become increasingly secular and hostile to the church. But what will build the bridge to whatever authentic Christianity emerges next is going to be a serious practiced Christianity. I think there’s going to be a revival of religion.

CT:  You will be planting churches in some pretty unchurched places. How Anglican will those churches look?

TH: We’re going to engineer these churches backwards from missional and pastoral concerns. They will be Anglican in theology and Anglican in polity, but they may not look Anglican.

Read it all.

May 19, 2010
Dear Christ Church family,

I am writing to inform you that I will be retiring as your rector September 1, 2010. With the encouragement and support of our wardens and vestry, I will not be returning after my sabbatical and vacation this Summer. May 30 will be my last Sunday at Christ Church.

Nine years ago Clancy Wolliver called for the vestry and search committee to invite me to be your rector. It was a dream come true, and Ellen, our children and I all felt it was God’s calling. Ministering among you at Christ Church has been the most spiritually demanding and fulfilling years of my 29 years as an Episcopal priest. Thank you for your amazing and generous support when my family and I needed you, for your patience when I failed you, and for your steadfast commitment to God and his Word. It has been an honor to serve one of the really great congregations in The Episcopal Church. For my failures and successes, I have loved you, the people of Christ Church.

I’m sure it will not surprise anyone that my decision to take early retirement is because of a crisis of conscience. Even though I was born and raised in The Episcopal Church, it has moved further and further away from the Gospel to which I committed my life and I have concluded that there is no future for me in this spiritual environment.

As for the future of Christ Church, you continue to be served exceptionally well by the best clergy and staff I have ever worked with. They are absolutely extraordinary, loyal and hardworking. When I retire, the Senior Warden and vestry will become the ecclesiastical authority in accordance with our Bylaws and with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, and I’m sure the bishop and vestry will in good time initiate a search for a new Rector. I pray that God will send someone who loves you, who will have the respect of a great staff, and who will preach the power of God’s Word.

As for me and Ellen, please pray for us. I look forward to my sabbatical leave this summer. As you know, it was planned more than a year before my decision to retire. It may sound strange, but I will be focusing on reading and writing poetry, something that is deeply fulfilling to me at this point in my life. I trust it will be a chance to also pray and assess my future in God’s service. I love the Anglican heritage and I plan to devote my last years to serving God as an Anglican priest. I take with me deep and treasured memories of the times I have been with you in hospital rooms and homes, for baptisms, prayer services for sick friends and funerals, Bible studies through Daniel and Romans with passing references to Obadiah, and the privileged times I had your attention when I was in the pulpit.

This is the most difficult decision I have faced in ministry. Ellen and I have prayed hard and long about this and believe it is God’s will. I am especially grateful for a few friends who walked closely with me, who bought me untold numbers of beers (over a long period of time!), who fought for the concerns of my family and my retirement, and who never gave up on me. I am thankful for many others of you who prayed for me and for Christ Church regularly.

Please continue praying for me as I pray for you. I truly believe that “We have scarcely begun to see all of God that the Scriptures give us to see, and what we have not yet seen is exceedingly glorious” (John Piper).

Faithfully,

Chuck Collins
Rector

This past Monday was our first Vestry business meeting since our affiliation with ACNA.  We had our normal Vestry prayer meeting on the 2nd Monday of the month – but this was the first business meeting.  And, for the first time in the 9 1/2 years I’ve been rector at SAMP we did NOT discuss TEC at our Vestry meeting.  Nor did we discuss property issues, legal issues, employment contracts, 501(c)(3)’s, trusts, asset protection, by-laws, articles of incorporation or parishoner departures for other biblically faithful denominations/churches.

It was oddly delightful.

Odd because for the first time we realized how just much of our time and energy had been devoted to such things – even though we had held before one another – and the parish – the message and practice of “keeping the main thing the main thing.”

Instead, we talked about our understanding that the church does not have a mission, rather, the mission has a church.  And in light of this we looked ahead into the next ministry year at the questions of where and when to plant a new church(es), the deveolopment of our worship arts ministry/offerings and the engagement with a process of establishing St. Andrew’s as a site for formal Christian education – preferrably in partnership with an accredited organization such at St. Paul’s Theological Centre in which we’d function more formally as the local hub for regional training.  Then we put feet to intention and formed a Vestry team to work with the staff as we develop a strategic plan so that we might effectively pursue these hopes and dreams birthed within our hearts.

At the end of our  2+ hours of discussion my Jr. Warden, smiling, said it was the best conversation we’d had in a few years.  By the time I got home another one of my Vestrymen had texted me:  ”It felt good tonight, I don’t mind 2 hour meetings when we’re actually making progress.  Thank God we’re back to focusing on our true mission.”

Thank God, indeed.

And it did feel good.

The Diocese of Durham website announced earlier this morning that NT Wright, Bishop of the Diocese of Durham is stepping down as Bishop effective 31 August.  Dr. Wright, noted New Testament scholar, author and speaker will assume a new appointment at Research Professor of New Testament and Early Chritianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.  Announcing his decison Bishop Wright said:

This has been the hardest decision of my life. It has been an indescribable privilege to be Bishop of the ancient Diocese of Durham, to work with a superb team of colleagues, to take part in the work of God’s kingdom here in the north-east, and to represent the region and its churches in the House of Lords and in General Synod. I have loved the people, the place, the heritage and the work. But my continuing vocation to be a writer, teacher and broadcaster, for the benefit (I hope) of the wider world and church, has been increasingly difficult to combine with the complex demands and duties of a diocesan bishop. I am very sad about this, but the choice has become increasingly clear.

Ruth Gledhill, writing in The Times had this to say:

The leading bishop for the evangelical centre, NT Wright, Bishop of Durham, is returning to academia, taking a chair at St Andrew’s. He is 61 and could in theory have remained at Durham until he was 70. As one of the top five, he carries authority by virtue of his position but also has added value by virtue of his skills of communication and of intellect. He will be badly missed by his troubled church. Professor Ivor Davidson at St Andrews said, ‘Tom Wright ranks among the most distinguished New Testament scholars in the world, and his profile as a churchman, writer and communicator is simply outstanding. I am delighted that he will be joining us at St Andrews, where he will further enhance the long-established reputation of the School of Divinity as a major international centre of biblical and theological scholarship.’ So why is he going?

Interesting as well, though unrelated to this decision, has been the ongoing discussion over Wright’s re-presentation of justification.  The February 2010 issue of Tabletalk, published by Ligioner Ministries, was devoted to the current controversy surrounding Dr. Wright’s take on the doctrine of justification.  Contributors include D.A. Carson, Michael Horton and Albert Mohler among others.  You can click through the articles here.

Chuck Lawless, Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at Southern Seminary, writes:

I served as a church pastor for 14 years, have now served for 12 years as a church consultant and have watched hundreds of students begin their local church ministries during my 14 years as a seminary professor. Based on my observations from these various vantage points, here’s what I would do if I wanted to “blow up” a church.

Read the rest.