We see develop rather quickly in the Church within the New Testament people, often ‘virgins and widows,’ who are ‘set apart’ for what we might call ‘full time ministry.’ (The terms are anachronistic to be sure, but just roll with me) So we see from a very early point a ‘mixed economy’ of forms of life in the Church. Some work and produce and give, and some ‘mend tents’ while still doing such ‘full time ministry,’ but is has always been deemed necessary to have a group of people dedicated to the life of the Church who are fully dependent on her life, but who alone can give a fuller expression to her life. We would be incomplete without the virgins and widows. The development of monasticism and the incredible importance of the religous throughout our history only testify all the more to this.
Though not quite as prominent as it once was (or so it seems to me anyway), it is not at all uncommon to see a Roman Catholic parish system, including schools and ministry to the poor, supported by small groups of monks and/or nuns (heck we could even include the celibate priesthood here).
Yet, despite this decline, there has been developing since at least the Jesus People Movement, communities of Protestants who in rough ways approximate this mixed economy of life. Anglicanism too has a small but not unimportant religious life – though we might pray for this to grow all the more. Among the developments has been the flowering of “new monasticism” and “intentional communities.”
If, as I have said, the fullness of the Church’s life requires a group of people set apart from “working life,” then I wonder if we ought to be trying to test whether new monastic and intentional communities could serve an analogous function as the religous within our parish structures. Maybe there would be only a few single parishes that could support such a group, but would it not be possible to imagine a relatively close group of parishes contribute together to support such a community for the sake of their own life? I don’t see why not. In fact I think this could be quite life-giving.
There are more than a few logistical questions that arise, but I have some ideas, and I imagine many others have some too. This is a topic I’d love to explore more here. So let’s tentatively consider this an ‘introductory’ post that could flower into more. These also could see some strong overlap with my continuing reflections on seminaries.
“What Do You Want Anglimergent To Be?”
January 8, 2011
A few days ago I was browsing around at the Anglimergent site and came to realize that I didn’t have a profile there. This was a surprise to me as I thought I had signed up so I went ahead and created one. One of the questions they ask you is “What Do You Want Anglimergent To Be?” Now we could nitpick and point out that the more important question is, “What does God want Anglimergent to be (provided that God has an opinion on the matter)?;” but that’s not where I want to go, not least since the original question doesn’t preclude the second. This is what I put:
“I’d really love to see Anglimergent resist the anti-institutionalism of many other emerging groups and be a renewal movement for TEC as a denomination. We need priests who can do more for rural and struggling parishes than simply let them die easily. And so we should resist the easy temptation to “attract” only like-minded young adults.”
In a way, as I reflected on my answer, I want Anglimergent simply to be the Church, or, if you’d like, to continue to become the Church – more humbly, to be a part of the Church as it becomes what God calls it to become. I want it desperately to avoid the agist naval-gazing ethos I often perceive in the “Emerging Church” (understood broadly).
I think I was prepared for this question in part because of some nose poking I was doing electronically around the Episcopal parishes in Minnesota. I’ll have more to say about this snooping soon but for the purposes of this post I was noticing that there are Episcopal parishes in places as remote as International Falls, Warroad and Hallock. This set me to wondering…how old are the priests there? What do those parishes look like demographically? Who do I know my age who feels called to the priesthood and who would be willing to serve in some small obscure parish in the middle of nowhere?
It was with this in mind that I came to the Anglimergent site and I realized, yeah, if we deep down want to see Anglimergent be a group of 25-35 yr old mostly white (cheers Karen Ward!) folk who are really into craft beers, indie rock and Anglican plainchant -that is, a church of the like minded, of the market – then it’s a group I’d feel quite at home in, but it’s not a group that has a heart turned toward a catholic church composed of young and old, black and white, etc… But if we were to want it to be a group of energetic Episcopalians who are dedicated to parish renewal, to ever making the tradition strange and new and to following calls to places where we’re needed, being missional in a full sense – then that’s a group I can really get behind and be willing to put energy into. I hasten to add that looks around discussion pages on the site are encouraging!
Tony Hunt
jstambaugh
Shawn Wamsley
