Most Rev. Theodore Feldmann
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” John 12:24
“See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the wilderness I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.” Isaiah 43:19
“What has been passing for Christianity during these many centuries is merely a beginning, full of weaknesses and mistakes, not a full-grown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus.” Albert Schweitzer
Phyllis Tickle, in her book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why (Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI), makes a solid case for the idea that we (Christians, particularly in the West) are in the midst of a major reformation, a phenomenon that she believes happens every 500 years (more or less):
- 500 years back from our own time: The Great Reformation, for which she assigns the date of October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his theses on the door of the chapel at Wittenberg.
- 500 years before that: The Great Schism, 1054, when the pope of Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople had their anathemas and bulls, the split between the Eastern and Western churches.
- 500 years before that: “The Fall of the Roman Empire,” or “The Coming of the Dark Ages,” when, in 590, Pope (Saint) Gregory I, “cleaned up,” the upheaval of his time and built it into “a kind of ecclesia-political coherence, building on the work of St. Benedict.”
And of course there was the great upheaval 500 years before that when Jesus was born and Christianity began to develop (circa 33 AD), the beginnings of what became a major world religion in a world already filled with religions.
My own observation of our times suggests to me that the late Ms. Tickle is correct. I believe that it started in the mid 1960s. The COVID pandemic hastened the process. And I believe that things are moving faster in that direction as we move further into the 21st century. The evidence is there.
As I write this, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is closing 30 churches in the city of Baltimore, all at one time! The Diocese of Buffalo is doing the same, as will Los Angeles. St. Louis has already done so. The Episcopal dioceses in Wisconsin are discussing moving from 3 dioceses to one. The Episcopal cathedrals in Wilmington, DE, and Providence, RI, have closed. Small neighborhood churches around the country are struggling or dying.
On a personal level, I felt this when the Presbyterian church where I grew up closed in 1996 and is now a Latino Assembly of God. The historic Church of the Holy Communion in New York City, where I was the organist in 1972, is now a health club. And it’s not just the so called “mainline.” The Pew Research Institute points out that even mega churches are losing members, particularly among the young.
I believe in evolution including the evolution of human consciousness. At our recent convocation, I took us through a series of quotes that I believe point out that religion is a necessary part of the evolution of human consciousness and it must continue to evolve to be healthy, as the great Albert Schweitzer points out in the quote at the top of the article. It darn well better! Because there are things about our current religious world that are extremely unhealthy. We find ourselves with religious institutions that are very broken. One might even say, sick. The late John McNeill, a former Jesuit, calls us to reflect on this:
“We are all called to be aware of the state of our faith, to strengthen what is healthy in it and to diminish what is sick and neurotic. We can legitimately evaluate the validity of a religious belief system by its psychological consequences. Good theology will result in good psychology and vice versa.”
Science tells us that when we die, the material that makes up your body and mine is not lost - not one bit of it - but returns to the earth and is “born again.” Doesn’t that sound just like Ash Wednesday! We are indeed dust and to dust we shall return. But that is not the end of the story. I think that is also true of our religious heritage. It must evolve and there are aspects of it that will die in the process. But they are not lost.
Independent Catholics often suffer from what Bishop David Oliver Kling calls, “imposter syndrome,” in which we are constantly comparing ourselves to the Roman Catholic Church, or, in some cases, the Anglicans. I suggest that the time has come for us all to stop doing that. We don’t need to look backward quite so much, especially not for approval. We have inherited great traditions, wisdom, and apostolic succession from them. That remains with us. We cherish those things and claim them. They are part of who we are. None of it will be lost. We can, rather, look forward. Is this, on some level, what Jesus means by saying, “Let the dead bury the dead?”
