Why Episcopal? Part III: Episcopal and Emergent

                  

Last night Kate and I attended the first class of a three part series at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on exploring our Anglo-Catholic identity (more on Anglo-Catholicism in a later post).  Part of the material that we covered last night was looking broadly at the characteristics that describe Episcopal spirituality and temperament.  As we discussed these characteristics what stood out to me was that these characteristics could just as easily describe the Emerging Church.  Also, it is because of these characteristics that I find myself at home in the Episcopal Church. 

Here are the characteristics, I’m I right?  This list is taken from St. Paul’s Websitewhich used the work of John Westerhoff.

Episcopal Spirituality:

Liturgical/Biblical: Book of Common Prayer.

Communal: Communal prayer comes before and shapes personal prayer.

Sacramental: The material world is capable of mediating the grace of God.  Baptism and Eucharist are highly emphasized.

Incarnational: God became flesh; the created world and all of its creatures are good, the extraordinary is found in the ordinary.

Mystical: Union with God is the telos of a long, progressive journey. 

Episcopal Temperament:

Comprehensive: Truth is found in the tension between counter-opposites: sacred/secular, material/non-material, mind/heart, God’s transcendence/immanence.

Ambiguous: Not “black and white”; life is ambiguous and complex.

Open-minded: A questioning faith; wisdom is found in listening to others and being honest with our doubts.

Intuitive: Episcopal theology is best represented by writers, poets, pastors and musicians with images, symbols, myths, rituals and the arts.

Aesthetic: Beauty is the doorway to truth and goodness and that beauty is a doorway to God.

Moderate: Godly life is one that is disciplined, balanced and temperate.

Naturalistic: Reverence for nature and its rhythms; care for the natural world.

Political: Christian life has political implications that encourages participation in civic life.

So this leads me to wonder: “How could the Episcopal Church and the Emergent Church work together?”  The Episcopal Church has wisdom, tried and true traditions and practices, and resources.  The Emergent Church has people who are under the age of 35 .  Seems like a match made in heaven to me.  Actually, there is much more to be said about how these two groups could benefit each other, but that will have to wait for another day.