pray for miracles

something that soothed my heart.

Episcopalians need a miracle to keep church from shattering

By RAY WADDLE

Published: Saturday, 04/15/06

Opinion

Easter arrives tomorrow as a rare moment of unity among local Episcopalians, maybe one of their last.

A denomination, to which I belong, divided over sexuality and tradition, presumably will lay aside frustrations for something bigger, the ancient news that Jesus rose from the dead.

It took a miracle, the Resurrection, to start the Christian church. It will take another to save the Episcopal Church from shattering. Other mainline Protestants face the same vexing question, whether to invite homosexuals into the full life of the church, allowing openly gay men or lesbians to be ministers and bishops.

In the Diocese of Tennessee, turmoil is symbolized by deadlocked attempts to elect a new bishop and envision a common future.

Twice this year, delegates have failed to muster the necessary two-third votes for any bishop candidate from the slate of four. Conservative-oriented lay delegates vote one way, left-leaning clergy go another. "Progressive" and "orthodox" are organized, eager to rehearse grievances.

The next vote is May 6. If no one is elected then to succeed retiring Bishop Bertram Herlong, delegates could try again in summer or reject the slate and restart a laborious search for new nominees.

Complicating the picture is the denomination's looming June meeting in Columbus, Ohio, where delegates face the possibility of endorsing a gay bishop, if California Episcopalians elect one May 6. There's talk of a moratorium on ratifying such elections; otherwise, conservatives will bolt. Some left after 2003, when the denomination accepted gay bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, stirring revulsion across world Anglicanism, especially in Africa (Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch).

Conservative Episcopal organizations are vying to be the legitimate Anglican voice in America. They say liberal leaders, by endorsing a gay bishop, forfeited their right to speak for the mainstream church. The left says conservatism compromised its moral voice long ago with resistance to civil rights, then women's ordination and now gay orientation.

For decades, churches have been helplessly enticed into America's ideological wars: abortion, Iraq, tax cuts, ecology, the meaning of the Bible. It's all about winning. In ideological battle, as in pro wrestling, people demand a swaggering winner and a humiliated loser.

Yet tomorrow, packed congregations will hear news of Resurrection, a divine action in history, unpredictable, illogical, holy. Modern methods of religious success — speed-dialing activists, demonizing enemies, nurturing fantasies of doctrinal purity — aren't working. In a society that cannot stop talking about sex, it's time delegates did something unpredictable. Read the Gospels together, not skipping the love-thy-enemy part. Visit a prison. Dance to Celtic music. Imagine the image of God in everyone. "Church" means this: Easter miracles are stronger than power politics.

Published: Saturday, 04/15/06