While we can learn from it, are we overly concerned by and shaped by the past? Or are we doing our small part (in a new and technological age) to plant seeds for the future of an evolving, healthier, Christianity? Hiding those seeds in a pouch does no one any good. They must be planted and nurtured to bear fruit.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” John 12:24
“See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the wilderness I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.” Isaiah 43:19
“What has been passing for Christianity during these many centuries is merely a beginning, full of weaknesses and mistakes, not a full-grown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus.” Albert Schweitzer
Phyllis Tickle, in her book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why (Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI), makes a solid case for the idea that we (Christians, particularly in the West) are in the midst of a major reformation, a phenomenon that she believes happens every 500 years (more or less):
- 500 years back from our own time: The Great Reformation, for which she assigns the date of October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his theses on the door of the chapel at Wittenberg.
- 500 years before that: The Great Schism, 1054, when the pope of Rome and the patriarch of Constantinople had their anathemas and bulls, the split between the Eastern and Western churches.
- 500 years before that: “The Fall of the Roman Empire,” or “The Coming of the Dark Ages,” when, in 590, Pope (Saint) Gregory I, “cleaned up,” the upheaval of his time and built it into “a kind of ecclesia-political coherence, building on the work of St. Benedict.”
And of course there was the great upheaval 500 years before that when Jesus was born and Christianity began to develop (circa 33 AD), the beginnings of what became a major world religion in a world already filled with religions.
My own observation of our times suggests to me that the late Ms. Tickle is correct. I believe that it started in the mid 1960s. The COVID pandemic hastened the process. And I believe that things are moving faster in that direction as we move further into the 21st century. The evidence is there.
As I write this, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is closing 30 churches in the city of Baltimore, all at one time! The Diocese of Buffalo is doing the same, as will Los Angeles. St. Louis has already done so. The Episcopal dioceses in Wisconsin are discussing moving from 3 dioceses to one. The Episcopal cathedrals in Wilmington, DE, and Providence, RI, have closed. Small neighborhood churches around the country are struggling or dying.
On a personal level, I felt this when the Presbyterian church where I grew up closed in 1996 and is now a Latino Assembly of God. The historic Church of the Holy Communion in New York City, where I was the organist in 1972, is now a health club. And it’s not just the so called “mainline.” The Pew Research Institute points out that even mega churches are losing members, particularly among the young.
I believe in evolution including the evolution of human consciousness. At our recent convocation, I took us through a series of quotes that I believe point out that religion is a necessary part of the evolution of human consciousness and it must continue to evolve to be healthy, as the great Albert Schweitzer points out in the quote at the top of the article. It darn well better! Because there are things about our current religious world that are extremely unhealthy. We find ourselves with religious institutions that are very broken. One might even say, sick. The late John McNeill, a former Jesuit, calls us to reflect on this:
“We are all called to be aware of the state of our faith, to strengthen what is healthy in it and to diminish what is sick and neurotic. We can legitimately evaluate the validity of a religious belief system by its psychological consequences. Good theology will result in good psychology and vice versa.”
Science tells us that when we die, the material that makes up your body and mine is not lost - not one bit of it - but returns to the earth and is “born again.” Doesn’t that sound just like Ash Wednesday! We are indeed dust and to dust we shall return. But that is not the end of the story. I think that is also true of our religious heritage. It must evolve and there are aspects of it that will die in the process. But they are not lost.
Independent Catholics often suffer from what Bishop David Oliver Kling calls, “imposter syndrome,” in which we are constantly comparing ourselves to the Roman Catholic Church, or, in some cases, the Anglicans. I suggest that the time has come for us all to stop doing that. We don’t need to look backward quite so much, especially not for approval. We have inherited great traditions, wisdom, and apostolic succession from them. That remains with us. We cherish those things and claim them. They are part of who we are. None of it will be lost. We can, rather, look forward. Is this, on some level, what Jesus means by saying, “Let the dead bury the dead?”
While we can learn from it, are we overly concerned by and shaped by the past? Or are we doing our small part (in a new and technological age) to plant seeds for the future of an evolving, healthier, Christianity? Hiding those seeds in a pouch does no one any good. They must be planted and nurtured to bear fruit.
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