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I'm deep into packing and loading preparation...I've been marking out a space in my apartment the size of the truck I reserved. So far I think it'll work out fine. I think. Prayers, good wishes, crossed fingers and whatnot all welcome here. Not that I need all this stuff, but I'd hate to be sitting on the front lawn of my building on Monday morn, sifting out what's to be tossed. I now wish that I'd quit my magazine job a week earlier. Don't get me wrong...I enjoy it. But I'd like to have a bit more time. And now for something completely different... Working for a magazine that's usually knee-deep in stories about anger over General Convention (for non-Anglican readers, I refer to the decision by the Episcopal Church to consecrate an openly gay bishop) I've been thinking over the subject of unity during disagreement. The Cathedral has a staunch Prayer Book Society leader in the congregation...she's a very active member of the group who disapproved of the Episcopal Church's 1979 Book of Common Prayer and who would like to see us return to the 1928 version. Yet there she is, among the most faithful in attendance at even the more obscure feast days, praying out of the 1979 BCP. (though some wags claim she's praying over it rather than from it!) I have to admire her for disagreeing vehemently with the new prayer book, but still using it loyally every Sunday. She stands for what she stands for, but she stands in communion, tied to the body by something larger than the form of worship. Anglicans are united first and foremost (some would say solely) by common prayer. If an Anglican can overcome tinkering in the liturgy (and remember I'm not talking about someone who just prefers the 1928 book but rather one who is actively trying to bring it back into use) then issues of sexuality ought not tear the church asunder. Yet even if we do manage to utterly fragment our little corner of Christ's church it's comforting to know that as members of the Body of Christ we're a people of resurrection. Jesus compared his body to the Jerusalem Temple, telling us that as the Temple would be scattered so his body would be destroyed. But he also promised that the Temple would be rebuilt. While a literal interpretation might lead one to wonder just when the old Temple Mount would see new construction, a deeper reading suggests that we are the stones to be reassembled into the Temple of Christ. As Origen suggests in his Commentary on the Gospel of John, "even though the harmonious fitting of the stones of the temple appear to be dissolved and scattered�yet the temple will be raised again, and the body will rise again on the third day." He goes on to assert that "the resurrection of the Saviour from the passion of the cross contains the mystery of the resurrection of the whole body of Christ." So like it or not, we will be brought together, as members of one Body and stones in one Temple, to the glory of God. Which Prayer Book we�ll use once that happens is still a matter of debate. |
